The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-08-28
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cific than they are now The roa
swarn,s with them, and they are goin;
. in every direction. Conductors an,
train-men have harder work than usua
running these fellows down. Some
times they seem to rise right up out o
the ground. and such thing as get
ting away from them seems out of tn
question. A loose-jointed and thinly
! clad young fellow ambled into tn
depot here last night, and. after endeav
oring to scrape an acquaintance will
several people said to bystander:
'.rvc beat my way from Chicago, ant
am going through to the coast in tn,
same fashion"
"You don't mean to say that you bea
passenger train all the way from Chi
cago. do you?" asked the man spoken
to.
Il do" replied the tramp, grinning:
Il came through on express time, and
got here just as quick as the man who
rode in the parlor car, which didn't "
Further conversation elected the fac,
that the tramp had curlcd himself up
under seat in the smoking car and
had not once been detected during his
long ride. The quarters were not COM
Portable, but the fellow did not look as
though he had ever had great deal of
comfort in the world. and he was not
the worse for it. The talk was in full
progress when a brakeman who was
waiting for his train observed:
THAT scat racket is what gives us
passenger men more trouble than any
other. In the first place, only small
and lean man or boy can get under a
seat. and it is not always possible to see
under them. Some passengers are
ugly at the company, and when they
find stowaways they take pains to con-
ceal thein from us, and rather enjoy
feeding them. Since this last run of
tramps got SO bad our conductor has
made us go through the train and look
under the seats after leaving each sta.
ton.
Last week I did this regularly in
two cars, and found nobody. Along
toward midnight the conductor entered
the smoking-car in big hurry, and
undertook to 60 through it at rapid
rate. when he tripped on something and
fell the whole length of the car. He
swore SO that nearly all the passengers
raised themselves up to see what was
the matter, and came in just at that
minute in hurry, too, and fell just as
the conductor had, striking my lantern
against his, and breaking them both.
Then he jumped on me for not attend
ing to my business, and we went back
and found a couple of suspicious-look-
ing feet sticking out from under a seat
We knew what that meant, and rousing
up the passengers We hauled out q thin
young fellow who was sleeping on the
floor under seat, and whose feet had
accidentally got into the aisle. Of course
we dumped him off at the first station,
and then accused two of the passengers
of hiding him, but they swore they had
never seen him before. When the con-
ductor found that he could not get any
satisfaction out of them he began on
me, and since then I have made it a
point to get down on my knees and
crawl through the car after leaving
each station. The passengers don't
like it, but 1t can't be helped"
In spite of the care taken by the rail-
road men, they find it impossible to
prevent hundreds of impecunious ad-
venturers from beating their way over
the lines Putting them off only de-
lays them; it does not prevent them
from reaching their destination in the
course of time. They haunt the depots
and side tracks, and the moment train
stops they are on.
i've known these tramps," said q
freight brakeman, Ito get on when the
train was in motion and take their
places on the trucks. They become sur
prisingly expert in these things. We
have been lying on sidings many a
lime where there were a lot of tramps,
and. knowing that they were only
awaiting good chance to get Oh, we
would stand along the track watching
HEM AS soon as the train got under |
way they would approach the cars and.
'eizing the hand rail, swing themselves
n on the bumpers and crawl down on
he trucks. l don't believe there are .
lozen train men from Omaha to San
francisco that could or would do that
rick with the cars in motion, but these
elbows never seem to have any trouble
With it OF course, a slip of any kind
would be sure death. but, so far as !
NOW. none of these tramps ever gets
Tiled, not when there is brakeman
'round to get it, any way. Running
his way from station to station, have
zen the same tramps at every station
or two hundred miles. When we left
me station they would be on the plat
orm. singing and dancing, and when
We drew up at the next there were the
anne fellows. and all the time between
he Two places not one of them could be
cen from the tops or the ends of the
ars. They were all underneath, hang
~ On to the trucks, the brake chains,
nd. l sometimes think, the wheels"
A seedy man, who looked rs though
Re had been on the road good while,