214 SAILORS 



The improvidence aucl recklessness of our seamen, as 

 regarded their hard-earned pecuniary remuneration, is 

 well known — for these have not quite passed away ; 

 Qeither are we likely to forget the swarms of Jews and 

 infidels of both sexes constantly lying in wait to pounce 

 upon the unsuspicious sons of Neptune, to ease them of 

 the light but seductive burden they had been supplied 

 with, after years of toil in a distant and sultry climate. 



It would naturally be supposed that, after running the 

 gauntlet of our seaport towns, they would be safe from 

 any further depredations. Not so — as the following 

 anecdote will shoAv : — 



Many years after I left the place of my prosperity, 

 while on my last stage, business or pleasure called me 

 down to my native county, and on my return I got on 

 the box of the Godalming coach. In the coachman I 

 recognized a very old servant of my father's. After 

 expressing, not in the politest terms, his pleasure at 

 seeing me again, he began conversing on the hardness of 

 the times, comparing them with days of old. 



" Them was the times, when I drove the old Blue for 

 your father out of Portsmouth. Why, I have got more 

 money in one night than, I fancies, you does in six 

 months." 



"Why, how was that?" said I. "I always under- 

 stood that sailors never gave anything to coachman or 

 guard." 



" Give anything ? We didn't give 'em a chance." 



" Why, how did you manage, then ? " 



" We used to set 'em a-fighting in the rumble-tumble, 

 when they'd be sure to drop something worth picking 



