When they entered the "Golden Rule Hotel" office not a single word of
greeting or sympathy was extended to them; on the contrary, the manager
cautioned them to be careful not to have their present suits stolen from
them during the night, and they realized how true was the perverted
meaning he had given to the Golden Rule.
It was yet early in the evening and none of the other inmates had
retired for the night, but so completely exhausted were the boys that
they asked for a candle and then in the semi-darkness of the hall found
the numbers of the bunks they had occupied the preceding nights.
Remembering the manager's warning to take better care of their property,
they placed their clothes under the straw stuffed mattresses.
They blew out the candle, but just at the moment when they were ready to
crawl into their bunks, Jim whispered to Joe: "Brother, come let us pray
the way, mother has taught us." And there in the darkness of the hall
they knelt upon the bare floor, and while their torturing consciences
told them that their own misfortunes were only a fraction of the woe
they themselves had inflicted upon their poor, widowed mother, they
pleaded with God to assist them in the extremity of their distress and
at least not permit them to perish of sheer starvation.
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