That took me back a little.  Here was a man I had never seen till the night before taking me at my word.  I wondered who he was.  We went into the church.  He was talking to make me feel at home.  Finally he looked me over from head to feet and said, “Are those the best clothes you have?” I said, “These are the best and only clothes I have.”  I had my trunk on my back, and the whole kit, shoes and all, wasn’t worth fifty cents.  The way of the drunkard is hard.  I had helped put diamonds on the saloon-keeper and rags on myself, but if there are any diamonds now I’ll put them on my own little wife and not the saloon-keeper’s.  The young man said, “I’ve a nice suit that will fit you.  Will you let me give it to you?”

Here was a situation that puzzled me.  I was an old offender, had “been up” many times and was well known to the police.  My record was bad, and whenever there was a robbery or hold-up the police would round up all the ex-convicts and line us up at headquarters for identification.  Give a dog a bad name and it sticks.  I was suspicious; a man that has “done time” always is; and when the young man said he had clothes for me, I put him down as one of the “stool pigeons” working in with the police.  Since I’d graduated to the Bowery doing crooked work I imagined every one was against me.  It was a case of “doing” others or they would “do” me.  And I wondered why this man took such an interest in me.  The more I thought the more puzzled I got.

I looked about me.  I was in a church; why should he do me any harm?  Then I thought that if I put on the clothes he might slip an Ingersoll watch into the pocket, let me get on the street, and then shout “Stop, thief!” I’d be arrested and then it would be away up the river for a good long bit.  However, I’m a pretty good judge of human nature, and I thought I’d take a chance.  It was a fine suit; and I could just see myself putting it in pawn, so I said I’d take it.  But “there’s many a slip ’twixt the cup and lip,” and there was a strange slip in my case.

The young fellow said, “Don’t you think you had better have a bath?” Well, I did need a bath for fair.  A man sleeping in one bed one night and a different one the next, walking the streets and sitting around on park benches, gets things on him, and they are grandparents in a couple of nights.  Of course I needed a bath!  I was a walking menagerie!  He gave me some money, and I went out and had a bath and came back with the change.  He showed me where I could change my clothes, and there was a whole outfit laid out for me, underwear and all.

I thought the man was crazy.  I could not understand.  At last I got into the clothes, and I felt fine.  I got a look at myself in the glass, and I looked like a full-fledged Bowery politician.  I said as I looked, “Is this me or some other fellow?” I weighed one hundred and ninety pounds and was five feet ten inches tall.

I went into the young man’s study and sat down.  I did not know what was coming next, perhaps money.  I was ready for anything, for I took him for a millionaire’s son.