my room this
morning thinking I would make Fred some coffee and give him a half a
dollar, so as he could get a square meal. Now what do you think that
piker had done? He had copped everything in my room that he could hock.
He took my black bag, my winter coat, my new green silk petticoat that I
got to wear with my slit skirt, the buckles off my dancing slippers, and
the little silver frame that had Billy's picture in it. My can of cocoa
was gone and he even sneaked the bottle of milk in front of the door.
Can you beat that for nerve! Now, the next time I see a bum standing on
a corner, shaking his teeth out with the cold, he can stand there and
scatter his pearls from 14th Street to 42nd for all me.

I am just sore to-day. I have been a setting here and a thinking that
this game ain't worth it. There must be something better somewhere than
living from hand to mouth with people that would steal the pennies off
your eyes. You can't tell where you stand with any of them. They will be
good to you one minute, and the next minute do you a dirty trick. Just
like Ethel Rooney who sat up three nights running with Mamie Callahan
when she was sick, then pinched her only pair of slippers. I believe
crooks have something wrong down deep inside of them. They never do
nothing like other people. Their hearts are good, they will go to the
pen for a friend rather than peach on him, and yet that friend wouldn't
trust him alone in his room with a five dollar bill, and the women--if
they don't steal each other's money, they steal each other's fellows if
they're left around careless-like.

I sent your letter to Jim, and I told you before, I paid the storage
man. Don't get so blue, it won't be long, and I am doing everything I
can for you. You are always a kicking at me, Kate, and I am a doing the
best I know how. I am working like a dog, and I don't spend a cent for
myself more than I have to. I am a thinking of you, Kate, and I love you
even if you do seem to always have a grouch against me.

Yours,
_Nan_.

IX

_Dear Kate_:

I haven't wrote you for a long time, cause I know you will be sore at
what I am going to tell you, and I was afraid you would tell some of the
old crowd where I was, and they would queer me in some way. I have been
doing housework, Kate. Yes, I can see you throw a fit as you read it,
but it will tell you one reason why I have not been able to send you any
money the last two months. I had been dancin