a hot time the next morning, for he was sure he had it when he went to
bed. My father was blamed for that, so you see the innocent suffer for
the guilty.

I had quite a time with the money while it lasted, went out to the old
Bowery Theatre, and had a good time in general. I little thought then
that in after years I would be sitting on the old Bowery steps, down
and out, without a cent in my pocket and without a friend in the world.


LOSING A POSITION

I was a boy of fourteen at this time, working in a civil engineer's
office for three dollars per week, but I knew, young as I was, that as a
profession engineering was not for me. I knew that to take it up I
needed a good education, and that I did not have. I didn't like the
trade, anyway, and didn't care whether I worked or not. That is the
reason I lost my job.

One afternoon my employer sent me up Newark Avenue for a suit of clothes
that had been made to order. He told me to get them and bring them back
as soon as I could. I must say right here that my employer was a good
man, and he took quite a liking to me. Many a time he told me he would
make a great engineer out of me. I often look back and ask myself the
question, "Did I miss my vocation?" And then there comes a voice, which
I recognize as God's, saying, "You had to go through all this in order
to help others with the same temptations and the same sins," and I say,
"Amen."

After getting the clothes I went back to the building where I