I  bustled  out  of  that  vicinity  as  fast  as  I  could.  I  was  so
startled  and  upset  by  this  that  I  hurried  back  to  the  lobby
of  the  Southern  Hotel  (my  favorite  cure  for  all  despondent
days),  where  all  was  brisk,  comfortable,  gay.  Here  I  purchased
a  newspaper  and  sat  down  in  a  rocking-chair.  Here  at  least
was  no  sign  of  poverty  or  want.  In  order  to  be  rid  of  that
sense  of  failure  and  degradation  which  had  crept  over  me  I
took  a  drink  or  two  myself.  That  any  one  as  capable  as
Clark  could  fall  so  low  in  so  short  a  time  was  quite  beyond
me.  The  still  strongly  puritan  and  moralistic  streak  in  me
was  shocked  beyond  measure,  and  for  days  I  could  do  little
but  contrast  the  figure  of  the  man  I  had  seen  about  the
Republic  office  with  that  I  had  met  in  that  street  of  degraded
gin-mills  and  tumbledown  tenements.  Could  people  really
vary  so  greatly  and  in  so  short  a  time?  What  must  be  the
nature  of  their  minds  if  they  could  do  that?  Was  mine
like  that?  Would  it  become  so?  For  days  thereafter  I  was
wandering  about  in  spirit  with  this  man  from  gin-mill  to  gin-
mill  and  lodging-house  to  lodging-house,  seeing  him  drink  at
scummy  bars  and  lying  down  at  night  on  a  straw  pallet  in
some  wretched  hole.
