but
now had come to present it as a token of gratitude--upon which he
bowed and disappeared. Sir Frederick said that he was so utterly taken
aback that he found himself standing in the hall, holding the coin,
and bowing his visitor out. He said he could no more return it than
you could offer your teacher a "tip," and he has preserved it as a
much-prized possession.

The underground lodging-house work did me lots of good. It brought me
into touch with real poverty--a very graveyard of life I had never
surmised. The denizens of those miserable haunts were men from almost
every rank of life. They were shipwrecks from the ocean of humanity,
drifted up on the last beach. There were large open fireplaces in the
dens, over which those who had any food cooked it. Often while the
other doctor or I was holding services, one of us would have to sit
down on some drunken man to keep him from making the proceedings
impossible; but there was always a modicum who gathered around and
really enjoyed the singing.

We soon found that there were no depths of contemptible treachery
which some among these new acquaintances would not attempt. We became
gradually hardened to the piteous tales of ill luck, of malignant
persecution, and of purely temporary embarrassments, and learned soon
to leave behind us purses, and watches, and anything else of value,
and to keep some specially worn clothing for this service.

There was always a narrow passage from the front door to the staircase
which led down into those huge underground basements. The guardians
had a room inside the door, with a ticket window, where they took five
or possibly eight cents from the boarders for their night's lodging.
At about eleven o'clock a "chucker out" would go down and clear out
all the gentlemen who had not paid in advance for the night. This was
always a very melancholy period of the evening, and in spite of our
hardened hearts, we always had a score against us there. That,
however, had to be given in person, for there were plenty among our
audiences who had taken special courses in imitative calligraphy.
I.O.U.'s on odd bits of paper were a menace to our banking accounts
till we sorrowfully abandoned that convenient way of helping often a
really deserving case.

In those houses, somewhat to my astonishment, we never once received
any physical opposition. We knew that some considered us harmless and
gullible imbeciles; but the great majority were still able to se