The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-02-07

meant the Inferno of his own wretched-
| ness, lis the difficulty about getting a
! bath \ man can always catch a free
/ lunch at any of the bars in the city If he
has money enough to buy a drink with
and you can sleep out for six or eight
| months Of the year without harm. but
| San Francisco doesn't run to free baths
| It's not an amusing life any way you
! look at it. I'm more or less used to
| things, but 1t hurts me even now to meet
a decent man who knows something OF
life in the old country. | was raised at
llarrow-lIarrow, If you please--and I'm
! not hve-and-twenty yet, and / haven't
got a penny and | haven't got friend
and there is nothing in creation that
can command except a drink, and have
to beg for that Have you ever begged
for a drink? 1t hurts at first. but you
get used to it. My fathers a parson. !
don't think he knows ! beg drink. He
lives near Salisbury. DO you know Sails
bury at all? And then there's my mother
too. But / have not heard from either
of them for a couple of years. They
| think I'm in real estate office in Wash
| ington Territory, coming money hand
over fist If ever you run across them
] suppose YOU will some day--theres the
address. Tell them that you've seen me
and that am well and Mt. Understand?
well and fit l guess I'll be dead by
the time you see EN-. That's hard Men
oughtn't to die at five-and- twenty-of
drink. Say were you ever mashed on a
girl? Not one of these you see, girls out
| here, but an English one-the sort Of
girl one meets at the vicarage tennis
| party, don't you know. A girl of our
| own set. l don't mean mashed exactly,
but dead, clean gone, head over ears:
| and worse than that / was once, and |
fancy took the thing pretty much as
take liquor now. / didn't know when
to stop. 1t didn't seem to me that there
was any reason for stopping in affairs
of that kind. I'm quite sure there's no
reason for stopping half way with
liquor. Go the whole hog and die It's
all right, though-Im not going to get
IoTunk here. F. in the mo- 'ng will
suit me just as well. and / haven't the
Ichance Of talking to one of you fellows
often. SO you cut about in fine clothes,
IuJ YOU an, take youi drinks at the best
bars and put up at the Palace? All
Englishmen do Well. here's luck; you
may be what l am one of these days
You'll find companions quite as we'll
raised as yourself
But about this girl. Don't do what
did. l fell in love with her She lived
near us in Salisbury; that was when
] had clean SHIRT every day and hired
horses to ride. one Of the guneas I
zen or that amusement We I'D Keep
me for a week here. But about this
lgirl ! don't think some men ought to
be allowed to fall IN love any more than
they ought to be allowed to taste
d fglF I
Used to say that about thousand times
a day, with kiss in between think
about those things now. and they make
me nearly as drunk as the whiskey
does Do you know anything about that
love making business? / stole a copy
Of Cleopatra off bookstall in Kearney
street, and that priest chap says
a very true thing about il. You can't
stop when it's once started, and when
it's all over you can't give it up at the
word Of command. | forget the precise
language. That girl cared for me. I'd
give something If she could see me now
She doesn't like men without collars
and odd boots and somebody e.se's hat;
but anyhow she made me what am,
and some day she'll know 1t. / came
out here two years ago to a real estate
office my father bought me some sort
of "A place in the firm. We were ala
Englishmen but we We're about a match
for an average Yankee; but ! fUrgot
to tell YOU | was engaged to the girl
before / came out. Never you make a
woman swear oaths of eternal con-
stancy. She'll break every one of them
as soon as her mind changes, and call
you unjust for making her swear them.
| worked enough Tor five men in my
first year l got little house and lot
in Tacoma fit for any woman. l never
drank hardly ever smoked sold real
estate all day and wrote letters al
night She wrote letters, too about as
full OF affection as they make 'em. You
can tell nothing from woman's letter,
though. II they want to hide anything
they just double the 'dears and 'dar-
lings,' and then giggle when the man
fancies himself deceived.
| II don't suppose was worse off than
hundreds of Others, but II seems TO me
that she might have had the grace 10
let me down easy. She went and got
married. l don't suppose she knew ex-
actiy what she was doing, because l
got the letters just the same six weeks
after she was married. 1t was an odd
copy of an English paper thar showed
me what had happened. 1t came in on
the same day as one of her letters. tell
ing me she would be true to the gates
Of death. Sounds like a novel, doesn't
it? But 1t did not amuse me in the
least l wasn't constructed III pitch the
letters into the fire and pick up with
a Yankee girl. ] wrote her letter; |
rather wish | could remember what was
in that letter. Then | went TO a bar
in Tacoma and had some whiskey about
a gallon, | suppose. IL had anything
approaching To word OF honor about
, me, l would give II you THAT / did not
know what happened until | was told
that my partnership with the firm had
been dissolved, and that the house and
lot did not belong to me any more
would have left the firm and Sold the
house anyhow, but the crash sobered
me for about three days. Then l started
another jamboree. ! might have got
back after the first one and been a
prominent citizen, but the second bust
! settled matters. Then ] began to slide
on hn ora a ot,~ ateyl,t