The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-02-13

beg and / don't have to very often
generally work pretty steady through
the summer and save up money enough
pretty near always to carry me through
the winters.
missed it this winter though. Be
lieve I told you two or three weeks age
that l was out Of money. Well, It'll
been mighty scant picking since then
tell you. People that have got mon
ey seem to hang onto it as though they
never expected to get any more. Still
I've managed to pick up little here
and there-enough. to get me some
thing to eat once in a while and te
keep me off the rock pile. For, as ]
told you in my first letter, have still
got some pride about me and don'l
want to sit and pound rock to gay fol
the privilege of leaving town, with
everybody looking on.
*#*
For as was saying, Pm not what
you'd call a regular tramp. There
are three kinds of tramps, you know.
The first kind are what I call Irregular
tramps." They are the fellows that
don't do any thing but tramp. They
are on the road all times of the year.
They never work If they can possibly
help it. but keep themselves alive by
begging and stealing. They general
ly go in gangs, and don't stay in one
town longer than week or 80 at a
time. They are the men that are more
to be dreaded when fire breaks out
in the cities than the fire itself, and
they are in their element when they
can get riot started. In short, they
are the scum of the earth, that rises
to the surface once in awhile, just as
other scum does, and deserve only to
be skinned off and cast aside.
haven't bit of pity for such fellows.
They don't deserve single drop of
the milk of human kindness.
~
Then there's another class of tramps
that one hardly ever sees except in
winter. They are the men that have
hard luck in the summer. They were
sick, or they had broken an arm, or
had some fingers cut off, or their mill
had shut down. It's easy to tell these.
They are anxious to work if you will
give them chance. They hate to
beg, you can tell that by the way they
go at it. But if you give them some.
thing without letting them work for
it they hang their head as if they were
ashamed, when they take it. You
don't see such fellows as these on the
road two winters in succession. They
are the ones that ought to have help
and sympathy for they deserve it. 1t
amt their fault they are tramping and
people ought to take that into consid-
GRAFTON. They may be in the same
boat themselves one day, for this
world is sort of whirligig that mixes
things up strangely sometimes.
The third class of tramps is what you
might call the genteel kind. This
class is made up Of rather respectable
men, men that pay their way most of
the time, dress decently and are not
criminal or vicious, but just wander
around from one place to another be-
cause they are too restless to settle
down. That's'me. That's the class 1
belong to. I amt on the road because
Pm down on my luck, and 1 don't go
around begging and stealing and scar
ing women and children. 1 tramp
simply because I got in the habit of it,
as l told yon once before. try to set
tie down two or three times every
year. I stop somewhere and go to
work and work for a month or two may
be, pretty steady. Then I get restless
all at once and have to pick up and go
else. I am going to try to
stay here though. I'll stick it out till |
anyway.
l wish it was summer now. The |
older get the less like winter. II
used to be glad when cold weather
came, and it never came soon enough
Or stayed late enough. Now 1 hate to |
zee it come, for it comes too soon and
It stays too late. Seems to me the
winters must be harder than they
used 10 be. Leastways I feel them
worse. 7 shiver more and I can't get |
warm nights, even when 1 have bed,
ike 1 once could. Pm older than 1 |
'nce was, though, I guess that's the
reason. And expect the winters will
Keep on getting colder and longer for
ne every year, and the SHOWS will fall
1eeper and the ice will be thicker
every year. All! me.
THE Town TRAMP.