Chapter: The gloomy Hurstwood, sitting in his cheap hotel, where he had taken
refuge with seventy dollars--the price of his furniture--between him and
nothing, saw a hot summer out and a cool fall in, reading. He was not
wholly indifferent to the fact that his money was slipping away. As
fifty cents after fifty cents were paid out for a day's lodging he
became uneasy, and finally took a cheaper room--thirty-five cents a
day--to make his money last longer. Frequently he saw notices of Carrie.
Her picture was in the "World" once or twice, and an old "Herald" he
found in a chair informed him that she had recently appeared with some
others at a benefit for something or other. He read these things with
mingled feelings. Each one seemed to put her farther and farther away
into a realm which became more imposing as it receded from him. On the
billboards, too, he saw a pretty poster, showing her as the Quaker Maid,
demure and dainty. More than once he stopped and looked at these, gazing
at the pretty face in a sullen sort of way. His clothes were shabby, and
he presented a marked contrast to all that she now seemed to be.

Somehow, so long as he knew she was at the Casino, though he had never
any intention of going near her, there was a subconscious comfort for
him--he was not quite alone. The show seemed such a fixture that,
after a month or two, he began to take it for granted that it was still
running. In September it went on the road and he did not notice it. When
all but twenty dollars of his money was gone, he moved to a fifteen-cent
lodging-house in the Bowery, where there was a bare lounging-room filled
with tables and benches as well as some chairs. Here his preference was
to close his eyes and dream of other days, a habit which grew upon him.
It was not sleep at first, but a mental hearkening back to scenes and
incidents in his Chicago life. As the present became darker, the past
grew brighter, and all that concerned it stood in relief.

He was unconscious of just how much this habit had hold of him until one
day he found his lips repeating an old answer he had made to one of his
friends. They were in Fitzgerald and Moy's. It was as if he stood in the
door of his elegant little office, comfortably dressed, talking to
Sagar Morrison about the value of South Chicago real estate in which the
latter was about to invest.

"How would you like to come in on that with me?" he heard Morrison say.

"Not me," he answered, just as he had years before. "I have my hands
full now."

The movement of his lips aroused him. He wondered whether he had really
spoken. The next time he noticed anything of the sort he really did
talk.

"Why don't you jump, you bloody fool?" he was saying. "Jump!"

It was a funny English story he was telling to a company of actors. Even
as his voice recalled him, he was smiling. A crusty old codger, sitting
near by, seemed disturbed; at least, he stared in a most pointed way.
Hurstwood straightened up. The humour of the memory fled in an instant
and he felt ashamed. For relief, he left his chair and strolled out into
the streets.

One day, looking down the ad. columns of the "Evening World," he saw
where a new play was at the Casino. Instantly, he came to a mental halt.
Carrie had gone! He remembered seeing a poster of her only yesterday,
but no doubt it was one left uncovered by the new signs. Curiously, this
fact shook him up. He had almost to admit that somehow he was depending
upon her being in the city. Now she was gone. He wondered how this
important fact had skipped him. Goodness knows when she would be back
now. Impelled by a nervous fear, he rose and went into the dingy hall,
where he counted his remaining money, unseen. There were but ten dollars
in all.

He wondered how all these other lodging-house people around him
got along. They didn't seem to do anything. Perhaps they
begged--unquestionably they did. Many was the dime he had given to
such as they in his day. He had seen other men asking for money on the
streets. Maybe he could get some that way. There was horror in this
thought.

Sitting in the lodging-house room, he came to his last fifty cents. He
had saved and counted until his health was affected. His stoutness
had gone. With it, even the semblance of a fit in his clothes. Now he
decided he must do something, and, walking about, saw another day go by,
bringing him down to his last twenty cents--not enough to eat for the
morrow.

Summoning all his courage, he crossed to Broadway and up to the Broadway
Central hotel. Within a block he halted, undecided. A big, heavy-faced
porter was standing at one of the side entrances, looking out. Hurstwood
purposed to appeal to him. Walking straight up, he was upon him before
he could turn away.

"My friend," he said, recognising even in his plight the man's
inferiority, "is there anything about this hotel that I could get to
do?"

The porter stared at him the while he continued to talk.

"I'm out of work and out of money and I've got to get something,--it
doesn't matter what. I don't care to talk about what I've been, but if
you'd tell me how to get something to do, I'd be much obliged to you. It
wouldn't matter if it only lasted a few days just now. I've got to have
something."

The porter still gazed, trying to look indifferent. Then, seeing that
Hurstwood was about to go on, he said:

"I've nothing to do with it. You'll have to ask inside."

Curiously, this stirred Hurstwood to further effort.

"I thought you might tell me."

The fellow shook his head irritably.

Inside went the ex-manager and straight to an office off the clerk's
desk. One of the managers of the hotel happened to be there. Hurstwood
looked him straight in the eye.

"Could you give me something to do for a few days?" he said. "I'm in a
position where I have to get something at once."

The comfortable manager looked at him, as much as to say: "Well, I
should judge so."

"I came here," explained Hurstwood, nervously, "because I've been a
manager myself in my day. I've had bad luck in a way but I'm not here to
tell you that. I want something to do, if only for a week."

The man imagined he saw a feverish gleam in the applicant's eye.

"What hotel did you manage?" he inquired.

"It wasn't a hotel," said Hurstwood. "I was manager of Fitzgerald and
Moy's place in Chicago for fifteen years."

"Is that so?" said the hotel man. "How did you come to get out of that?"

The figure of Hurstwood was rather surprising in contrast to the fact.

"Well, by foolishness of my own. It isn't anything to talk about now.
You could find out if you wanted to. I'm 'broke' now and, if you will
believe me, I haven't eaten anything to-day."

The hotel man was slightly interested in this story. He could hardly
tell what to do with such a figure, and yet Hurstwood's earnestness made
him wish to do something.

"Call Olsen," he said, turning to the clerk.

In reply to a bell and a disappearing hall-boy, Olsen, the head porter,
appeared.

"Olsen," said the manager, "is there anything downstairs you could find
for this man to do? I'd like to give him something."

"I don't know, sir," said Olsen. "We have about all the help we need. I
think I could find something, sir, though, if you like."

"Do. Take him to the kitchen and tell Wilson to give him something to
eat."

"All right, sir," said Olsen.

Hurstwood followed. Out of the manager's sight, the head porter's manner
changed.

"I don't know what the devil there is to do," he observed.

Hurstwood said nothing. To him the big trunk hustler was a subject for
private contempt.

"You're to give this man something to eat," he observed to the cook.

The latter looked Hurstwood over, and seeing something keen and
intellectual in his eyes, said:

"Well, sit down over there."

Thus was Hurstwood installed in the Broadway Central, but not for long.
He was in no shape or mood to do the scrub work that exists about the
foundation of every hotel. Nothing better offering, he was set to aid
the fireman, to work about the basement, to do anything and everything
that might offer. Porters, cooks, firemen, clerks--all were over him.
Moreover his appearance did not please these individuals--his temper was
too lonely--and they made it disagreeable for him.

With the stolidity and indifference of despair, however, he endured it
all, sleeping in an attic at the roof of the house, eating what the cook
gave him, accepting a few dollars a week, which he tried to save. His
constitution was in no shape to endure.

One day the following February he was sent on an errand to a large coal
company's office. It had been snowing and thawing and the streets were
sloppy. He soaked his shoes in his progress and came back feeling dull
and weary. All the next day he felt unusually depressed and sat about
as much as possible, to the irritation of those who admired energy in
others.

In the afternoon some boxes were to be moved to make room for new
culinary supplies. He was ordered to handle a truck. Encountering a big
box, he could not lift it.

"What's the matter there?" said the head porter. "Can't you handle it?"

He was straining to lift it, but now he quit.

"No," he said, weakly.

The man looked at him and saw that he was deathly pale.

"Not sick, are you?" he asked. "I think I am," returned Hurstwood.

"Well, you'd better go sit down, then."

This he did, but soon grew rapidly worse. It seemed all he could do to
crawl to his room, where he remained for a day.

"That man Wheeler's sick," reported one of the lackeys to the night
clerk.

"What's the matter with him?"

"I don't know. He's got a high fever."

The hotel physician looked at him.

"Better send him to Bellevue," he recommended. "He's got pneumonia."

Accordingly, he was carted away.

In three weeks the worst was over, but it was nearly the first of
May before his strength permitted him to be turned out. Then he was
discharged.

No more weakly looking object ever strolled out into the spring sunshine
than the once hale, lusty manager. All his corpulency had fled. His face
was thin and pale, his hands white, his body flabby. Clothes and all,
he weighed but one hundred and thirty-five pounds. Some old garments
had been given him--a cheap brown coat and misfit pair of trousers. Also
some change and advice. He was told to apply to the charities.

Again he resorted to the Bowery lodging-house, brooding over where to
look. From this it was but a step to beggary.

"What can a man do?" he said. "I can't starve."

His first application was in sunny Second Avenue. A well-dressed man
came leisurely strolling toward him out of Stuyvesant Park. Hurstwood
nerved himself and sidled near.

"Would you mind giving me ten cents?" he said, directly. "I'm in a
position where I must ask some one."

The man scarcely looked at him, fished in his vest pocket and took out a
dime.

"There you are," he said.

"Much obliged," said Hurstwood, softly, but the other paid no more
attention to him.

Satisfied with his success and yet ashamed of his situation, he decided
that he would only ask for twenty-five cents more, since that would be
sufficient. He strolled about sizing up people, but it was long before
just the right face and situation arrived. When he asked, he was
refused. Shocked by this result, he took an hour to recover and then
asked again. This time a nickel was given him. By the most watchful
effort he did get twenty cents more, but it was painful.

The next day he resorted to the same effort, experiencing a variety of
rebuffs and one or two generous receptions. At last it crossed his mind
that there was a science of faces, and that a man could pick the liberal
countenance if he tried.

It was no pleasure to him, however, this stopping of passers-by. He saw
one man taken up for it and now troubled lest he should be arrested.
Nevertheless, he went on, vaguely anticipating that indefinite something
which is always better.

It was with a sense of satisfaction, then, that he saw announced one
morning the return of the Casino Company, "with Miss Carrie Madenda."
He had thought of her often enough in days past. How successful she
was--how much money she must have! Even now, however, it took a severe
run of ill luck to decide him to appeal to her. He was truly hungry
before he said:

"I'll ask her. She won't refuse me a few dollars."

Accordingly, he headed for the Casino one afternoon, passing it several
times in an effort to locate the stage entrance. Then he sat in Bryant
Park, a block away, waiting. "She can't refuse to help me a little," he
kept saying to himself.

Beginning with half-past six, he hovered like a shadow about the
Thirty-ninth Street entrance, pretending always to be a hurrying
pedestrian and yet fearful lest he should miss his object. He was
slightly nervous, too, now that the eventful hour had arrived; but being
weak and hungry, his ability to suffer was modified. At last he saw that
the actors were beginning to arrive, and his nervous tension increased,
until it seemed as if he could not stand much more.

Once he thought he saw Carrie coming and moved forward, only to see that
he was mistaken.

"She can't be long, now," he said to himself, half fearing to encounter
her and equally depressed at the thought that she might have gone in by
another way. His stomach was so empty that it ached.

Individual after individual passed him, nearly all well dressed, almost
all indifferent. He saw coaches rolling by, gentlemen passing with
ladies--the evening's merriment was beginning in this region of theatres
and hotels.

Suddenly a coach rolled up and the driver jumped down to open the door.
Before Hurstwood could act, two ladies flounced across the broad walk
and disappeared in the stage door. He thought he saw Carrie, but it was
so unexpected, so elegant and far away, he could hardly tell. He waited
a while longer, growing feverish with want, and then seeing that the
stage door no longer opened, and that a merry audience was arriving, he
concluded it must have been Carrie and turned away.

"Lord," he said, hastening out of the street into which the more
fortunate were pouring, "I've got to get something."

At that hour, when Broadway is wont to assume its most interesting
aspect, a peculiar individual invariably took his stand at the corner
of Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway--a spot which is also intersected by
Fifth Avenue. This was the hour when the theatres were just beginning
to receive their patrons. Fire signs announcing the night's amusements
blazed on every hand. Cabs and carriages, their lamps gleaming like
yellow eyes, pattered by. Couples and parties of three and four freely
mingled in the common crowd, which poured by in a thick stream, laughing
and jesting. On Fifth Avenue were loungers--a few wealthy strollers,
a gentleman in evening dress with his lady on his arm, some club-men
passing from one smoking-room to another. Across the way the great
hotels showed a hundred gleaming windows, their cafes and billiard-rooms
filled with a comfortable, well-dressed, and pleasure-loving throng.
All about was the night, pulsating with the thoughts of pleasure and
exhilaration--the curious enthusiasm of a great city bent upon finding
joy in a thousand different ways.

This unique individual was no less than an ex-soldier turned
religionist, who, having suffered the whips and privations of our
peculiar social system, had concluded that his duty to the God which he
conceived lay in aiding his fellow-man. The form of aid which he chose
to administer was entirely original with himself. It consisted of
securing a bed for all such homeless wayfarers as should apply to him at
this particular spot, though he had scarcely the wherewithal to provide
a comfortable habitation for himself. Taking his place amid this
lightsome atmosphere, he would stand, his stocky figure cloaked in a
great cape overcoat, his head protected by a broad slouch hat, awaiting
the applicants who had in various ways learned the nature of his
charity. For a while he would stand alone, gazing like any idler upon an
ever-fascinating scene. On the evening in question, a policeman
passing saluted him as "captain," in a friendly way. An urchin who had
frequently seen him before, stopped to gaze. All others took him for
nothing out of the ordinary, save in the matter of dress, and conceived
of him as a stranger whistling and idling for his own amusement.

As the first half-hour waned, certain characters appeared. Here and
there in the passing crowds one might see, now and then, a loiterer
edging interestedly near. A slouchy figure crossed the opposite corner
and glanced furtively in his direction. Another came down Fifth Avenue
to the corner of Twenty-sixth Street, took a general survey, and hobbled
off again. Two or three noticeable Bowery types edged along the Fifth
Avenue side of Madison Square, but did not venture over. The soldier, in
his cape overcoat, walked a short line of ten feet at his corner, to and
fro, indifferently whistling.

As nine o'clock approached, some of the hubbub of the earlier hour
passed. The atmosphere of the hotels was not so youthful. The air, too,
was colder. On every hand curious figures were moving--watchers and
peepers, without an imaginary circle, which they seemed afraid to
enter--a dozen in all. Presently, with the arrival of a keener sense of
cold, one figure came forward. It crossed Broadway from out the shadow
of Twenty-sixth Street, and, in a halting, circuitous way, arrived close
to the waiting figure. There was something shamefaced or diffident about
the movement, as if the intention were to conceal any idea of stopping
until the very last moment. Then suddenly, close to the soldier, came
the halt.

The captain looked in recognition, but there was no especial greeting.
The newcomer nodded slightly and murmured something like one who waits
for gifts. The other simply motioned to-ward the edge of the walk.

"Stand over there," he said.

By this the spell was broken. Even while the soldier resumed his short,
solemn walk, other figures shuffled forward. They did not so much
as greet the leader, but joined the one, sniffling and hitching and
scraping their feet.

"Gold, ain't it?"

"I'm glad winter's over."

"Looks as though it might rain."

The motley company had increased to ten. One or two knew each other and
conversed. Others stood off a few feet, not wishing to be in the crowd
and yet not counted out. They were peevish, crusty, silent, eying
nothing in particular and moving their feet.

There would have been talking soon, but the soldier gave them no chance.
Counting sufficient to begin, he came forward.

"Beds, eh, all of you?"

There was a general shuffle and murmur of approval.

"Well, line up here. I'll see what I can do. I haven't a cent myself."

They fell into a sort of broken, ragged line. One might see, now, some
of the chief characteristics by contrast. There was a wooden leg in
the line. Hats were all drooping, a group that would ill become a
second-hand Hester Street basement collection. Trousers were all warped
and frayed at the bottom and coats worn and faded. In the glare of the
store lights, some of the faces looked dry and chalky; others were red
with blotches and puffed in the cheeks and under the eyes; one or two
were rawboned and reminded one of railroad hands. A few spectators came
near, drawn by the seemingly conferring group, then more and more, and
quickly there was a pushing, gaping crowd. Some one in the line began to
talk.

"Silence!" exclaimed the captain. "Now, then, gentlemen, these men are
without beds. They have to have some place to sleep to-night. They can't
lie out in the streets. I need twelve cents to put one of them to bed.
Who will give it to me?"

No reply.

"Well, we'll have to wait here, boys, until some one does. Twelve cents
isn't so very much for one man."

"Here's fifteen," exclaimed a young man, peering forward with strained
eyes. "It's all I can afford."

"All right. Now I have fifteen. Step out of the line," and seizing one
by the shoulder, the captain marched him off a little way and stood him
up alone.

Coming back, he resumed his place and began again.

"I have three cents left. These men must be put to bed somehow. There
are"--counting--"one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine,
ten, eleven, twelve men. Nine cents more will put the next man to bed;
give him a good, comfortable bed for the night. I go right along and
look after that myself. Who will give me nine cents?"

One of the watchers, this time a middle-aged man, handed him a five-cent
piece.

"Now, I have eight cents. Four more will give this man a bed. Come,
gentlemen. We are going very slow this evening. You all have good beds.
How about these?"

"Here you are," remarked a bystander, putting a coin into his hand.

"That," said the captain, looking at the coin, "pays for two beds for
two men and gives me five on the next one. Who will give me seven cents
more?"

"I will," said a voice.

Coming down Sixth Avenue this evening, Hurstwood chanced to cross
east through Twenty-sixth Street toward Third Avenue. He was wholly
disconsolate in spirit, hungry to what he deemed an almost mortal
extent, weary, and defeated. How should he get at Carrie now? It would
be eleven before the show was over. If she came in a coach, she would go
away in one. He would need to interrupt under most trying circumstances.
Worst of all, he was hungry and weary, and at best a whole day must
intervene, for he had not heart to try again to-night. He had no food
and no bed.

When he neared Broadway, he noticed the captain's gathering of
wanderers, but thinking it to be the result of a street preacher or some
patent medicine fakir, was about to pass on. However, in crossing the
street toward Madison Square Park, he noticed the line of men whose beds
were already secured, stretching out from the main body of the crowd. In
the glare of the neighbouring electric light he recognised a type of
his own kind--the figures whom he saw about the streets and in the
lodging-houses, drifting in mind and body like himself. He wondered what
it could be and turned back.

There was the captain curtly pleading as before. He heard with
astonishment and a sense of relief the oft-repeated words: "These men
must have a bed." Before him was the line of unfortunates whose beds
were yet to be had, and seeing a newcomer quietly edge up and take a
position at the end of the line, he decided to do likewise. What use
to contend? He was weary to-night. It was a simple way out of one
difficulty, at least. To-morrow, maybe, he would do better.

Back of him, where some of those were whose beds were safe, a relaxed
air was apparent. The strain of uncertainty being removed, he heard
them talking with moderate freedom and some leaning toward sociability.
Politics, religion, the state of the government, some newspaper
sensations, and the more notorious facts the world over, found
mouthpieces and auditors there. Cracked and husky voices pronounced
forcibly upon odd matters. Vague and rambling observations were made in
reply.

There were squints, and leers, and some dull, ox-like stares from those
who were too dull or too weary to converse.

Standing tells. Hurstwood became more weary waiting. He thought he
should drop soon and shifted restlessly from one foot to the other.
At last his turn came. The man ahead had been paid for and gone to the
blessed line of success. He was now first, and already the captain was
talking for him.

"Twelve cents, gentlemen--twelve cents puts this man to bed. He wouldn't
stand here in the cold if he had any place to go."

Hurstwood swallowed something that rose to his throat. Hunger and
weakness had made a coward of him.

"Here you are," said a stranger, handing money to the captain.

Now the latter put a kindly hand on the ex-manager's shoulder. "Line up
over there," he said.

Once there, Hurstwood breathed easier. He felt as if the world were
not quite so bad with such a good man in it. Others seemed to feel like
himself about this.

"Captain's a great feller, ain't he?" said the man ahead--a little,
woebegone, helpless-looking sort of individual, who looked as though he
had ever been the sport and care of fortune.

"Yes," said Hurstwood, indifferently.

"Huh! there's a lot back there yet," said a man farther up, leaning out
and looking back at the applicants for whom the captain was pleading.

"Yes. Must be over a hundred to-night," said another.

"Look at the guy in the cab," observed a third.

A cab had stopped. Some gentleman in evening dress reached out a bill to
the captain, who took it with simple thanks and turned away to his line.
There was a general craning of necks as the jewel in the white shirt
front sparkled and the cab moved off. Even the crowd gaped in awe.

"That fixes up nine men for the night," said the captain, counting out
as many of the line near him. "Line up over there. Now, then, there are
only seven. I need twelve cents."

Money came slowly. In the course of time the crowd thinned out to
a meagre handful. Fifth Avenue, save for an occasional cab or foot
passenger, was bare. Broadway was thinly peopled with pedestrians. Only
now and then a stranger passing noticed the small group, handed out a
coin, and went away, unheeding.

The captain remained stolid and determined. He talked on, very slowly,
uttering the fewest words and with a certain assurance, as though he
could not fail.

"Come; I can't stay out here all night. These men are getting tired and
cold. Some one give me four cents."

There came a time when he said nothing at all. Money was handed him,
and for each twelve cents he singled out a man and put him in the other
line. Then he walked up and down as before, looking at the ground.

The theatres let out. Fire signs disappeared. A clock struck eleven.
Another half-hour and he was down to the last two men.

"Come, now," he exclaimed to several curious observers; "eighteen cents
will fix us all up for the night. Eighteen cents. I have six. Somebody
give me the money. Remember, I have to go over to Brooklyn yet to-night.
Before that I have to take these men down and put them to bed. Eighteen
cents."

No one responded. He walked to and fro, looking down for several
minutes, occasionally saying softly: "Eighteen cents." It seemed as if
this paltry sum would delay the desired culmination longer than all the
rest had. Hurstwood, buoyed up slightly by the long line of which he was
a part, refrained with an effort from groaning, he was so weak.

At last a lady in opera cape and rustling skirts came down Fifth Avenue,
accompanied by her escort. Hurstwood gazed wearily, reminded by her both
of Carrie in her new world and of the time when he had escorted his own
wife in like manner.

While he was gazing, she turned and, looking at the remarkable company,
sent her escort over. He came, holding a bill in his fingers, all
elegant and graceful.

"Here you are," he said.

"Thanks," said the captain, turning to the two remaining applicants.
"Now we have some for to-morrow night," he added.

Therewith he lined up the last two and proceeded to the head, counting
as he went.

"One hundred and thirty-seven," he announced. "Now, boys, line up. Right
dress there. We won't be much longer about this. Steady, now."

He placed himself at the head and called out "Forward." Hurstwood
moved with the line. Across Fifth Avenue, through Madison Square by the
winding paths, east on Twenty-third Street, and down Third Avenue wound
the long, serpentine company. Midnight pedestrians and loiterers
stopped and stared as the company passed. Chatting policemen, at various
corners, stared indifferently or nodded to the leader, whom they had
seen before. On Third Avenue they marched, a seemingly weary way, to
Eighth Street, where there was a lodginghouse, closed, apparently, for
the night. They were expected, however.

Outside in the gloom they stood, while the leader parleyed within. Then
doors swung open and they were invited in with a "Steady, now."

Some one was at the head showing rooms, so that there was no delay for
keys. Toiling up the creaky stairs, Hurstwood looked back and saw the
captain, watching; the last one of the line being included in his broad
solicitude. Then he gathered his cloak about him and strolled out into
the night.

"I can't stand much of this," said Hurstwood, whose legs ached him
painfully, as he sat down upon the miserable bunk in the small,
lightless chamber allotted to him. "I've got to eat, or I'll die."

 Hurstwood's still over at the cheap hotel where we last saw him . He's been reading about Carrie more in the papers, and he's even seen her on billboards. Time rolls on and Hurstwood is forced to go into a lodging house in the Bowery, which is pretty much one step away from living in a homeless shelter. The poor guy seems also to be losing it a little. He daydreams so often about his old life of luxury that he sometimes starts talking out loud as if he is his old self, disturbing the other men in the boarding house. Hurstwood tries to find work at another hotel. They don't have anything open, but he's such a sorry sight that they take him in as a kind of charity case, letting him sleep in the attic and giving him food in return for doing a few odd jobs. But then he gets pneumonia and someone from the hotel takes him to the hospital where he stays for three weeks. When he gets out, he's got no money and nowhere to go so he starts begging for change. He's ashamed, but desperate. He's become so desperate in fact that he decides to go to the theater where he knows Carrie is performing. He hovers around the entrance, hoping to run into her, but he doesn't find her. Nearby, there's a man who we come to know as the captain, a man described as "an ex-soldier turned religionist." The captain collects money from strangers on the street in order to help homeless people find beds for the night. A crowd forms around him, and Hurstwood drifts into the crowd. The captain collects enough money and then leads them to a boarding house for the night. As Hurstwood climbs into his bunk at the boarding house, he realizes he's starving.

