stairs and noiselessly let myself into my flat. Tired out, I threw myself on the bed only half undressed and slept until noon.
But, mon cheri, I had now found myself. For seven years afterward, I sought the "Rabbit" or the "Squirrel" once every other week, giving the rest of my time to business or self -culture. One evening out of fourteen was all I could spare for the female side of my being. But the balance of my waking hours were filled with blissful thoughts of my flirtations—memories which will last as long as I. These sprees have been to me the first thing in life. I would have given up anything else for them. When now and again something has blocked my fortnightly spree, I would be the most melancholy person in New York.
On the Bowery, I always went with the same gang of about a dozen savages. If any one took a look at me, Ralphie—so soft-spoken, so chicken-hearted, so wishy-washy—they wouldn't set me down as leader of a Bowery gang, would they? But that's just what I once was. All the members of my gang were of foreign parentage, sturdy, possessed of well chiselled features, and tolerably clean. I found nothing disgusting about them. None had had more than three years' schooling, or the least training in morality or religion. Nevertheless they were not a bad lot; far from being as evil-minded as the upper class would judge from the outside. None was more than twenty-five while a member of my gang, and none bright enough to earn his bread at an occupation of higher grade than coal-heaver.
The average age remained low because one after another settled down in marriage, having brought to
