IN THE time before steamships,
           or then more
              frequently than now,
         a stroller
               along the docks of any
                 considerable
                    sea-port
            would occasionally
                  have his attention
                      arrested by a group
                           of bronzed mariners,
           man-of-war's men
              or merchant-sailors
                in holiday attire
                   ashore on liberty.

    In certain instances
         they would flank,
           or,
         like a body-guard quite
              surround some superior figure
                   of their own class,
           moving along
               with them like Aldebaran
             among the lesser lights
                   of his constellation.

    That signal object was the
         "Handsome Sailor"
         of the less prosaic
                time alike
               of the military
             and merchant navies.

    With no perceptible trace
           of the vainglorious
         about him,
           rather with the off-hand
             unaffectedness
                of natural regality,
         he seemed
              to accept the spontaneous homage
                   of his shipmates.

    A somewhat remarkable instance
        recurs to me.

    In Liverpool,
           now half a century ago,
         I saw
               under the shadow
                   of the great dingy street-wall
                 of Prince's Dock
         (an obstruction long since removed)
            a common sailor,
               so intensely black
                 that he must
                     needs have been
                           a native African
                         of the
                         unadulterate
                            blood of Ham.

    A symmetric
          figure much
               above the average height.

    The two ends
           of a gay silk
         handkerchief
            thrown
           loose about the neck
               danced upon the displayed ebony
                   of his chest;
        in his ears
            were big hoops of gold,
           and a Scotch Highland bonnet
               with a tartan band
             set off his shapely head.

    It was a hot noon
           in July;
        and his face,
           lustrous with perspiration,
         beamed with barbaric good humor.

    In jovial sallies right
           and left,
         his white teeth flashing into
             he rollicked along,
         the centre
               of a company
             of his shipmates.

    These were
          made up of
               such an assortment of tribes
             and complexions as
        would have well fitted them
              to be
                  marched up by Anacharsis Cloots
         before the bar
               of the first French Assembly
             as Representatives
                   of the Human Race.

    At each spontaneous tribute
          rendered by the wayfarers
               to this black pagod
                   of a fellow- the tribute
                 of a pause
                   and stare,
           and less
              frequent an exclamation,-
                   the motley retinue showed
             that they took
               that sort of pride
                   in the evoker of it
                  which the Assyrian priests doubtless
                      showed for
                           their grand sculptured Bull
             when the faithful prostrated themselves.

    To return.

    If in
           some cases a bit
               of a nautical Murat
           in setting
         forth his person ashore,
           the Handsome Sailor
               of the period
             in question
               evinced nothing
                   of the dandified Billy-be-Damn,
         an amusing character all
             but extinct now,
           but occasionally to be encountered,
         and in
               a form yet more
              amusing than the original,
           at the tiller
               of the boats
          on the tempestuous
               Erie Canal or,
         more likely,
           vaporing in the groggeries
               along the tow-path.

    Invariably a proficient
           in his perilous calling,
         he was also more
              or less
                of a mighty boxer
                      or wrestler.

    It was strength and beauty.

    Tales of his prowess
        were recited.

    Ashore he was the champion;
        afloat the spokesman;
        on every suitable occasion
                always foremost.

    Close-reefing top-sails in a gale,
           there he was,
         astride the weather yard-arm-end,
           foot in
               the Flemish horse as
         "stirrup,"
            both hands
              tugging at the "earring"
                   as at a bridle,
           in very much the attitude
               of young Alexander
              curbing the fiery Bucephalus.

    A superb figure,
           tossed up as
               by the horns of Taurus
                   against the thunderous sky,
         cheerily hallooing
               to the strenuous file
             along the spar.

    The moral nature
        was seldom
               out of keeping
                   with the physical make.

    Indeed,
           except as