'I reached Chicago with not quite five dollars in my pockets,
and, with a courage which I now marvel at, I paid immediately
four dollars and a half for a week's board and lodging. "Well," I
said to myself, "for a week I am safe. If I earn nothing in that
time, at least I shall owe nothing when I have to turn out into
the streets." It was a rather dirty little boarding-house, in
Wabash Avenue, and occupied, as I soon found, almost entirely by
actors. There was no fireplace in my bedroom, and if there had
been I couldn't have afforded a fire. But that mattered little;
what I had to do was to set forth and discover some way of making
money. Don't suppose that I was in a desperate state of mind; how
it was, I don't quite know, but I felt decidedly cheerful. It was
pleasant to be in this new region of the earth, and I went about
the town like a tourist who has abundant resources.'
He sipped his coffee.
'I saw nothing for it but to apply at the office of some
newspaper, and as I happened to light upon the biggest of them
first of all, I put on a bold face, marched in, asked if I could
see the editor.
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