The Bread Line: A Story of a Paper

Copyright, 1899,
By The J. B. Lippincott Co.
Copyright, 1900,
By The Century Co.
To Those Who have Started
Papers, to Those Who have
Thought of Starting Papers,
and to Those Who are
Thinking of Starting Papers.

This is the story of a year, beginning on New Year's eve.
In the main it is the story of four—two artists and two writers—and of a paper which these four started. Three of them—the artists and one of the writers—toiled and dwelt together in rooms near Union Square, and earned a good deal of money sometimes, when matters went well. The fourth—the other writer—did something in an editorial way, and thus had a fixed income; that is, he fixed it every Saturday in such manner that it sometimes lasted until Wednesday of the following week. Now and then he sold a story or a poem outside and was briefly affluent, but these instances were unplentiful. Most of his spare time he spent in dreaming vague and hopeless dreams. His dreams he believed in, and, being possessed of a mesmeric personality, Barrifield sometimes persuaded others to believe also.