Dave Ranney / Or, Thirty Years on the Bowery; An Autobiography

did think a good deal of him. I liked to go to Sunday-school and was often the first in my class. The teacher would put up a prize for the one tha

I was a happy boy as I started in on my first day's work. It was easy; all I had to do was to open up and dust the office at 8 A. M., and close at 5 P. M. I used to run erran

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e box of cigars around, always open, so I thought I would try one, and I took a couple out of the box. See how the Devil works with a fellow. He seemed to say, "Now if you take them from the top he will miss them," so he showed me how to take them from the bottom. I took out the cigars that were on to

ng to die then and there and I said, "No more cigars for me." I recovered, however, and as usual forgot my good resolutions. That turned out to be the beginning of my smoking habit, and I was a good judge of a cigar when I was but fourteen years of age. I went on steali

ortune to me and I hated to give it in at the house. The third month I received the check as usual, made out to bea

e me all the time telling me to take it and have a good time. It belonged to me and no one else had a right to it, Satan seemed to say. A

he whole house, but nobody but mother woke, and she said, "Who's there?" I said nothing, only stood still and waited for her to fall asleep again. As I stood there a voice-and surely it was the voice of God-seemed to say, "Go back to bed and leave the check alone. It is not yours: it belongs to your mother. She is feeding and keeping you,

ight. I knew I had done wrong. But you see the Devil was there, and I really

if I had gotten a chance that night after I got home, I would have put the check back. But the old Devil was there saying, "You fool, keep it! It is not missed, and even if it is no one will accuse you of stealing your own money." I tell you, the Devil had me h

en with checks for my boss. Well, the teller just looked at the check, gave me a glance, and passed out the $12. It did not take me long to get out of the bank. I knew I had done wrong,

it. Oh! if I had had the courage to tell her then and there, how much misery and trouble it would have saved me in after life! But I

ut some one told her about a week after that she ought to go to the bank and stop payment on the check. That sounded good to mother, and she said, "Dave,

whom he paid it to. He said it was hard for him to recall just then, "But I think I paid it to a boy," he said. "Yes, it was a boy, for I recollect that he had as dirty a face and hands as ever I saw." Mother pulled me up in front of him and told him to look at me and see if I was the boy. He looked at me for a minu

irty faces and so on, but I did not know any such boys, so the check business died out. She little th

was a premium on gold at that time, and he received two twenty-dollar gold-pieces and one ten. Well, that night he lost one of the twenty-dollar gold-pieces and never fou

d a good time in general. I little thought then that in after years I would be sitting on the

G A P

as I was, that as a profession engineering was not for me. I knew that to take it up I needed a good education, and that

my employer was a good man, and he took quite a liking to me. Many a time he told me he would make a great engineer out of me. I often look back and ask myself the question, "Did I miss my voc

er wanted his clothes or he would not have sent me for them. Finally I got tired of waiting, and after trying the door once more and finding it still locked, I said to myself, "I'll

ecognized Mr. M., my Sunday-school teacher, and my employer, the man that was going to make a great engineer out of me. I went out on the porch and told him what I had done with the clothes, and he nearly collapsed. He was ver

or a year. Then the old craze for work came on me again. Father had died in the meantime, and mot

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f fatherly talk, as he had sons and daughters of his own. I loved that man. I had been brought up among the Dutch and Irish, and had never associated with the Jews, and I supposed from what I had heard that they were put on earth for us to get the best of, fire s

nted to go to work he told her to send me over to his place of bu

termination to make a man

ve been if I had had the grace of God to make my life true. I am acquainted with some men to-day that started about the same time

some temptation, and unless we have God with us we are sure to fall, and when we fall, why, it's the hardest thing in the world to get back where we tumb

at merchant. I meant well, if that was any consolation. My duties were to go to the

actory in Maiden Lane, at the same wages I was getting. I hadn't seen much of Mike lately, and to tell the truth I didn't care so much about meeting him. I am not superstitious b

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tippler, and he said, "Let's have a drink." I said I didn't want any, and I didn't. But he said-I really think the Devil was using Mike to make me drink-"Oh, be a man! One glass won't

e and misery. It will spoil your future, and you will never become the great merchant you started out to be. Put it down and don't drink it." That was twenty-five years ago, and many a time I have hear

Mike told them I was a milk-and-water boy. I could not stand it to be laughed at, so I put the glass of beer to my lips, swa

my promise to her? I had promised her when father died never to take a drink in all my life. I knelt at her dear side, with her hands upon my head, and she prayed that God would bless her boy

hat all she had to do was to look in my face and she would know that I had broken my promise, and I was ashamed. She came up later and asked me what was the mat

I drank again and again, till finally I could drink as muc

rge of the stamps-the firm used a great many--and I had the mailing of all the letters. I would take out fifty cents from the money and balance the account by letters mailed. I began in a small way, and the Devil in me said, "How easy! You're all right." So I went on until I was stealing on an average of

r, and when they saw me staggering along they were astonished. I heard my mother say, "Oh! my God, my boy, my only son, oh! what happened to you?" Mother knew without asking what the matter was. She had often seen father reeling home under the influence of drink. But here was something she could not understand. Here was

er boy and keep him from following in his father's footsteps. I lay there and listened and said amen to everything she asked God to do. Finally I could stand it no longer; I jumped out of bed and knelt be

fair. I was pretty good for about a month, kept away from Mike and the other fellows, and mother was delighted.

ow and took a day off to go. I had not got leave of absence from work, so on our way

were seen at the circus yesterday! Now, why didn't you tell me the truth, and I would have overlooked it? I can't have any one in my employ that I can't trust." So I had to look f

can protect yourself against a thief, but a liar-what can't a liar do? If I had only told the truth to my emplo

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ide to help me, and he said, "Don't tell your mother." So I said nothing, and took my carfare and lunch money every day, went out as if I were going to work, and hoped that something w

u got on to-day?" I was always ready with another lie, telling her I was doing finely, that the

everything, but could not see my way out, when the thought came to me, "Steal!" My sister was saving up some money to buy a suit, and I knew where she kept it and determined to get it. That night I entered her room and took all the money she had saved. No one saw me but God

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NEY'S FORM