AMELIORATION OF THE SEAMAN'S CONDITION. 385 



assist in his demoralization ? Are not its respectable 

 avenues closed to the foremast hand ? Fathers and 

 mothers of families, do you, in your philanthropic 

 moods, extend to the seaman the same warm wel- 

 come into your families as you do to the landsman ? 

 Does he, landing in a strange port, find those who 

 take him into the society of the virtuous, and thus 

 place before him the opportunity of passing his hours 

 rationally, and so endeavor to prevent his becoming 

 the victim of irksome idleness, in whose train there 

 usually is such an execrable brood of ills ? No ! — I 

 can answer from experience — you do not. In j^our 

 stead, out of consideration for his hard earnings, the 

 harlot and the publican meet him at every landing, 

 and with Judas-like greetings prevail on him to his 

 destruction. 



" ISTobody cares for me ! " one will hear from at 

 least one-half the inmates of every forecastle, and in 

 the greater proportion of such cases it is really too 

 true. If the seaman has no immediate relatives, he 

 finds those whom he meets ashore solicitous to make 

 his acquaintance only for the sake of their own profit. 

 To be sure, Seamen's Homes, Bethels, and Aid So- 

 cieties, have done much, very much. God forbid ! 

 that I should say a word that could be construed 

 into a disparagement of the efibrts of these noble 

 and benevolent institutions. But there is somethins: 

 more than these needed to reclaim the outcast sea- 

 man for societ}', and teach him truly .that he has a 

 character to maintain, as well as an abiding interest 

 in the commonwealth. In fact, to effect a per- 

 manent amelioration of his condition, he must in 

 his youth be educated and disciplined with a view 

 33 z 



