Time goes on. Two hundred doesn't last long. I can see Ed shaking Tom
when the money is running low. I can see Tom counting the little he has
left and going to a furnished room at $1.50 a week. Tom is beginning to
think and worry a bit. He has lost the letter to the merchant his father
gave him, and he doesn't know where to find him. No wonder he is down in
the mouth! He looks for work, but can't get anything to do.
Now, all he has to do is to write home and tell his father the facts,
and he will send back a railroad ticket. But Tom is proud, and he hasn't
reached the point where, like the prodigal, he says, "I will arise and
go to my father." No, he has not as yet reached the end of his rope. I
can see him pawning the watch and chain given him by his parents. This
tides him over for a little while. When that money is gone, his overcoat
goes, and, in fact, everything he has is gone.
He goes down and down, and finally reaches the Bowery, where they all
go in the end. He is down and out, without a cent in his clothes,
walking the streets night after night---"carrying the banner." Sometimes
he slips into a saloon where they have free lunch and picks up a piece
of bread here and a piece of cheese there.
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