Gloves for The Needy: One Heart Warms Many Chilly Fingers

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But the man with the faded green bag continues to stalk the Bowery and its tributaries, staying clear of "the tough people, who have gloves anyway," and seeking out "the little old guy who is frightened of people." Sometimes he hands gloves to men who are muttering aimlessly over the rubble of their lives, barely aware of what they are clutching; some quickly trade them in for a pint of cheap wine. "It doesn't make any difference. When you give a gift, you let it go."

Occasionally, a star of hope radiates through all this gloom. Recently he was waiting for a train at Penn Station, when a well-dressed man asked him if he was "the glove guy." Says Greenberg: "He said that I had given him a pair of gloves on the Bowery five years previously and that now he was married with two children, and he wanted to give me $20 to buy more gloves. I told him the same as I tell others who want to write me a check: no thank you. You spend the money on gloves, and you give them out."