I do earnestly wish that some of the good folk in London and Liverpool, who are wringing their hands for want of something to do among their fellow-men, would pay a visit to sailor-town for the purpose of getting up a personally-conducted party of sailors to see the sights worth seeing.  It is a cheap form of pleasure, even if they paid all expenses, though that would not be likely.  They would have an uphill job at first, for the sailor has been so long accustomed to being preyed upon by the class he knows, and neglected by everybody else except the few good people who want to preach to him, that he would probably, in a sheepish shame-faced sort of way, refuse to have any “truck” with you, as he calls it.  If the “sailors’ home” people were worth their salt, they would organize expeditions by carriage to such beautiful places as—­in London, for instance—­Hampton Court, Zoological Gardens, Crystal Palace, Epping Forest, and the like, with competent guides and good catering arrangements.  But no; the sailor is allowed to step outside the door of the “home” into the grimy, dismal streets with nothing open to him but the dance-house and brothel on one side, and the mission hall or reading-room on the other.  God forbid that I should even appear to sneer at missions to seamen; nothing is farther from my intention; but I do feel that sailors need a little healthy human interest to be taken in providing some pleasure for them, and that there are unorthodox ways of “missioning” which are well worth a trial.

I once took a party (while I was an A.B.) from Wells-street Home to the South Kensington Museum.  There were six of them—­a Frenchman, a Dane, a Russian Finn, two Englishmen, and an Irishman.  Though continually sailing from London for years, this was the first occasion they had ever been west of Aldgate.  The only mistake I made was in going too deep at one step.  The journey from Shadwell to South Kensington, under the guidance of one familiar, through the hardest personal experiences, with every corner of the vast network, was quite enough for one day.  So that by the time we entered the Museum they were surfeited temporarily with sight-seeing, and not able to take in the wonders of the mighty place.  Seeing this, I did not persist, but, after some rest and refreshment, led them across the road among the naval models.  Ah! it was a rare treat to see them there.  For if there is one thing more than another which interests a sailor, it is a well-made model of a ship.  Sailors are model-makers almost by nature, turning out with the most meagre outfit of tools some wonderfully-finished replicas of the vessels is which they have sailed.  And the collection of naval models at South Kensington is, I suppose, unsurpassed in the world for the number and finish of the miniature vessels there shown.

Our day was a great success, never to be forgotten by those poor fellows, whose only recreation previously had been to stroll listlessly up and down the gloomy, stone-flagged hall of the great barracks until sheer weariness drove them out into the turbid current of the “Highway,” there to seek speedily some of the dirty haunts where the “runner” and the prostitute:  awaited them.