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Son of the Bowery: The Life Story of an East Side American
Son of the Bowery The Life Story of an East Side American Author:Charles Stelzle, Charles Stelzie General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1926 Original Publisher: George H. Doran Company Subjects: New York (N.Y.) Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access... more » to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: Ill GETTING OUT INTO THE WORLD ONE day a letter came from my grandfather offering to have me brought to Germany, where I would be thoroughly educated, even to a university training. When my father died, my mother's friends had urged her to put at least one or two of the children into an orphan asylum; but she would not listen to them. I recall the horror I felt as I heard the cold-blooded discussion of some of our relatives, who calmly tried to order our lives. Their fear was that we would become dependent upon them. To this day I am grateful that my mother got along without their assistance. My grandfather's offer, however, was plainly well worth considering; so plans were made to send me over with the ship's carpenter of the steamer Donau. The day before I was to sail this kind German took my mother and me all over the ship, showed me my berth, and talked very fascinatingly about ocean travel. I remember we had a delicious little lunch in his cabin, of pumpernickel and white bread sandwiches, Leberwurst, and big red apples. I was to sail the next morning at ten o'clock. I went home with my mother, excited at the thought of the adventurous journey on the big boat, and with my mind dwelling on many experiences that I might possibly have. I went to bed feeling that I was a very important person. The next morning I was up bright and early. My bag with my few belongings had been packed the night before. Soon the jolly carpenter came to get me. Then the unexpected happened. My mother refused to let me go. I didn't know whether to w...« less