It is to be deplored that such establishments so often entrap the unwary sailor; who, on his liberty-day, bent upon amusement, his mind unoccupied, and in possession of funds sufficient to make him an object of attraction to the harpies who conduct them, is led to enter, and, ere he is aware, (unless he has a spirit that is proof against temptation,) they lead him from one folly to another, until he becomes helplessly intoxicated, and then he is an easy prey to whoever wishes to plunder him. Strange it is, that, with the victims of such sharks continually before his eyes in every seaport he visits, he should still persist in entering such places. He certainly does not do it blindly, but with a culpable recklessness, that is almost inexcusable. He will not stop to consider what may be the consequences of the first steps he takes in the path of sin. He is never deterred from his evil course by viewing the wreck of his fortune; for, when utterly impoverished by his heedless career on land, he again returns to his favorite element, upon whose broad expanse, or in whose mighty deeps, he sanguinely expects to regain all his treasure. He scorns to reflect upon the vile arts by which he has been debarred from the field of fair sailing ashore, nor regards the foul atmosphere of the brothel as more to be shunned than the spray. So, at sea, he thinks not of danger, when the storm king in his wrath is sweeping over the surface of the ocean, but goes aloft unfaltering, although surrounded by the elemental war.