“After I seen him do that three or four times I rode up to where Hennery was floundering at and I ast him what was he doing. “'I'm falling downstairs,' says Hennery. “'What you doing that fur?' I says. “'I'm drunk, ain't I?' says Hennery. 'You old fool, you knows I always falls downstairs when I'm drunk.' “'How many times you goin' to fall down these here stairs?' I ast him. “'I ain't fell down these here stairs once yet,' says Hennery, 'though I must of tried to a dozen times. I been tryin' to fall down these here stairs ever since dusk set in, but they's something wrong about 'em. “'If I didn't know I was drunk, I would swear these here stairs was movin'.' '“They be movin',' I tells him. “'You go about your business,' he says, 'and don't mock a man that's doing the best he can. In course they ain't movin'. “'They only looks like they was movin' to me because I'm drunk. You can't fool me.' “And I left him still tryin' to fall down them stairs, and still bein' carried up again. Which, as I remarked at first, only goes to show that drink will lead to habits if it ain't watched, even when it ain't a habit itself.” “Do you have any more of your History of the Rum Demon written?” we asked him. “Uh-huh,” said he, and left us the second installment. CHAPTER FOUR--The Old Soak's History--The Barroom as an Educative Influence WELL, as I said in my first installment, some 'of them barrooms was such genteel places they would surprise you if you had got the idea that they was all gems of iniquity and wickedness with the bartenders mostly in clean collars and their hair slicked, not like so many of these soda-water places, where the hair is stringy. Well, this is for future generations of posterity that will have never saw a saloon, and the whole truth is to be set down, so help me God, and I will say that it took a good deal of sweeping sometimes to keep the floor clean and often the free lunch was approached with one fork for several people, especially the beans. Well, it has been three or four years even before that Eighteenth Commandment passed since free lunch was what it once was. And some barrooms was under par. But I am speaking of the average good class barroom, where you would take your own children or grandchildren, as the case may be. They was some very kind-hearted places among them where if a man had spent all his money already for his own good they would refuse to let him have anything more to drink until maybe someone set them up for him.