And the slime in hotel spittoons:
Part of my life.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day.
Hey, boy!
A nickel,
A dime,
A dollar,
Two dollars a day
Buy shoes for the baby.
House rent to pay.
Gin on Saturday,
Church on Sunday.
My God!
These lines emphasize the discrepancy between the pay the boy receives and his daily living expenses. We get the sense that the boy has to support a child and pay for things such as rent with relatively little pay at his job. This is particularly interesting if the boy is actually a child instead of a grown man, but we are never completely sure which is the case. 
 These types of topics are not a surprise since  “Money was a nagging concern for Hughes throughout his life.”
Brass Spittoons