When he came out of the barber's college, I said, "Let's go to the Y. M. C. A. They, perhaps, will give us a free bath." "Where is that?" he asked. "It is a rich man's club, isn't it? I don't believe they want hoboes like us there." I answered, "No; it is a 'Christian institution,' and they are supposed to stand for just this very thing--to help young men who want to help themselves." We went to the Y. M. C. A. and when we reached the foot of the stairs I said to my companion, "You go up and ask them." "No," he said, "I can't do it. Why, it cut me even to ask for a free shave where I knew they wanted me." I then said, "Let us go up together." Shyly he followed. I approached the attendant at the desk and asked for a free bath. At first he told me decidedly that their baths were for members only. Then he asked me if I was a member of any organization. I replied I was not, and as I turned to leave he said, "I will make an exception this time, but it is not our custom. Do you want one or two?" I said, "But one. This young man with me wants it." The attendant gave him a towel and the young man went to his bath. But we were given to understand, in a decisive manner, that we were not welcome and not wanted. _The bath thus given my companion was the first gratuity ever granted me, in all my wanderings, by the Y. M. C. A._ The first remark the young man made after coming from the bath was, "I feel so good, I think I could go without eating for a week." Turning to me abruptly he said, "I tell you, Jack, I can't beg or steal, and I'm not going hungry or bedless another day." I suggested the Associated Charities. "They might possibly help us." "That would be begging, wouldn't it? Besides, that place is for sick men, isn't it? I am not sick. No! I am going into the navy. Let us go over to the Post Office, to the United States Marine Office, and see what they have to offer." Although he was a young man, a graduate of the grammar school, a perfect type of physical manhood, straight as a poplar, five feet eleven inches in height and weighing a hundred and eighty pounds, he could not get in, and was referred to Fort Sam Houston for enlistment. As we left he said, "I am going to ask the first soldier I see about going in. He probably will give me twenty-five cents for a meal and tell me to keep out of the goldarn place." He continued, though, in a decided manner, "I am going into the army,--not because I want to, but because there seems to be no other immediate opportunity offered." And so we parted, he to enter the army, I to be left alone with my thoughts.