St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-02-18
LUCK IN THE DARK.

! Pm tramp. Whether | was driven
to the road by hard luck or desire to
lead an easy life is none o. your bust
ness. Pm ne better or no worse than
the average. Some men, with my ad-
vantages, would have been in Congress
to-day. Some others, with my temp
tatiOns, would have been in state pris-
on long ago. If the world owes me
anything I'll forgive the debt If |
owe the world anything she'll have to
dust around lively to collect the debt.
A year or two ago, while | was
tramping in Indiana, | struck a streak
of hard luck. 1t had come on winter
and my toes were out, my pockets dit
to, and l was dressed in summer cloth
ing. | tramped fourteen miles along a
thckly settled highway one day and
failed to turn up even slice of bread.
On the other hand, l was bitten three
times by dogs, and several farmers
threatened to shoot me. When night
came | was half-frOzen and the other
half starved. 1t was no use to apply
to house for lodgings, and | got my
eve on a straw stack and slowed my
self away.
Now, then, there's nothing mean
about a straw stack, but it doesn't be-
gin with first-class hotel for comfort
You may work into a stack your whole
length and chink up the hole behind
you and you'll find it cold. The air
seems to sift in from all directions, and
you fall asleep to dream of floating
over a cold sea on an iceberg. The
weather was about zero, and by mid
night found that must get out Of
that or freeze to death.
There was barn about forty rods
away, and crawled out and took a
run. One of the small doors was I'M
locked, and crept in to find place a
thousand times more comfortable than
the stack. 1t was dark us pocket in
there, and | had no matches to strike
light. | began to feel my way across
the floor, hoping to strike some bags
or blankets for cover. when suddenly
something soft and warm touched my
arm, glided around my waist and | was
lifted off my feet. Did yell ? No, sir.
[ was too frightened to open my potato
trap. l dropped my arms and my
hands came in contact with-what do
you think ?
An elephant had his trunk around
me. He pulled me up to him, and
then felt me over with his trunk, as if
to see what manner of man | was. AS
he offered no violence to me my nerve
came back pretty soon and | patted
him on the head and called him pet
names. He had big stall to himself,
and as soon as | could give him the
slip | began to back off. But he
wouldn't have it that way. He reach
ed out, took hold under my arms, and
swung me around into his manger
packed with hay, and Pm blessed if
the keeper didn't find ME there and
fast asleep in the morning | was
pretty we'll satisfied that the beast had
no intentions of making my tramp ex
istence any worse than it was, and as
soon as | got warm |. went to sleep
What aroused me in the morning
was that elephant trumpeting away in
high dudgeOn, and [ turned out to find
that she wouldn't let her keeper come
within ten feet of her. He cOaxed
and scolded, but she was firm. While
she would trumpet at him she would
caress me, and it was from my hands
that she got her breakfast. You see,
she was circus elephant in Einter
quarters, and there were a good many
other animals in and about the barn.
The long and short of it was, | was
hired to take care of Empress through
the winter, and | should have gone on
the road with her in the spring but for
my own stupidity. One day | got
drunk and stirred up lion with
pitchfork. He struck me through the
bars of the cage, raking my left arm
from shoulder to wrist, and the doctors
had to amputate it to save my life.
That's all, gents, and if you have an
old coat, pair of boots, or anything
else to help a tramp trim up for the
coming spring campaign, shall be
forever grateful