Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-20

be in possession of Washington or an
American army might be engaged in
storming Pekin. If Victoria's throne
had tottered into the dust while I waa
engaged in soaring up scanty meals in
the dry places of America, I was pro.
foundly ignorant of the fact. had even
lost my hold upon dates, and the TACT
that it was Christmas Day only dawned
upon me when l found all Yuma keen-
ing holiday aud about 500 Indians howl.
ing with frantic merrimeDt in the streets.
To. the Arizona tramp, in fact, dates are of
no use, and even Sundays pass by him
unconsciously. Now and then, possibly.
be may come to the surface of chronology
to bresthe,' after the fashion of the hip
popotsmus and the whale and other
amphibious animals, but as rule he re-.
mains peacefully in the depths of placid
ignorance, and lets chronology and cur.
rent history slide together.
WITH THE INDIANS.
went peacefully home with one of the
Indians, and sat down to a Christmas
dinner with him and his family. He
did not ask me to do this, and I was too
frantically hungry to care whether he
asked me or not. I simply went, and
the native politeness of the wild man of
the woods prevented him ejecting me
from the domestic circle. The family
consisted of the father and mother and
four sons, and all the five male memb bers
carefully took off their pants before sit
ting down to their meal. The five gar.
ments were neatly hung up in row-not
necessarily for publication, but rather as
an evidence of good faith-and then the
hospitable head of the house drove q
sharp-pointed stick into large piece of
beef and solemuly passed it round, that
each person might drag piece off it for
his own consumption. May that
Indians shadow never grow less
Whether in his inmost heart
he pined for my scalp know not, but
he was kindly, hospitable gentleman,
with nothing on but short-tailed coat
and strip of cloth, and trust that his
days may be long in the land of his
fathers, for he treated me as few men,
whether with or without pants, have
ever done. His noble conduct, in my
opinion, capsizes, in one act, all the
elaborate theories which the cynical Car
lyle built up in his "Sartor Resartus ~
His courtesy, 1 believe, would have sur
vived even the loss of the rest of his
clothing, and he could have done the
honors of a marble palace in O state of
nature with 80 much grace that his
guests would hardly have observed the
exceeding brevity of his attire.
FROM YUMA UPWARDS
There was another long monotony oi
hungry desert, emptiness and dust
Following this came rain and bitter
winds and a bad attack of chills and
fever, and after a patient struggle with
thsse and other difficulties the city OIL
Los Angeles at last loomed up on the
horizon. 1t WAS early on a Monday
morning that an almost penniless scare.
crow entered this great center of civiliza.
ton and wearily appealed to the first
baker for a stale losf And to the
credit of Los Angeles let it be mentione &
that the loaf was promptly forthcoming
Where the next loaf will come from is a.
this present moment OF writing a mys
terry, but probably it will rise where
least expected. At all events the authors
bed is duly paid for at respectable Is
cent lodging house for the ensuing night
and beyond that the tramp seldom con
Germs himself. If today is provided fol
he takes no thought for the morrow
Like bland and smiling chile
of nature he accepts whatever
fate may have in store for him, and fate
generally rewards his philosophy will
thirty days. hard labor. At the present
momen; in my humble lodging-house
there is wailing and grief because pop
ular character known as "Slosh," OF
some such name, has met this fate. Be
ing dead broke he attempted to snatch
few hours slur1ber one damp night
underneath a bridge, and an obtrusive
policeman iran him in" Poor "Slosh. u
The way of the American tramp is in
deed hard.