[Illustration: A LONELY HOUSE. Page 40.]
LIVING TOO FAST;
OR,
The Confessions of a Bank Officer,
BY
WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
(_Oliver Optic_.)
AUTHOR OF “IN DOORS AND OUT,” “THE WAY OF THE WORLD,”
“YOUNG AMERICA ABROAD,” &C. &C.
_ILLUSTRATED._
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK:
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM,
1876.
COPYRIGHT,
By WILLIAM T. ADAMS,
1876.
Electrotyped by C. C. Morse & Son, Haverhill, Mass.
PREFACE.
The story contained in this volume records the experience of a bank
officer, “living too fast,” in the downward career of crime. The
writer is entirely willing now to believe that this career ought to
have ended in the state prison; but his work is a story, and he has
chosen—perhaps unhappily—to punish the defaulter in another way.
Yet running through the narrative for the sake of the contrast, is
the experience of a less showy, but more honest young man than the
principal character, who represents the true life the young business
man ought to lead. The author is not afraid that any of his young
friends who may read this book will be tempted into an “irregularity”
by the example of the delinquent bank officer, for it will be found
that his career of crime is full of remorse and positive suffering.
DORCHESTER, JULY 1, 1876.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER I.
GETTING A SITUATION, 11