Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1877-05-03
lily Friend, the Tramp.

lily Friend, the Tramp.
l had been sauntering over the clover
downs of a certain noted New England
seaport. 1t was a Sabbath morning, so
.singu!arly reposeful and g~racious-so re-
plcte with the significance Of the seventh
day of rest that even the Sabbath bells
ringing a mile away over the salt marshes
had little that was monitory, mandatory,
or even supplicatory in their drowsy
voices. Rather they seemed to call from
their cloudy towers, like some renegade
Muczzin:
sleep is better than prayer; sheep on,
0 sons Of the Puritans! Slumbcr still, 0
deacons and vestrymen. Let, o let those
feet that are swift to wickedness curl up
beneath thee; those palms that are itch
ing forsthc shekels of the ungodly; lie
clasped beneath thy pillow. Sleep is bet
ter than prayer"
And. indeed, though it was high morn
ing, sleep Nas still in the air. Wrought
upon at last by the combined influence of
sen. and sky, and atmosphere, I succumbcd,
and lay down on one OF the boulders of Il
little stony slope that gave upon the sea.
The great Atlantic before me, not yet
quite awake. but slowly hcaving with the
rythmical expiration OF slumbcr. There
was no sail visible in the misty horizon.
There was nothing to do but to lie and
stare at the unwinking ether.
Suddenly I became aware of the strong
fumes OF tobacco. Turning my head l
saw a pale, blue smoke curling up from
behind an adjacent boulder. Rising and
climbing over the intervening granite, l
came upon a little hollow in which, COM
tortably extended on the moses and
lichens, lay a powerfully built man. He
was very ragged; he was very dirty; there
wa a strong suggestion about him Of his
having too much hair. too much nail. too
much pcrspiration; too much Of those
supertluous excresences and exulations
that society and civilization strive to keep
under. But it was noticeable that he had
not much of anything else. He was The
Tramp.
With that swift severity with which we
always visit rebuke upon the person who
happens to present any of our views often
sively before us, in his own person, l was
deeply indignant at his laziness. Perhaps
I showed it in my manner, for he rose to
a half sitting attitude, returned my stare
alphabetically, and made a movement
toward knocking the fire from his pipe
against the granite.
"Shure, sur, and if I'd behaved that l
was trispassin on yer honor's grounds it's
meself that would hev laid down on the
say shore and takin' the salt waves for me
blankits. But it's seventeen miles I've
walked this blessed noight, with notlnn'
to sustain me, and hevin' a mortal weak
ness to fight wild in my bowels, by reason
of starvation, and only a bit O. baccy that
the Wildly Maloney giv'me at the cross
roads, to keep me up entiorly. But it was
the dark day I left my home in Milwau-
kcc to walk to Boston, and if yell oblige
Il lone man who has left a wife and six
children in Milwaukee, wild the loan of
twenty-five cents, furn'nst the time he gets
wurruk, Godu be good to you"
1t instantly flashed through my mind
that the man before MT had the night be-
fore partaken of the kitchen hospitality
Of my little cottage, two miles away That
he presented himself in the guisc of a
distressed fisherman, mulcted of his wages
by an inhuman captain; that he had a
wife lying sick Of consumption in the next
village, and two children, n of them a
cripple, wandering. in the streets of Bos-
ton. l remember that this tremendous
indictment against Fortune touched the
family, and the distressed fisherman was
provided with food, clothes, and some
small change. The food and small
change had disappeared, butthc garments
for the consumptive wife, where were
they? He had been using them for a pill
low. 50 %-s - .
l instantly pointed out this fact, and
charged him with the deception. To my
surprise he took it quietly and even a
little complacently. "Bedad, your
roight; ye see, sir Confidently, ye sec,
sir, until l get. Vorruk, and its worruk
I'm lukin for, I have to desavc now and
thin to sllute the locality. All, God a v
us, but or the say coast thcy'r that harrud
upon them that don't belong to the
say.n
I ventured to suggest that a stron.
healthy man like him might have found
work somewhere between Milwaukee and
Boston. -~&*.~.
"Ah, but you see 1,got free passage on
a freight train, and didn't stlop.s It was
in the Aist that I expected to find wor-
ruk."
slave you any trade?r
"Trade, is it? I'm a brickmakcr, God
knows, and many's the lift I've had
maxim bricks in Milwaukee. Sure, I've
as aisy a hand at it as any man. Maybe
yer honor might know sofa kill here
about!" .
Now, to my certain knowledge, there
was not a brick kiln within fifty miles of
that spot, and of all unlikely places to
find n would have been this sandy
peninsula, given up to the summer resi-
dcnces of a few wealthy people. Yet l
could not help sdmiIing the assumption
OF the scamp, who knew this fact as we'll
give you work for a day or two," and,
bidding him gather up lis sick wifc's ap..
parel, led the way across the downs to nv
cottage. At first.I think the offer took
him 10y surprise, and give him some con-
sternation, but he presently recovered his
spirits, and almost Instantly: his speech.
"Ah, wur-rqk, us it.. God be praised; its
meself that's ready and willin:. Though
may be me hand is spoilt wild brick max
ing"
l assured him that the work l would
give him would require no deli
cate manipulatoa, and so we Jared 9 n
over the sleepy, downs. But I could no,
help noticing that, although an invalid,
was . much better pedestrian than my
companion, frequently leaving him be.
hind, and that, even q : tramp" he was