had gone by disappearing when i of and as to his whereabouts the former stared at me with his one e and smiled then lifted his fingers in the shape of a to his mouth merely remarked drink i think he may show up and he may not he had a few weeks wages when he left i did not hear anything more of him for some weeks when suddenly one day in that wretched section of st louis beloved of dick and peter as a source of literary material i was halted by a figure which i assumed to be one of the lowest of the tow a short dirty black beard concealed a face that bore no resemblance to a hat that looked as though it might have been lifted out of an barrel was pulled and over loi black hair his face was filthy as were his clothes and shoes even an old brown coat how come by i was marked by a across the back and shoulders that could only have come from a don t you know me t he in a deep voice a voice so rusty that it sounded as though it had not been used for years � of the you know me and then when i stared in amazement he added i e been in a hospital ton a book about a dollar about yon have i have to rest a little and get io shape again before i can go to well of all i in amazement and then be i not help he looked bo queer impossible almost a stage tramp � have done better i gave him the dollar what in the world are on � f and then by the memory of his past and force i not go on it was too astonishing tes i ve been drinking he admitted a little i but i ve been sick too getting ont now i got there in the and couldn t work ill be all right after a while what s news at the b nothing he something having in bad that he would soon be all right again then iq hu wretched street and disappeared i out of that vicinity as fast as i i was so startled and upset by this that i hurried back to the of the southern hotel my favorite cure for all days where all was brisk comfortable gay here i purchased a newspaper and sat down in a rocking chair here at least was no sign of poverty or want in order to be rid of that sense of and degradation which had crept over me i took a drink or two myself that any one as capable as could fall so low in so short a time was b me the still strongly and streak in me was shocked beyond measure and for days i could do little bat contrast the figure of the man i had seen about the office with that i had met in that street of degraded gin mills and could people really vary so greatly and in so short a what must be the nature of their minds if could do was mine like would it become for days thereafter i was wandering about in spirit with this man from gin mill to gin mill and lodging to lodging house seeing him drink at bars and lying down at night on a straw in some wretched hole a book about myself and then there poet writer and what not who when i first met him had a little weekly paper for which he the money somehow i have forgotten its name and in which he poured forth bis views on life and art and nature in no terms how he could write he waa with some drag company by birth or marriage which m have helped to sustain him i never knew definite concerning his private life as i view him now was a man in whom imagination and logic existed in a way as to and from a worldly or material point of view he was constantly varying between a state of extreme and energy and which lasted for weeks and which included drink houses of and i know not what else one summer morning in july or i found him standing at the comer of sixth and chestnut outside the quite with drink or some body i called when i saw him what s you re not drunk again are drunk he replied with a slight motion of the hand and an equally faint of the lip and what s more i m glad of it i don t have to think about myself or st ix or yon when i m drunk and what s more and here he another slight of the hand and ed i m taking and i m glad of that i got all uie i want now t here in my little old pocket and i m going to take au i want of it and he tapped the pocket significantly then in a spirit he drew forth a white and slowly opened it and revealed to my somewhat astonished gaze some thirty or forty small while two or three of which he proceeded to lift toward hia month in my astonishment and sympathy and horror i decided to save him if i could so i his hand a smart blow knocking the all over the without a word of com a book about myself a feeble he dropped to bis and and b an crawling here and there after them as fast as he could picking them ap and them in bis month while i determined began here and there and crashing them my heels body for god s sake aren t yon ashamed of yourself t i ll show yon i he cried if somewhat i eat eat em all q d he swallowed 