Things went from bad to worse, and one day I came home to the store and
there was no wife. She had gone. Married and deserted in two months! I
felt sore, and all I thought about was to get even with my wife. I sold
out the business, got a couple hundred dollars together, and started
after her. I found out that she had gone to Oswego, and I sent her a
telegram and was met at the station by her brother. It did not take me
long to get next to him. In a very short time I had him thinking there
was no one like Ranney. Mary and I made up and I promised never to drink
again, and we started for New York. My promises were easily broken, for
before we got to Syracuse both her brother and I were pretty drunk.
After reaching New York we went to mother's house and stayed there until
we got rooms, which we did in a few days. Mary's brother got work in a
lumberyard. I hunted as usual for a job, praying I wouldn't get it. I
went hustling lumber and worked two days, leaving because it took the
skin off my hands. Finally I could not pay the rent, was dispossessed,
and then went to live in "Hell's Kitchen," in Thirty-ninth Street, where
my son was born.
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