FAREWELL TO VAU VAU, 283 



** home " is precisely the same as it is outside, and much 

 higher than a landsman of the same grade can live 

 for in better style. With the exception of the sleeping 

 accommodation, most men prefer the boarding-house, 

 where, if they preserve the same commercial status 

 which is a sine qua non at the " home," they are treated 

 like gentlemen; but in what follows lies the essential 

 difference, and the reason for this outburst of mine, 

 smothered in silence for years. An " outward bounder " 

 — that is, a man whose money is exhausted and who is 

 living upon the credit of his prospective advance of pay 

 — is unknown at the " home." No matter what the con- 

 dition of things is in the shipping world ; though the man 

 may have fought with energy to get his discharge ac- 

 cepted among the crowd at the " chain-locker; " though 

 he be footsore and weary with " looking for a ship," when 

 his money is done, out into the street he must go, if 

 haply he may find a speculative boarding-master to 

 receive him. This act, although most unlikely in ap- 

 pearance, is often performed ; and though the boarding- 

 master, of course, expects to recoup himself out of the 

 man's advance note, it is none the less as merciful as 

 the action of the "home" authorities is merciless. Of 

 course a man may go to the " straw house," or, as it is 

 grandiloquently termed, the "destitute seaman's asylum," 

 where for a season he will be fed on the refuse from 

 the " home," and sheltered from the weather. But the 

 ungrateful rascals do not like the " straw house," and 

 use very bad language about it. 



The galling thing about the whole affair is that the 

 *' sailors' home " figures in certain official publications 

 as a charity, which must be partially supported by outside 

 contributions. It may be a charitable institution, but 

 it certainly is not so to the sailor, who pays fully for 



