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there are instances where lives have adjusted to such
a situation and remained happy and workable, they
are few and far between. Rather.the followmg is
closer to the norm.

I sought out |.B. on the Bowery in New York—
that dirty old neighborhood reeking with stale wine,
its streets littered with debris, its hallways housing
the Crumpled forms of drunken derelicts who call the
Bowery “home.”

I sought out ].B. because I had known him per-
sonally in Hollywood and because parts of his case,
not all, had been printed in the newspapers. He was
- not difficult to locate because he was on the roll of a
theatrical charity. Although he had become a con-
firmed alcoholic, like the rest of the Bowery bums,
he managed each week to stagger up to Broadway
and receive his check.

I was advised to hit him a day afterward—when
he had recovered from his heebie-jeebies and before
he went into his weekend stupor.

He was surprisingly lucid when I found him sitting
in the lobby of a cheap hotel. He was about to go
out and buy a pint of whisky. I suggested he save
his money, that we go to a bar, have a few drinks
and talk. Alcoholics are wily. Seeing a chance to
cadge a few whiskeys and conserve his cash, he