One Way Out

PRO

at roof five stories above the street. From here we not only had a magnificent view of the harbor, but even on the h

to a public square which was decidedly picturesque. This was surrounded by tiny shops and foreign banks, and was always alive with color and incident. The vegetables displayed on the sidewalk stands, the gay hues of the women's

n the first floor we heard little of them above the clamor of the street below. We had four rooms. The front room we gave to the boy, the next room we ourselves occupied, the third room we used for a sitting-and dining-room, while the fourth was a small kitchen with running water. As compared with our house the quarters at first seemed cramped, but we had cut down our furniture to what was absolutely essential, and as soon as our eyes

and. Ruth added a few touches with pictures and odds and ends that took off the bare aspect without cluttering up. In two weeks these sca

at night after the boy had gone to bed Ruth sat

going to do in this new beginning: we're g

y head do

an't until I get

for raises befor

now,

to be any buts," she

dollars

he broke in. "We must live

thirty cen

round here don't look starved, and they have larger fam

you kn

re. They pay there as much for half-decayed stuff as they

her pad upo

, Billy, we're going to

been extravag

ave. I've been doing a lot of thinking in the last few days a

st few weeks, a

instance there's coffee. It's a luxury. Why we

now

end that money for milk. We must have good milk and you must get it for me somewhere up

two quarts,

ught a

that's going to be the basis of our fo

tle face at this.

And we'll get it in bulk. I've priced it and it's only

ind we've

l give you for breakfast. You'll have to have a good luncheon of course, but we'll have our principal meal when you get back from work at night. But you won't get steak. When we do get meat we'll buy soup bones and meat we can boil. And instead of pies and cakes we'll have nourishing puddings of cornstarch and rice. There's another good point-rice. It's cheap and we'll have a lot of it. Lo

ds good,

d excitedly. "I'll fatten

I reminded her. "I'm not going

fe. I shan't have to worry about clothes or dinners or parties for the boy. And

s in connection with stabbing affrays. For the first day or two I felt as though I ought to carry a revolver. Whenever I was forced to leave Ruth alone in the house I instructed her upon no circumstances to open the door. The boy and I arranged a secret rap-an idea that pleased him mightily-and until she heard the single knock followed by two quick sh

in three of the square and within twenty of the department stores. At all of these places we found special bargains for the day made to attract in town those from a distance. If one rose early and reached them about as soon as they were opened one could often buy things almost at cost and sometimes below cost. For instance, we went up town to one of the largest but cheaper grade department stores-we had heard its name for years but had never been inside the building-and we found that in their grocery department they had special mark-downs every day in the week for a limited supply of goods. We bought sugar this day at a cent a po

down here at night and watch the hustling crowds and the lights and the pretty colors and confusion. It reminded Ruth, she said, of a country

ame), "nice clean store with pleas

Blank-good place

d lot and after a while they came to know Ruth. Often I'd go up there with her before work and she with a basket on her arm would buy for the day. It was always, "Good morning, miss," in answer to her smile. They were respectful whether I was along or not. But for that matter I never knew anyone who wasn't

els from the Banks come in to unload. The air was salty and though to us at first the wharves seeme

ercame our scruples. The men here interested me. I found that while the crew of every schooner numbered a goodly per cent. of foreigners, still the greater part were American born. The new comers as a rule bought small launches of their own and went into business for themselves. The Engl

cidedly a rougher character than those about the square. A man would be a good deal better justified in car

Little dressing-rooms were provided and for a penny a man could get a clean towel and for five cents a bathing suit. There was no reason that I could see, however, why we shouldn't provide our

too there were the pawnshops. I'd always thought of a pawnshop as not being exactly respectable and had the feeling that anyone who secured anything from one of them was in a way a receiver of stolen goods. But as I passed them now, I received a new impression.

the lives of these people with our own, would probably have made an extra generous contribution to the Salvation Army the next time they came round. I'm not saying now that there isn't misery enough there and in every like section of every city, but I'll say that in a great many cases the same people who grovel in the filth here would grovel

red street swarming with laughing youngsters impressed us unfavorably at all. The impassive men smoking cigarettes at their doors looked contented enough, the women were not such as to excite pity, and if you noticed, there were as ma

seen only the surface and I suspected that when we really got into these lives we'd find a bad condition of things. It must be s