Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-01-16
A Youtl.f,el Tramp.

From the New York Sun.
II rode thousands of miles on railroads
without paying one cent said little Willie
Van Houton in the Second precinct police
court, Newark, yesterday morning. Willie
is only Is years old. He has light brown
hair and blue eyes, and is intelligent. He
was arrested on complaint of his mother, a
widow, who lives at No. 1872 James street.
He returned to his home on Thanksgiving
day, after an absence of five years. and his
mother, fearing tnat he was about to go on
another tramp, had him arrested. Police
Justice Jessup sent him to the county Jail for
six months, in the hope of reforming him.
A reporter converted with Willie in the
jail last evening. Willie said: Gone day in
June, five years ago, ran away from home
because had trouble in the Tenth ward
school and in my Sunday school. I stayed
in Jersey City for six weeks, and blacked
boots and sold papers at the ferries. rich
man in New York gave me suit of clothes.
| next went to Port Jarvis and stayed there
two weeks. Then beat my way to Buffalo on
the Erie railway. rode on a passenger
train to Chicago, the conductor not touching
me because was so small. I sold papers in
Chicago but didn't like the place, so dead
headed TO St. Louis, where stopped for sew
eral weeks. slept in the police stations
sometimes, and l often made q fire outside
the city limits and slept beside it. Some
times would wake up and find forty or fifty
tramps around the fire, but they were good
to me.
~ next beat my way on the Iron Noun
tain railroad to Middle Rock, and there
worked for farmer awhile. Then I got
lonesome, and / worked the cars until l got
to Springfield, ILL.,, where I sold apples for
three months. One night was tempted by
jewelry store, and broke into the place
and got hold of some watches, just as O cop
coliared me. was sent to the State reform
school at Pontiac for several mouths. After I
got out beat my way home on the railroads.
| got home in February. had been away two
years and eight months, and had always had
lots to eat
''When did you go away from home
AGAIN."
Il left in the following May, and worked
milk and freight car to Reading, Pa, whore
worked for a Mr.. Lewis, in q furniture
store for three months, and then played the
conductors on soft stories, and they passed
me to Chicago. l stopped in Cincinnati,
Columbus, Detroit, Fort Wayne, Dayton,
Peoria, Saginaw and Quebec, and saw life,
you bet. Early last spring beat my way to
Omaha, Neb., but was kicked off the trains
three times on the prairies. tried to 60 to
San Francisco, but the conductor chucked
me off the train forty miles beyond Omaha,
and as it was cold and was afraid of Indi-
ans, | beat my way back to st. Louis. The
Omaha people were hard set. After visit
ing all the cities in the west, l made for
home without cont in my pockets. I got
into an fv froinhf ono iuht oy,I xvoo
locked in, and was carried to Scranton, Pa I
had to strike the Erie road in order to get
home. | meant to stay if mother would only
let me alone; but she has enough to look
after, and can make my living away from
home. 1t don't do me any good to lock me
up here among thieves, tramps and ruffians.
1t only gives me bad example.
sDid you not fall in with tramps?'
ooh, yes, met lots of them, but I travelled
alone, because could do better, for nobody
refused me something to eat. did chores
for my meals, but some people would not let
me work for yictuals, because was so small.
have seen tramps tear good coat from a
mans back. The tramps travel in gangs of
forty or sixty, and there are ten times as
many in the west as in the east. Three
years ago Capt. Kennedy got up the German
band in Columbus, and they are q tough set.
met them in different cities. They would
travel by different routes, and all bring up at
one point, and there they would drink and
steal met Capt. Kennedy and his gang
thereaare only five alive now, the rest having
been Hlled-at Elizabeth last Thursday. The
gangs liked to have boys to bum the chucks,
which means to ask for victuals. Boys are
useful to fetch in handouts-that is, what
ever people will give fellow. Sometimes
they would kidnap boys, train them, and then
sell them in Chicago and New York-to be
thieves, guess. But they never caught me.
"The Irish are the most liberal people, and
New York and Dayton the most liberal cities.
In Philadelphia the rich folks are stingy and
mean. l could travel over the world without
cent, sir, and know it,
| J. Wells Menard, ex-M. G. from Louisiana,
the first colored man ever seated in the United