heir money held out. They became uproarious,
and took a strange pleasure in enacting scenes, which should never be
witnessed out of Bedlam. But as their money diminished their landlord
gave them the cold shoulder; their love of frolic and fighting was
sensibly lessened, and their spirits at last fell to zero on being
told by their sympathizing host, who kept a careful watch over their
finances, and kindly aided them in spending their money by making
fictitious charges, and exacting double prices for what they actually
had, that THEIR CASH WAS ALL GONE; that it was not his custom to give
credit, and the sooner they found a ship, and cleared out, the better.

Such, I am sorry to say, was the character of most of the sailor
landlords in "days lang syne." And notwithstanding the efforts which
have since been made to elevate the condition of the sailor, and provide
him with a comfortable house on shore, I greatly fear the race is not
extinct; and that Jack, even in these days, often becomes the prey of
one of these crafty, plausible, smiling, unprincipled scoundrels, who
hands him a bottle of rum with one hand and picks his pocket with the
other; who, under the guise of friendship, bears towards the sailor
the same kind of affection he is prepared to expect from the man-eating
shark which is seen prowling round a ship. If he falls into the clutches
of either, he is sure to be taken in and done for.

But among Jim Hubbard's boarders, there were a very few of a different
character from those I have described; some who kept sober, and had
a due regard to the rules of propriety. These, sometimes, sought to
restore order out of chaos, but soon abandoned the attempt as a bootless
task, and bowed submissively to the storm whose force they could not
arrest. Among these was a young man named Catlin. He was rather below
than above the medium size, but had a broad chest and a muscular
frame. He was evidently a thorough sailor; his countenance was open
and intelligent; he was quiet and unobtrusive in his manners, and
often seemed disgusted with the unruly conduct of the major part of the
boarders, some of whom had been shipmates with him in a former voyage.
Catlin was troubled with an impediment in his speech, and it was
doubtless owing to this, as well as to his sober habits, that his voice
was seldom heard amid the vocal din which shook the walls of the General
Armstrong.

One morning a large ship arrived in Savannah from Boston, wi