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

spending my last dollar in --'s saloon, I was sitting down in the back room of that place, wondering if I dared ask -- for a drink, when in he walked. He loo

to get some money. Now, -- was a good fellow in his way; they all are if you have the price; but saloon-keepers are not running their places for the benefit of

ready to do anything to get it. The appetite in me was fierce. No one knows the terrible pangs, the g

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for myself. I did not even think God cared much or He would have done something. I imagined the Devil thought he had me for keeps, and so he did not exert himself very much either. I

the calendar except murder, and I don't know how I missed that. I've seen men killed, have been in a few shoot-ups my

was leading was that of a "strong-arm man," and I de

n!" I walked up to him and touched him on the shoulder, but as he straightened up I saw that he was as big as myself, and I hesitated. I would have taken the chances even then, but he started back and asked what I wanted. I

I told him I was starving. "Come with me," said he, and we we

a pretty good meal for fifteen cents-all you wanted to eat. The waiter was there to take my order. I knew h

on't you call for something?

handed out with their drinks. That was what was the matter with me. All I wanted was drink. The young man had called my bluff, and I had nothing to show but lies. I sat there wondering how I was going to get out of this hole. I was looking at the man and he at me, when the little good that was in me cropped out, and looking him square in the eye I said, "Young fellow, I've

he Delevan, or the Windsor, or in fact, any of the hotels on the Bowery were good enough for me-that is, if I had the price, fifteen cents. You can get a bed in a lodging-house for ten cents, or if you have only seven cents you can g

rty. Now I wanted that half-dollar, I wanted it badly! It meant ten drinks to me at five per. I would have promised to meet the Devil in hell for drink, and fearing

ny place I know. It's out of business now, and as I pass there every day I pray that all the saloons ma

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comes into a man's heart! I had stood there all night in that saloon and didn't feel a bit tired. I went out to "do" some one else, when I thought of the fellow of last nigh

ow himself opened the door. Out went his hand, and he gave me such a shake that one would have thought he had known me all my l

d said, "Are those the best clothes you have?" I said, "These are the best and only clothes I have." I had my trunk on my back, and the whole kit, shoes and all, wasn't worth fifty cents. The way of the drunkard is hard. I had helped put

headquarters for identification. Give a dog a bad name and it sticks. I was suspicious; a man that has "done time" always is; and when the young man said he had clothes for me, I put him down as one of the "stool pigeons" working in with the polic

, and then shout "Stop, thief!" I'd be arrested and then it would be away up the river for a good long bit. However, I'm a pretty good judge of human nature, and I thought I'd take a cha

streets and sitting around on park benches, gets things on him, and they are grandparents in a couple of nights. Of course I needed a bath! I was a walking menagerie! He gave me s

t a look at myself in the glass, and I looked like a full-fledged Bowery politician. I said as I looked, "

ot know what was coming next, perhaps money. I was read

ned up and asked my name. I told him Dave Ranney, but I had a few o

n mother had told me the same thing. I knew I was put into the world to get the best, and glorify God; and I was getting the worst, and it was all my own fault. Here I was. I felt that no o

n you have to buy your own shovel! What does any one care? The politicians have all they want and are only looking for more graft. They need you

d, then said, "Dave, the

one. I thought he meant himself. "Not I," he said; "I mean God. Why don't you give Him a

n fine way, "Oh, what rot! Why didn't God help you before this? Don't bother about it; you have a nice suit; get out of this

alf the crimes I had committed were known I'd be put in prison for life. Would God help such a one? I knew I was clean and

try; and the young man and myself knelt down in the Tabernacle, corner of Broome Street and Centre Market Place, on the 16th of September, 1892, and I asked God to have mercy on me, cut the drink out of my life, and make a man of me, if such a thing could be done, for Christ's sake. I kept praying that over and over again, the man still knee

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t felt in years-lighter, happier, with a peace that was great in my heart. I

the old Devil saying. "Get out of this

n the young fellow said, "Dave, what are yo

nd I fully believe that He will. Drink has brought me down, and I'll die before I'

ng-house missionary to the Bowery under the New York City Mission of which Dr. Schauffler

od can and will save, the only conditions being: Come, believe, and trust. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten So

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