The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for ## them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into cheap Michael Kors wallets me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered Michael Kors bags hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like michael kors bags this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but Michael Kors green purse large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih Michael Kors crossbody bag ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early Michael Kors Handbags sale June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for ## them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into cheap Michael Kors wallets me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered Michael Kors bags hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like michael kors bags this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but Michael Kors green purse large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih Michael Kors crossbody bag ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early Michael Kors Handbags sale June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The cheap Michael Kors handbags result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place Michael Kors online outlet of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his michael kors handbags wholesale clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real Michael Kors Handbags sale west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she cheap Michael Kors wallets went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but michael kors crossbody bag pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my Michael Kors purses thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong michael kors bags English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 Michael Kors online outlet o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll Michael Kors Black Friday leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to michael kors handbags dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly Michael Kors purses the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch Michael Kors handbags her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said michael kors bags to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see michael kors bag to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and cheap Michael Kors bags usa went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short Michael Kors handbags time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� Michael Kors crossbody I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something Michael Kors green purse like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me owner michael kors black Friday to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though Michael Kors outlet you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, cheap Michael Kors bags on sale I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came michael kors crossbody bag to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. wholesales michael kors bags online It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was Michael Kors wallets really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at Michael Kors Handbags a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he cheap Michael Kors outlet could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths Michael Kors crossbody bags of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry Michael Kors black purse a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was michael kors bags a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her michael kors hamilton tote hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about cheap Michael Kors watches them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short Michael Kors handbags time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� Michael Kors crossbody I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something Michael Kors green purse like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me owner michael kors black Friday to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though Michael Kors outlet you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, cheap Michael Kors bags on sale I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came michael kors crossbody bag to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. wholesales michael kors bags online It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was Michael Kors wallets really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at Michael Kors Handbags a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he cheap Michael Kors outlet could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths Michael Kors crossbody bags of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry Michael Kors black purse a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was michael kors bags a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her michael kors hamilton tote hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about cheap Michael Kors watches them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. cheap michael kors color purses By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I Michael Kors handbags outlet online store asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly michael kors crossbody bag and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns michael kors bags me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my wholesales michael kors bags online baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast Michael Kors outlet of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them Michael Kors Black Friday Sale and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to cheap Michael Kors handbags sale market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a cheap michael kors good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I [url=http://www.michaelkorsoutletonlinesale-store.com]michael kors outlet online sale store was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was discount Michael Kors purses evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, cheap Michael Kors bags on sale but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this michael kors handbags wholesale empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing michael kors bag but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented Michael Kors Handbags my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his Michael Kors crossbody bag strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a cheap michael kors good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I [url=http://www.michaelkorsoutletonlinesale-store.com]michael kors outlet online sale store was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was discount Michael Kors purses evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, cheap Michael Kors bags on sale but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this michael kors handbags wholesale empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing michael kors bag but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented Michael Kors Handbags my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his Michael Kors crossbody bag strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected cheap michael kors color purses to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen ## grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it cheap Michael Kors watches made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables michael kors bag and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, Michael Kors crossbody bags I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other Michael Kors handbags outlet side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my cheap Michael Kors handbags sale directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course Michael Kors Black Friday shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was wholesale michael kors away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and Michael Kors Handbags sale led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and cheap Michael Kors outlet angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I michael kors bag could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new cheap michael kors color purses to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought Michael Kors outlet clearance to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her Michael Kors crossbody bags three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of Michael Kors handbags hundred head of horses.

The Fremont House, Kendrick��s hotel was near the Michigan Street Depot. In those days when Chicago had barely 300,000 inhabitants, it was an hotel of the second class. Mr. Kendrick had told me that Ms uncle, a Mr. Cotton really owned the House, but left him the chief share in the management, adding ��What uncle says, goes always.�� In the course of time, I understood the nephew��s loyalty; for Mr. Cotton was really kindly and an able man of business. My duties as night-clerk were simple; from eight at night till six in the morning, I was master in the office and had to apportion bedrooms to the incoming guests and give bills and collect the monies due from the outgoing public. I set myself at once to learn the good and bad points of the hundred odd bedrooms in the house and the arrival and departure times of all the night trains. When guests came in, I met them at the entrance, found out what they wanted and told this or that porter or bell-boy to take them to their rooms. However curt or irritable they were, I always tried to smoothe them down and soon found I was succeeding. In a week Mr. Kendrick told me that he had heard golden opinions of me from a dozen visitors. ��You have a dandy night-clerk,�� he was told; ��Spares no pains . . . pleasant manners . . . knows everything . . . ��some�� clerk; yes, sir!��

My experience in Chicago assured me that if one does his very best, he comes to success in business in a comparatively short time; so few do all they can. Going to bed at six, I was up every day at 1 o��clock for dinner as it was called and after dinner I got into the habit of going inte the billiard-room at one end of which was a large bar. By five o��clock or so, the billiard-room was crowded and there was no one to superintend things, so I spoke to Mr. Kendrick about it and took the job on my own shoulders. I had little to do but induce newcomers to await their michael kors handbags wholesale turn patiently and to mollify old customers who expected to find tables waiting for them. The result of a little courtesy and smiling promises was so marked that at the end of the very first month the bookkeeper, a man named Curtis, told me with a grin that I was to get sixty dollars a month and not forty dollars as I had supposed. Needless to say the extra pay simply quickened my desire to make myself useful. But now I found the way up barred by two superiors, the bookkeeper was one and the steward, a dry taciturn Westerner named Payne was the other. Payne bought everything and had control of the dining-room and waiters while Curtis ruled the office and the bell-boys. I was really under Curtis; but my control of the billiard-room gave me a sort of independent position.

I soon made friends with Curtis; got into the habit of dining with him and when he found that my handwriting was very good, he gave me the day-book to keep and in a couple of months had taught me bookkeeping while entrusting me with a good deal of it. He was not lazy; but most men of forty like to have a capable assistant. By Christmas that year I was keeping all the books except the ledger and I knew, as I thought, the whole business of the hotel.

The dining room, it seemed to me was very badly managed; but as luck would have it, I was first to get control of the office. As soon as Curtis found out that I could safely be trusted to do his work, he began going out at dinner time and often stayed away the whole day. About New Year he was away for five days and confided in me when he returned, that he had been on a ��bust��. He wasn��t nappy with his wife, it appeared, and he used to drink to drown her temper. In February he was away for ten days; but as he had given me the key of the safe I kept everything going. One day Kendrick found me in the office working and wanted to know about Curtis: ��how long had he been away! v ��A day or two,�� I replied. Kendrick looked at me and asked for the ledger: ��it��s written right up!�� he exclaimed, ��did you do it!�� I had to say I did; but at once I sent a bellboy for Curtis. The boy didn��t find him at his house and next day I was brought up before Mr. Cotton. I couldn��t deny that I had kept the books and Cotton soon saw that I was shielding Curtis out of loyalty. When Curtis came in next day, he gave the whole show away; he was half-drunk still and rude to boot. He had been unwell, he said; but his work was in order. He was ��fired�� there and then by Mr. Cotton and that evening Kendrick asked me to keep things going properly till he could persuade his uncle that I was trustworthy and older than I looked.

In a couple of days I saw Mr. Cotton and Mr. Kendrick together. ��Can you keep the books and be night-clerk and take care of the billiard-room?�� Mr.

Cotton asked me sharply. ��I think so�� I replied, ��I��ll do my best.�� ��Hm!�� he grunted: ��what pay do you think you ought to have!�� ��I��ll leave that to you sir,�� I said, ��I shall be satisfied whatever you give me.�� ��The devil you will,�� he said grumpily, ��suppose I said, keep on at your present rate?�� I smiled; ��O. K. Sir.��

��Why do you smile?�� he asked. ��Because, sir, pay like water tends to find its level!�� ��What the devil d��ye mean by its level?�� ��The level,�� I went on, ��is surely the market price; sooner or later it��ll Michael Kors Handbags rise towards that and I can wait.�� His keen grey eyes suddenly bored into me. ��I begin to think you��re much older, than you look, as my nephew here tells me,�� he said. �&#65533ut yourself down at a hundred a month for the present and in a little while we��ll perhaps find the ��level,���� and he smiled. I thanked him and went out to my work.

It seemed as if incidents were destined to crowd my life. A day or so after this the taciturn steward, Payne, came and asked me if I��d go out with him to dinner and some theatre or other? I had not had a day off in five or six months so I said ��Yes.�� He gave me a great dinner at a famous French restaurant (I forget the name now) and wanted me to drink champagne. But I had already made up my mind not to touch any intoxicating liquor till I was twenty one and so I told him simply that I had taken the pledge. He beat about the bush a great deal, but at length said that as I was bookkeeper in place of Curtis, he hoped we should get along as he and Curtis had done. I asked him just what he meant but he wouldn��t speak plainly which excited my suspicions. A day or two afterwards I got into talk with a butcher in another quarter of the town and asked him what he would supply seventy pounds of beef and fifty pounds of mutton for, daily for a hotel; he gave me a price so much below the price Payne was paying that my suspicions were confirmed. I was tremendously excited. In my turn I invited Payne to dinner and led up to the subject. At once he said ��of course there��s a ��rake-off�� and if you��ll hold in with me, I��ll give you a third as I gave Curtis. The rake-off don��t hurt anyone,�� he went on, ��for I buy below market-price.�� Of course I was all ears and eager interest when he admitted that the ��rake-off�� was on everything he bought and amounted to about 20 per cent. of the cost. By this he changed his wages from two hundred dollars a month into something like two hundred dollars a week.

As soon as I had all the facts clear, I asked the nephew to dine with me and laid the situation before him. I had only one loyalty �� to my employers and the good of the ship. To my astonishment he seemed displeased at first; ��more trouble,�� he began, ��why can��t you stick to your own job and leave the others alone? What��s in a commission after all?�� When he came to understand what the commission amounted to and that he himself could do the buying in half an hour a day, he altered his tone. ��What will my uncle say now?�� he cried and went off to tell the owner his story. There was a tremendous row two days later for Mr. Cotton was a business man and went to the butcher we dealt with and ascertained for himself how important the ��rake-off�� really was. When I was called into the uncle��s room Payne tried to hit me; but he found it was easier to receive than to give punches and that ��the damned kid�� was not a bit afraid of him.

Curiously enough, I soon noticed that the ��rake-off�� had had the secondary result of giving us an infer-ior quality of meat; whenever the butcher was left with a roast he could not sell, he used to send it to us confident that Payne wouldn��t quarrel about it. The negro cook declared that the meat now was far better; all that could be desired in fact, and our customers too were not slow to show their appreciation.

One discount Michael Kors purses other change the discharge of Payne brought about; it made me master of the dining room. I soon picked a smart waiter and put him as chief over the rest and together we soon improved the waiting and discipline among the waiters out of all comparison. For over a year I worked eighteen hours out of the twenty four and after the first six months or so, I got one hundred and fifty dollars a month and saved practically all of it.

Some experience in this long, icy-cold winter in Chicago enlarged my knowledge of American life and particularly of life on the lowest level. I had been about three months in the hotel when I went out one evening for a sharp walk, as I usually did, about seven o��clock. It was bitterly cold, a western gale raked the streets with icy teeth, the thermometer was about ten below zero. I had never imagined anything like the cold. Suddenly I was accosted by a stranger, a small man with red moustache and stubbly unshaven beard:

��Say, mate, can you help a man to a mean�� The fellow was evidently a tramp: his clothes shabby and dirty: his manner servile with a backing of truculence. I was kindly and not critical. Without a thought, I took my roll of bills out of my pocket. I meant to take off a dollar bill. As the money came to view the tramp with a pounce grabbed at it, but caught my hand as well. Instinctively I held on to my roll like grim Death, but while I was still under the shock of surprise the hobo hit me viciously in the face and plucked at the bills again. I hung on all the tighter, and angry now, struck the man in the face with my left fist. The next moment we had clenched and fallen. As luck and youth would have it, I fell on top. At once I put out all my strength, struck the fellow hard in the face and at the same time tore my bills away. The next moment I was on my feet with my roll deep in my pocket and both fists ready for the next assault. To my astonishment the hobo picked himself up and said confidingly:

��I��m hungry, weak, or you wouldn��t have downed me so easy.�� And then he went on with what to me seemed incredible impudence:

��You should peel me off a dollar at least for hittin�� me like that,�� and he stroked his jaw as if to ease the pain.

��I��ve a good mind to give you in charge,�� said I, suddenly realizing that I had the law on my side.

��If you don��t cash up,�� barked the hobo, ��I��ll call the cops and say you��ve grabbed my wad.��

��Call away,�� I cried: ��we��ll see who��ll be believed.��

But the hobo knew a better trick. In a familiar wheedling voice he began again:

��Come, young fellow, you��ll never miss one dollar and I��ll put you wise to a good many things here in Chicago. You had no business to pull out a wad like that in a lonely place to tempt a hungry man . . . .��

��I was going to help you,�� I said hesitatingly.

��I know,�� replied my weird acquaintance, ��but I prefer to help myself,�� and he grinned. ��Take me to a hash-house: I��m hungry and I��ll put you wise to many things; you��re a tenderfoot and show it.��

Clearly the hobo was the master of the situation and somehow or other his whole attitude stirred my curiosity.

��Where are we to gof�� I asked. ��I don��t know any restaurant near here except the Fremont House.��

��Hell,�� cried the hobo, ��only millionaires and fools go to hotels. I follow my nose for grub,�� and he turned on his heel and led the way without another word down a side street and into michael kors outlet online sale store a German dive set out with bare wooden tables and sanded floor.

Here he ordered hash and I, hot coffee and when I came to pay I was agreeably surprised to find that the bill was only forty cents and we could talk in our corner undisturbed as long as we liked.

In ten minutes�� chat the hobo had upset all my preconceived ideas and given me a host of new and interesting thoughts. He was a man of some reading if not of education and the violence of his language attracted me almost as much as the novelty of his point of view.

All rich men were thieves, all workmen, sheep and fools, was his creed. The workmen did the work, created the wealth, and the employers robbed them of nine-tenths of the product of their labor and so got rich. It all seemed simple. The tramp never meant to work; he lived by begging and went wherever he wanted to go.

��But how do you get about?�� I cried.

��Here in the middle west,�� he replied, ��I steal rides in freight cars and box-cars and on top of coal wagons, but in the real west and south I get inside the cars and ride, and when the conductor turns me off I wait for the next train. Life is full of happenings �� some of ��em painful,�� he added, thoughtfully rubbing his jaw again.

He appeared to be a tough little man whose one object in life it was to avoid work and in spite of himself, he worked hard in order to do nothing.

The experience had a warning, quickening effect on me. I resolved to save all I could.

When I stood up to go the hobo grinned amicably:

��I guess I��ve earned that dollar?�� I could not help laughing. ��I guess you have,�� I replied, but took care to turn aside as I stripped off the bill.

��So long,�� said the tramp as we parted at the door and that was all the thanks I ever got.

Another experience of this time told a sadder story. One evening a girl spoke to me; she was fairly well-dressed and as we came under a gas-lamp I saw she was good looking with a tinge of nervous anxiety in her face.

��I don��t buy love,�� I warned her: ��but how much do you generally get?�� ��From one dollar to five,�� she replied; ��but tonight I want as much as I can get.��

��I��ll give you five,�� I replied; ��but you must tell me all I want to know.��

��All right,�� she said eagerly, ��I��ll tell all I know: it��s not much,�� she added bitterly; ��I��m not twenty yet; but you��d have taken me for more, now wouldn��t you?�� ��No,�� I replied, ��you look about eighteen: in a few minutes we were climbing the stairs of a tenement house. The girl��s room was poorly furnished and narrow, a hall bedroom just the width of the corridor, perhaps six feet by eight. As soon as she had taken off her thick cloak and hat, she hastened out of the room saying she��d be back in a minute. In the silence, I thought I heard her running up the stairs; a baby somewhere near cried; and then silence again, till she opened the door, drew my head to her and kissed me:

��I like you,�� she said, ��though you��re funny��

��Why funny?�� I asked.

��It��s a scream,�� she said, ��to give five dollars to a girl and never touch her: but I��m glad for I was tired tonight and anxious.��

��Why anxious?�� I queried, ��and why did you go out if you were tired 1�� ��Got to,�� she replied through tightly closed lips. ��You don��t mind if I leave you again for a moment?�� she added and before I could answer she was out of the room again. When she returned in five minutes I had grown impatient and put cheap Michael Kors on my overcoat and hat.

��Goinf�� she asked in surprise:

��Yes��, I replied, ��I don��t like this empty cage while you go off to someone else.��

��Someone else�� she repeated and then as if desperate: ��it��s my baby if you must know: a friend takes care of her when I��m out or working.��

��Oh, you poor thing,�� I cried, ��fancy you with a baby at this life!��

��I wanted a baby��, she cried defiantly. ��I wouldn��t be without her for anything! I always wanted a baby: there��s lots of girls like that.��

��Really!" I cried astounded.

��Do you know her father?" I went on.

��Of course I do,�� she retorted. ��He��s working in the stock yards; but he��s tough and won��t keep sober.��

��I suppose you��d marry him if he would go straight?�� I asked.

��Any girl would marry a decent feller!�� she replied.

��You��re pretty,�� I said.

��D��ye think so?�� she asked eagerly pushing her hair back from the sides of her head. ��I used to be but now �� this life �� �� and she shrugged her shoulders expressively.

��You don��t like it!�� I asked.

��No,�� she cried; ��though when you get a nice feller, it��s not so bad; but they��re scarce,�� she went on bitterly, ��and generally when they��re nice, they��ve no bucks. The nice fellers are all poor or old,�� she added reflectively.

I had had the best part of her wisdom, so I stripped off a five dollar bill and gave it to her. ��Thanks,�� she said, ��you��re a dear and if you want to come an�� see me any time, just come an�� I��ll try to give you a good time.�� �� Away I went. I had had my first talk with a prostitute and in her room! The idea that a girl could want a baby was altogether new to me: her temptations very different from a boy��s, very!

For the greater part of my first year in Chicago I had no taste of love: I was often tempted by this chambermaid or that; but I knew I should lose prestige if I yielded and I simply put it all out of my head resolvedly as I had abjured drink. But towards the beginning of the summer temptation came to me in a new guise. A Spanish family, named Vidal, stopped at the Fremont House.

Senor Vidal was like a French officer, middle height, trim figure, very dark with grey moustache waving up at the ends. His wife, motherly but stout, with large dark eyes and small features; a cousin, a man of about thirty, rather tall with a small black moustache, like a tooth brush, I thought, and sharp imperious ways. At first I did not notice the girl who was talking to her Indian maid. I understood at once that the Vidals were rich and gave them the best rooms: ��all communicating �� except yours,�� I added, turning to the young man: ��it is on the other side of the corridor, but large and quiet.�� A shrug and contemptuous nod was all I got for my pains from Senor Arriga. As I handed the keys to the bellboy, the girl threw back her black mantilla.

��Any letters for usl�� she asked quietly. For a minute I stood dumbfounded, enthralled, then ��I��ll see,�� I muttered and went to the rack, but only to give myself a countenance �� I knew there were none.

��None, I��m sorry to say,�� I smiled watching the girl as she moved away.

��What��s the matter with me?�� I said to myself angrily. ��She��s nothing wonderful, this Miss Vidal; pretty, yes, and dark with fine dark eyes, but nothing extraordinary.�� But it would not do; I was shaken in a new way and would not admit it even to myself. In fact the shock was so great that my head took sides against heart and temperament at once as if alarmed. ��All Spaniards are dank,�� I said to myself, trying Michael Kors handbags to depreciate the girl and so regain self-control; ��besides her nose is beaked a little.�� But there was no conviction in my criticizm. As soon as I recalled the proud grace of carriage and the magic of her glance, the fever-fit shook me again: for the first time my heart had been touched.

Next day I found out that the Vidals had come from Spain and were on their way to their hacienda near Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. They meant to rest in Chicago for three or four days because Se?ora Yidal had heart trouble and couldn��t stand much fatigue. I discovered besides that Se?or Arriga was either courting his cousin or betrothed to her and at once I sought to make myself agreeable to the man. Senor Arriga was a fine billiard player and I took the nearest way to his heart by reserving for him the best table, getting him a fair opponent and complimenting him upon his skill. The next day Arriga opened his heart to me: ��What is there to do in this dull hole? Did I know of any amusement? Any pretty women?��

I could do nothing but pretend to sympathize and draw him out and this I easily accomplished, for Senor Arriga loved to boast of his name and position in Mexico and his conquests. ��Ah, you should have seen her as I led her in the baile (dance) �� an angel!�� and he kissed his fingers gallantly.

��As pretty as your cousin,�� I ventured. Senor Arriga flashed a sharp suspicious glance at me, but apparently reassured by my frankness, went on:

��In Mexico we never talk of members of our family,�� he warned: ��The Se?orita is pretty, of course, but very young; she has not the charm of experience, the caress of �� I know so little American, I find it difficult to explain.��

But I was satisfied. ��He doesn��t love her��, I said to myself; ��loves no one except himself.��

In a thousand little ways I took occasion to commend myself to the Vidals. Every afternoon they drove out and I took care they should have the best buggy and the best driver and was at pains to find out new and pretty drives, though goodness knows the choice was limited. The beauty of the girl grew on me in an extraordinary way: yet it was the pride and reserve in her face that fascinated me more even than her great dark eyes or fine features or splendid coloring. Her figure and walk were wonderful; I thought: I never dared to seek epithets for her eyes,, or mouth or neck. Her first appearance in evening dress was a revelation to me: she was my idol, enskied and sacred.

It is to be presumed that the girl saw how it was with me and was gratified. She made no sign, Michael Kors crossbody bags betrayed herself in no way, but her mother noticed that she was always eager to go downstairs to the lounge and missed no opportunity of making some inquiry at the desk.

��I want to practice my English,�� the girl said once--and the mother smiled: ��Los ojos, you mean your eyes, my dear,�� and added to herself: ��But why nott Youth �� �� and sighed for her own youth now fore-gone, and the petals already fallen.

One little talk I got with my goddess: she came to the office to ask about reserving a Pullman drawing-room for El Paso. I undertook at once to see to everything, and when the dainty little lady added in her funny accent: ��We have so many baggage, twenty-six bits;�� I said as earnestly as if my life depended on it:

�&#65533lease trust me. I shall see to everything. I only wish,�� I added, ��I could do more for you.��

��That��s kind,�� said the coquette: ��very kind,�� looking full at me. Emboldened by despair at her approaching departure I added: ��I��m so sorry you��re going. I shall never forget you, never.��

Taken aback by my directness, the girl laughed saucih ��Never means a week, I suppose.��

��You will see,�� I went on hurriedly as if driven, as indeed I was. ��If I thought I should not see you again and soon, I should not wish to live.��

��A declaration��, she laughed merrily, still looking me brightly in the face.

��Not of independence,�� I cried, ��but of �� �� as I hesitated between ��affection�� and ��love�� the girl put her finger to her lips.

��Hush, hush,�� she said gravely, ��you are too young to take vows and I must not listen��, but seeing my face fall, she added: ��You have been very kind. I shall remember my stay in Chicago with pleasure,�� and she stretched out her hand. I took it and held it treasuring every touch.

Her look and the warmth of her fingers I garnered up in my heart as purest treasure.

As soon as she had gone and the radiance with her, I cudgelled my brains to find some pretext for another talk. ��She goes tomorrow,�� hammered in my brain and my heartache choked me, almost prevented my thinking. Suddenly the idea of flowers came to me. I��d buy a lot. No; everyone would notice them and talk. A few would be better. How many! I thought and thought.

When they came into lounge next day ready to start I was watching my opportunity, but the girl gave me a better one than I could have picked. She waited till her father and Arriga had left the hall and then came over to the desk.

��You have ze checks!�� she asked.

��Everything will be given you at the train,�� I said, ��but I have these for you. Please accept them!�� and I handed her three splendid red rosebuds, prettily tied up with maiden hair fern.

��How kind!�� she exclaimed, coloring, ��and how pretty,�� she added, looking at the roses. ��Just three!��

��One for your hair,�� I said with love��s cunning, ��one for your eyes and one for your heart �� will you remember!�� I added in a low voice intensely.

She nodded and then looked up sparkling: ��As long �� as ze flowers last,�� she laughed, and was back with her mother.

I saw them into the omnibus and got kind words from all the party, even from Senor Arriga, but cherished most her look and word as she went out of the door.

Holding it open for her, I murmured as she passed, for the others were within hearing: ��I shall come soon.��

The girl stopped, at once, pretending to look at the tag on a trunk the porter was carrying. ��El Paso is far away,�� she sighed, ��and the hacienda ten leagues further on. When shall we arrive �� when!�� she added glancing up at me.

��When?�� was the significant word to me for many a month; her eyes had filled it with meaning.

I��ve told of this meeting with Miss Vidal at length, because it marked an epoch in my life; it was the first time that love had cast her glamor over me making beauty superlative, intoxicating. The passion rendered it easier for me to resist ordinary temptation, for it taught me there was a whole gorgeous world in Love��s Kingdom that I had never imagined, much less explored. I had scarcely a lewd thought of Gloria. It was not till I saw her bared shoulders in evening dress that I stripped her in imagination and went almost wild in uncontrollable desire. Would she ever kiss me? What was she like undressed? My imagination was still untutored: I could picture her breasts better than her sex and I made up my mind to examine the next girl I was lucky enough to see naked, much more precisely.

At the back of my mind was the fixed resolve to get to Chihuahua somehow or other in the near future and meet michael kors bags my charmer again and that resolve in due course shaped my life anew.

In early June, that year, three strangers came to the Hotel, all cattlemen I was told, but of a new sort: Reece and Dell and Ford, the ��Boss��, as he was called. Reece was a tall dark Englishman or rather Welshman, always dressed in brown leather riding boots, Bedford Cord breeches and dark tweed cutaway coat: he looked a prosperous gentleman farmer; Dell was almost a copy of him in clothes, about middle height and sturdier �� in fact an ordinary Englishman. The Boss was fully six feet, taller even than Reece with a hatchet-thin, bronzed face and eagle profile �� evidently a Western cattle-man from head to foot. The headwaiter told me about them and as soon as I saw them I had them transferred to a shady-cool table and saw that they were well waited on.

A day or two afterwards we had made friends and a little later, Reece got me measured for two pairs of cord-breeches and had promised to teach me how to ride. They were cowpunchers, he said, with his strong English accent and were going down to the Rio Grande to buy cattle and drive ��em back to market here or in Kansas City. Cattle, it appeared, could be bought in South Texas for a dollar a head or less and fetched from fifteen to twenty dollars each in Chicago.

��Of course we don��t always get through unscathed�� Reece remarked, ��The Plain Indians �� Cherokees, Blackfeet and Sioux �� take care of that; but one herd in two gets through and that pays big.��

I found they had brought up a thousand head of cattle from their ranche near Eureka, Kansas and a couple of hundred head of horses.