- Ray Salyer, Himself: I got to have another drink.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Yeah, you gotta have flop too.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: That's for sure.
- Drunk #2: They're decent around here. They don't overcharge you.
- Drunk #1: Boy, do I love that wine!
- Drunk #2: Well, its a good drink if you know how to handle it. Some people can't handle it.
- Drunk #1: I'd put it in my shoes.
- Frank Matthews, Himself: When I get myself - cleaned up and straightened out, I'm going down and get a ship and I'm going to wind up in South Sea islands. That's where I wanna go!
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Well, that's that. These guys sure took off, didn't they.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Sure. They didn't see any more in evidence, so, naturally, they're going to go.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Anything for a drink, huh?
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Yeah, I reckon.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Oh, well. That's the way it goes.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Well, it's the Bowery way.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: I was thinking about that most of the places you go there's always a place you can get a day's labor.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Down here, you can get a job dish-washin', for a day.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: That's what I need now - a day's work, not a full week's work.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Well, there are plenty of jobs, according to all I hear. But, you got to be there when they're open, that's all.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: We won't spend too much. I want to save some for a flop.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Crazy if you don't.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: [to bartender] A glass of beer and a glass of Muscatel, please.
- Drunk #1: You mean you eat when you're drinking wine?
- Drunk #2: I eat. I don't drink it that much. It will upset my stomach.
- Drunk #1: It's against the law.
- Drunk #2: Well, what can you do?
- Drunk #1: When I take one drink of that wine, I lose my appetite.
- Drunk #3: What are you? A bum?
- Drunk #4: Well, I'm only bum sober.
- Frank Matthews, Himself: It makes no difference where you live, if you don't live under a coconut tree here, you live in a doorway somewhere.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Have you heard from your family lately?
- Domino-Playing Immigrant: I don't hear from them. I don't depend on them, you see. I live on old man's pension, sit here a couple of hours a day, then I go out and have my whatever I feel like have, then - sit down on the bar, drink, and have again, you see. That's my life.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Well, it sounds like a quiet one and a normal one. That would be what I'd want right now.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: What are you doing today, anything?
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Aw, I was lucky today, Gorman. I was up on the corner, got a job on a truck, made a few dollars.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: I can think of a whole lot more pleasant ways to make a buck than working.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: What are you going to do tonight?
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Well, the guys was telling me that the Bowery Mission opens up here about 6:30 or 6:00 or something like that. A fella can go down there and wash and shave, get himself cleaned up, attend service and then they'll give him a place to sleep. I figured I go down there and do that. You know, it'll keep me out of the alleys and gin mills. Cause I don't want to drink anymore.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: If I go on up there, then I'll be engaged until time to go to bed and I won't be, you know, tempted to drink.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Well, after all, a man's mind is his own. If you don't want to drink, you don't want to drink. I'll offer it to you again, if you say no, okay.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Well, I'll tell you one thing, Gorman, I'd like to have the drink; but, I don't want it.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Well, pal, I'm going across the street to the Confidence and pour two or three in me, to carry me through the night.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Two or three won't do you any good, boy.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Oh, you'd be surprised. They're going to be doubles.
- Rev. George L. Bolton, Bowery Mission: Gentlemen, for more than 28 years now, I have ministered, shall I say on Skid Row, endeavoring to tell men that there are no hopeless cases with God. I think I know somewhat of the truth of that statement from personal experience; because, I am a product of a rescue mission located on Skid Row. I dare say there isn't a man here today who started out to end up on the Bowery.
- Rev. George L. Bolton, Bowery Mission: The Bowery of New York. At least one newspaper man stated that it was the saddest and the maddest street in the world. Maybe that was an understatement. Truly it is a tragic - street.
- Rev. George L. Bolton, Bowery Mission: I don't believe there's a - that ever a man, whether he be on Skid Row or otherwise, who started out with a life ambition to end up in a drunkard's grave and yet that might happen to some person here, this very day. It need not be so. God loves you, man.
- Bowery Mission Manager: The first place, you have to stay in here all night. You have to have a bath. You'll have to put your clothes in the fumigator. You have to wash your small clothes. You have to shave. All those things you have to do before you can have a bed and then we give you a bed. Now, listen, when you come in here, you leave the booze outside. Forget all about Sneaky Pete. He's the thing of the past with you. When you come in here, stay sober. Because, when you get the ticket, that's a contract that you're going to stay sober as long as you hold that ticket. The minute you come to the front door in the evening, at six o'clock, to come down here, the man will see whether you've had a drink or not. If you're under the influence of liquor, you cannot sleep in the dormitory! The dormitory's clean, the beds are clean, there's a shower up there and a place to shave. Everything is there for your use. But, you can't get up there under the influence of liquor.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: I drank too much of that stuff.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: What's the trouble?
- Ray Salyer, Himself: Well, you know the story. I came in with money after working all summer, started drinking that mess, one thing lead to another, drank a lot, spent a lot, wound up in the alley over there with nothing in the world. No clothes. No money. Nothin'!
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: How do you expect to get out there? You haven't got any money.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: No. But, if I get cleaned up, maybe I can get a day's work, you know, and then hitch-hike or maybe I'll ship up the line on the railroad and just walk on down the tracks instead of going to work. Ship out in the other direction until I get there.
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Look, I don't hand malarkey out. When I tell a man something, I keep my word!
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: Hey, what's the matter with you, anyway? You went out of that place like a turpentined cat.
- Ray Salyer, Himself: [Gorman gives Ray someone money] Well, I certainly appreciate this, Gorman. If I ever run into you again, I'll give it back. But, if I don't, I'll pass it on to somebody else.
- [last lines]
- Gorman Hendricks, Himself: I know he's going to be alright. I got him a good job. And the kid's gonna come through. He wanted to get off the Bowery and I did the best I could to help. And that's all any man can do.
- Drunk #5: Let me tell you something: he'll be back.
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