The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-01-23
THE TOWN TRAMP.

OH but these nights are bitter cold.
My money gave out 4 week ago, and
there is no work of any kind to be
done such weather to earn even so
much as bed TO sleep in. So have
been sleeping in stables and hay mows
any place that would furnish halt a
shelter f1om the biting wind. Sleep
ing did l say? haven't slept an
hour a night for two weeks. How can
one sleep when he is cold, cold as
though the hand of death were on
him?
did sleep little one night, down
in the little house by the depot where
the city authorities have put a stove
and fixed a sort of sleeping place for
such as me. There were three or four
other poor devils there the same night,
and we managed to keep warm enough
to sleep some. But they wont let the
same man sleep there more than one
night. We have to "move on" So,
as | said I've slept wherever I could
since.
It's hard weather to be ''On the
road,n but the weather amt any hard
er and these nights amt any colder
than the hearts oflots of people in this
world. Plenty of people that are rich,
that would not miss the cost of meals
victuals any more than they would
miss a word out of their mouth, drive
beggar from their doors as though to
part with the crust he asks for would
make them poor. Plenty of people
treat tramps as though they thought
it was crime to be out of work, to be
out of money, to be cold and hungry.
And yet they never give them work
themselves whereby they can earn
money and buy something to keep
themselves from getting cold and hum
CRY. They expect somebody else to do
that.
-
1 have had plenty of instances of
this. One morning last week started
out to try to find something to do to
earn a breakfast. AS long as L have
tramped it goes against the grain to
beg outright. l always try to earn
what l get, so / asked a man that /
met right at his gate, ifhe had any
wood to be chopped or any snow to be
shovelled. He said no. suggested
that there was good deal of snow on
his walks and l would like to earn
enough to get something to eat. "Well,
it's too cold to stand here and argue
the case; | haven't got any work for
tramps," and he walked on down
town as though he had done some
thing to be proud of. He was muf-
fled from head to foot in great over
coat. / haven't had an overcoat on
this winter. / wonder if it occurred
to him that might be cold.
80
It seems to me if l had been in his
place and he in mine, / would have
given him something to eat whether
he asked for it or not. Even fit was
all his own fault that lie had come so
low, even if he had been spendthrift
and rolling stone, as have been, l
think would have considered that he
needed help just as bad as if it was not
his own fault. And then | have no.
ticed too that no man ever came to
poverty and want himself just because
he gave some other man lift. AS
matter Of policy even in this world, 1
have noticed that it pays to be gener-
Gus. Just look around little Mr.. Ed
itor, and you will find that the men
that make money fast are not the ones
that hoard up the pennies.
But even lift didn't pay in dollars
and cents, it seems to me it pays in
ltCllliSS. II lilc HAL tilaJ diNu iiti
any work fer tramps," had taken me
in by the fire and given ME something
to eat, 1 wonder if the thought that
at least one man was warmer and less
hungry for his having lived,-I Won
der if that thought wouldn't have made
him feel about s. happier himself as he
walked down town with his great
overcoat and muffier? L wonder too
if he ever heard about laying up treas
ures in some other world, and how he
expects to get them there? L guess it
never occurred TO him that the only
way to get them carried there was to
give them to such as ME. You are
fresh in such things, Mr.. Editor, and
may be you can give the name Of the
author who wrote some such lines as
.hese:
"All you can hold in Your cold, dead hand
Is what you have given away"