CURIOUS SHIFTS OF THE POOR
The gloomy Hurstwood, sitting in his cheap hotel, where he had taken refuge with seventy dollars--the price of his furniture--
between him and nothing, saw a hot summer out and a cool fall in, reading.He was not wholly indifferent to the fact that his money was slipping away.As fifty cents after fifty cents were paid out for a day's lodging he became uneasy, and finally took a cheaper room--thirty-five cents a day--to make his money last longer.Frequently he saw notices of Carrie.Her picture was in the "World" once or twice, and an old "Herald" he found in a chair informed him that she had recently appeared with some others at a benefit for something or other.He read these things with mingled feelings.Each one seemed to put her farther and farther away into a realm which became more imposing as it receded from him.On the billboards, too, he saw a pretty poster, showing her as the Quaker Maid, demure and dainty.More than once he stopped and looked at these, gazing at the pretty face in a sullen sort of way.His clothes were shabby, and he presented a marked contrast to all that she now seemed to be.
Somehow, so long as he knew she was at the Casino, though he had never any intention of going near her, there was a subconscious comfort for him--he was not quite alone.The show seemed such a fixture that, after a month or two, he began to take it for granted that it was still running.In September it went on the road and he did not notice it.When all but twenty dollars of his money was gone, he moved to a fifteen-cent lodging-house in the Bowery, where there was a bare lounging-room filled with tables and benches as well as some chairs.Here his preference was to close his eyes and dream of other days, a habit which grew upon him.It was not sleep at first, but a mental hearkening back to scenes and incidents in his Chicago life.As the present became darker, the past grew brighter, and all that concerned it stood in relief.
He was unconscious of just how much this habit had hold of him until one day he found his lips repeating an old answer he had made to one of his friends.They were in Fitzgerald and Moy's.
It was as if he stood in the door of his elegant little office, comfortably dressed, talking to Sagar Morrison about the value of South Chicago real estate in which the latter was about to invest.
"How would you like to come in on that with me?" he heard Morrison say.
"Not me," he answered, just as he had years before."I have my hands full now."
The movement of his lips aroused him.He wondered whether he had really spoken.The next time he noticed anything of the sort he really did talk.
"Why don't you jump, you bloody fool?" he was saying."Jump!"
It was a funny English story he was telling to a company of actors.Even as his voice recalled him, he was smiling.A
crusty old codger, sitting near by, seemed disturbed; at least, he stared in a most pointed way.Hurstwood straightened up.The humour of the memory fled in an instant and he felt ashamed.For relief, he left his chair and strolled out into the streets.
One day, looking down the ad.columns of the "Evening World," he saw where a new play was at the Casino.Instantly, he came to a mental halt.Carrie had gone! He remembered seeing a poster of her only yesterday, but no doubt it was one left uncovered by the new signs.Curiously, this fact shook him up.He had almost to admit that somehow he was depending upon her being in the city.
Now she was gone.He wondered how this important fact had skipped him.Goodness knows when she would be back now.
Impelled by a nervous fear, he rose and went into the dingy hall, where he counted his remaining money, unseen.There were but ten dollars in all.
He wondered how all these other lodging-house people around him got along.They didn't seem to do anything.Perhaps they begged--unquestionably they did.Many was the dime he had given to such as they in his day.He had seen other men asking for money on the streets.Maybe he could get some that way.There was horror in this thought.
Sitting in the lodging-house room, he came to his last fifty cents.He had saved and counted until his health was affected.
His stoutness had gone.With it, even the semblance of a fit in his clothes.Now he decided he must do something, and, walking about, saw another day go by, bringing him down to his last twenty cents--not enough to eat for the morrow.
Summoning all his courage, he crossed to Broadway and up to the Broadway Central hotel.Within a block he halted, undecided.A
big, heavy-faced porter was standing at one of the side entrances, looking out.Hurstwood purposed to appeal to him.
Walking straight up, he was upon him before he could turn away.
"My friend," he said, recognising even in his plight the man's inferiority, "is there anything about this hotel that I could get to do?"
The porter stared at him the while he continued to talk.
"I'm out of work and out of money and I've got to get something,--
it doesn't matter what.I don't care to talk about what I've been, but if you'd tell me how to get something to do, I'd be much obliged to you.It wouldn't matter if it only lasted a few days just now.I've got to have something."
The porter still gazed, trying to look indifferent.Then, seeing that Hurstwood was about to go on, he said:
"I've nothing to do with it.You'll have to ask inside."
Curiously, this stirred Hurstwood to further effort.
"I thought you might tell me."
The fellow shook his head irritably.
Inside went the ex-manager and straight to an office off the clerk's desk.One of the managers of the hotel happened to be there.Hurstwood looked him straight in the eye.
"Could you give me something to do for a few days?" he said.
"I'm in a position where I have to get something at once."
The comfortable manager looked at him, as much as to say: "Well, I should judge so."
"I came here," explained Hurstwood, nervously, "because I've been a manager myself in my day.I've had bad luck in a way but I'm not here to tell you that.I want something to do, if only for a week."