s with such tremendous force that the pins were
scattered in every direction. At times the bowlers, in their haste and
excitement, would not wait for the pins to be set up before hurling the
balls and it required quick action on the part of Alfred to keep out of
harm's way.

Closing up time came and as the dollar and a half was passed to Alfred
he noticed that the game keeper was a brother of Eli's. Pulling his hat
over his eyes that he might not be recognized, the star of Eli's
minstrels fled the place.

The barkeeper at the National Hotel, Dick Cannon, had befriended Alfred
before. When he learned that Alfred was living on doughnuts and coffee
at the little stand in the market house, Cannon took him in and fed him
until he secured a position. It was through Cannon that Alfred finally
secured the position of night clerk in the hotel.

That a saloonkeeper and a bar-tender, the very people whom Alfred had
been so constantly warned against, should be the only ones who took an
interest in him when in distress, was most surprising to the boy. Surely
it was not from the fact that he patronized their establishments, as he
never entered the place of one and was in the house of the other for
only a few hours.

John W. Pittock, the founder of the _Pittsburg Leader_, was also
proprietor of a book store at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Smithfield
Street. The _Leader_ was the first paper, that the writer has knowledge
of, to print a sporting page. Pittsburgh, then as now, was strong for
athletic sports. Aquatic sports were the most popular; Jimmy Hamill, the
champion single sculler of the world, was at the zenith of his career.
The day following Alfred's experience in the ten pin alley the city was
all excitement over a sporting event. Alfred was sent to the _Leader_
office to procure a number of copies of the paper for numerous guests of
the hotel. The following Sunday morning Alfred sold over two hundred
copies of the paper.

The superintendent of the Smithfield Street bridge was a friend of
Alfred's father. He permitted the boy to establish a news-stand at the
end of the bridge. From 5 a. m. until noon hundreds of copies of the
_Leader_ were sold. With his wages from the hotel the minstrel was
making and saving money.

Alfred was homesick often but determined in his mind not to return to
Brownsville until he had a stated amount of money. The father wrote him
to return at once. Alfred replied that he had a good position b