ounsel to such as desired it. Here I might be found at and
after half-past one of every day, having already done five hours'
work at the office of Haight & Foster. I still had enough funds
to carry me for some three weeks and so felt no immediate anxiety
as to the future, but I realized that I must lose no time in getting
out my tentacles if I were to drag in any business. Accordingly
I made myself acquainted with the managers and clerks of the
neighboring hotels, giving them the impression, so far as I could,
that Haight & Foster had opened an uptown office and that I was in
charge of it. I made friends also with the proprietors and barkeepers
of the adjacent saloons, of which there were not a few, and left
plenty of my cards with them for distribution to such of their
customers as might need legal assistance, in each case promising
that any business which they secured would be liberally rewarded.
In short, I made myself generally known in the locality and planted
the seed of cupidity in the hearts of several hundreds of impecunious
persons. It was very necessary for me to net ten dollars per week
to live, and under the circumstances it seemed reasonable to believe
that I could do so.

Almost at the outset I had a piece of luck, for a guest at a Fifth
Avenue hotel was suddenly stricken with a severe illness and desired
to make a will. It was but a few days after I had called upon the
manager, and, having me fresh in his mind, he sent for me. The
sick man proved to be a wealthy Californian who was too far gone
to care who drew his will so long as it was drawn at all, and I
jotted down his bequests and desires by his bedside. I had originally
intended to go at once to Mr. Haight and turn the matter over to
him, but my client seemed so ill that it appeared hardly necessary.
I persuaded myself with the argument that the affair required a
more immediate attention than the office could give, and accordingly
decided to draw the will myself and incidentally to earn the whole
fee. The proceeding seemed honest enough, since, although I had
been introduced as representing Haight & Foster, the sick man had
never heard of them before and obviously did not care one way or
the other.

I had never drawn a will or any other legal paper, but I lost no
time in slipping around to Gottlieb's office and borrowing a work
on surrogates' practice, including forms, with which under my arm
I hurried back to my office. Here after a g