Together they bemoaned the hardness of the world,
and presently,
LIKE THE COMMUNISTS IN AMERICA,
they overturned kingdoms and systems of society as they blew the foam
from their beer. This folly led to a fight at the boarding-house which
lowered our friend from an English gentleman to a fellow who was
destitute and drunken, but it opened his eyes. St. Louis left for warmer
climes, but our friend redoubled his energy, and finished the actual
canvass of every decent-looking place of business and factory in
Chicago! This is, as I believe, from actual evidences I had at the
time, an actual fact.
A FINE-LOOKING HEALTHY YOUNG MAN
asked every probable employer in Chicago whose attention he could secure
if there were any work, and the answer was "No, sir!" This took him till
about the first of May. He had no influence. He had no friend who had
influence, nor any chance to get one. His watch, rings, and scarf-pin
gradually went to the landlady. His shot-gun, field-glass and clothes
were carried to the pawnbrokers. For his musket he got a dollar, and
FOR HIS SWORD
half as much--upon a solemn promise to redeem it, as even the pawnbroker
doubted the wisdom of such an investment at his own figures.
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