ho
has resided in New York for two or three years, knows that we are
speaking the truth. Nor is this all. There was formerly a house of
prostitution for that very purpose, kept by a foreigner, and splendidly
furnished; here lads were taken as apprentices, and regularly trained
for the business;--they were mostly boys who had been taken from the
lowest classes of society, and were invariably of comely appearance.
They were expensively dressed in a peculiar kind of costume; half
masculine and half feminine; and were taught a certain style of speech
and behaviour calculated to attract the beastly wretches who patronize
them. For a long time the existence of this infernal den was a secret;
but it eventually leaked out, and the proprietor and his gang were
obliged to beat a hasty retreat from the city, to save themselves from
the summary justice of Lynch law.

But to return to the steamboat. The foreigner called the lad aside, and
the following conversation ensued:--

'My pretty lad, this cabin is excessively close, and the bed
inconvenient. I have a very nice state-room, and should be happy to have
you share it with me.'

'Thank you, sir,' answered the boy--'if it would cause you no
inconvenience--'

'None whatever; come with me at once,' said the other, and they ascended
to the deck, and entered his state room. It is proper to observe, that
the youth was perfectly innocent, and suspected not the design of his
new _friend_. Half an hour afterwards he dashed from the state room with
every appearance of indignation and affright; seeking one of the
officers of the boat he told his story, and the result was that the
foreign gentleman and his baggage were set ashore at a place destitute
of every thing but rocks, and over ten miles from any house; very
inconvenient for a traveller, especially at night, with a storm in
prospect. The miserable sodomite should have been more harshly dealt
with.

To return to Josephine and her mother, whom we left in the Captain's
elegant state room.

We must here remark that Sophia Franklin, the gentle, angelic sister of
the depraved Josephine, had gone to spend a month or so with an aunt,
(her father's sister,) in Newark, N.J., which circumstance will account
for not accompanying her mother and sister in their flight from New
York. It may be as well to add that she was in blissful ignorance of her
father having been murdered, and of course, knew nothing of the
discovery of that fact by Dr.