The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1890-08-16
IAE rRAnsIs pARAnIse.


lair, at MWrisville, lives a plain old
German farmer, blessed with a big farm
and abundance of this worlds goods
His hospitality TO the houseless and
homeless wanderers the world calls
tramps is known from Maine to New
Orleans and from ocean to ocean. On
the Beckenbach place is n big barn. In
this barn, in winter and in summer and
ON any day in the year, whether it be
Christmas, New Year or the Fourth Of
July, can be found women with chill
dren in their arms, a shiftless fisherman
with ragged suit on him and q shil-
lelah in his hand, or some sturdy aud
homeless German outcast, perhaps, with
a trunk on his shoulder, trudging over
from the railway station to the Becken-
bach barn. which by some fine free
masonry among the tramps of America
is known as a Saints Rest" for the
homeless wanderer a Thousand miles
away seeking rest or idleness, or. it may
be, days work with "Pilgrim schoon
and scallop she'll"
If the stranger sits ON the porch of
any one Of the farm houses ON the main
road leading to Morrisville he will be
greeted at any hour of the day with the
inquiry;
"Is this the way to BeclSenbach's
barn.
And you can tell with your eyes shut
that the inquirer, be he man or a wo-
man, is seeking a temporary refuge un-
der the caves Of BeclSenbach's barn.
Now it will be a frowsy looking wom-
an, with draggled skirts, half bonnet
and an old shawl, in one corner of which
is wrapped a baby not old enough to
walk OF talk If it is a warm day she
may sit down ON the grass, after getting
her bearings and distances to the barn,
with her back up against tree, and she
may pause long enough to take a nap,
with her head hanging over one shoul-
der,while her prattling babe, unconscious
of its shabby surroundings, crawls
through the high grass and plucks with
tiny fingers, the ffy-down-dillies which
dot the greensward like day stars.
Next it may be great hulking Ger
man, with a military air, as if he had
fought with Won Moltke, or in better
days taken q "schooner" with Bismarck.
This man wears high topped boots, with
a great box like a sailors chest, which is
strapped ON his shoulders, and the Teu-
tonic traveller with big pipe in his
mouth pauses long enough to say, "Vere
vos dot Beckenbach's barn. There will
be a score or more along today, looking
like Falstaff's ragged regiment, all kings
and queensin shreds, tatters and patches.
And it is a substantive fact that tramp
in Texas made an engagement in mid
winter with fellow nomad at Ell Paso,
saying: "Yah, Jacob l meets you again
when dose peas all must be pick't down
| by dot Beckenbach barn in Jersey" And
when the voice Of the turtle dove was
heard in the land the two tramps met
at Beckenbach's barn after am honest
! days toll in the generous Germans pea
| patch at Morrisville.
Most Of these picturesque tramps al
lege That they are seeking work Some
of them are, and none of them goes away
empty handed from the honest Germans
| plantation who is willing to do fair
days work for good wages.
They begin by picking peas. Becken-
bach'a barn is a sort of agricultural ex-
change, where the Delair farmers come to
get field hands. male and female, for the
busy season. After the pea season is
over they struggle through the straw
berry furry only to tackle the tomato
vines, which yield the nomad workers a
financial harvest of no mean measure
Then come the red raspberry, the cult
waited blackberry, cherries and currants
down to peach season, citrons, cante-
loupes and watermelons, and when Jack
Frost comes the colony of tramps thin
out and seek softer climate and milder
skies
There is a boss even among tramps
Spanish Dick is boss of the Beckenbach
barn. DR.. Dunbar Hylton says that
Spanish Dick is descended from Spanish
hidalgo with bar sinister He speaks
six languages, and was once an impress
sario in Jenny Lind's time at Castle Gar
den, but has now descended to be boss
among the pea piclSers ON the old Ger
mans farm. There are traces of dignity
and erudition in the way Hidalgo Dick
issnes his orders IN a strawberry match
Where Some Emigrants Come From.
visited the vineyards at Bronte, in.
Sicily, which are 300 acres in extent, and
where some 40 men, under surveyor,
were trenching the ground in one long
line. They were poor looking lot, but
appeared to use their implements, which
are more like axes than spades, to good
purpose. When they do not, at such
times as English eyes are not upon them,
the surveyors stick or whip plays pretty
freely about their backs, J believe, and
without vigilance they will not work at
all They come from their villages on
Monday morning and return ON Satur-
day night. They are lodged, receive
three meals, and about eightpence day.
The first two meals are given in the
vineyard, each man having sardine, a
hunch Of excellent bread, and pull"
at the wine barrel The third meal. be-
fore dismissal in the yard at night, con
sists Of porridge, served in a trough,
from which they scoop it out with their
fingers, having discarded the spoons orig
inally provided them.- ~ ~ Jaaa
Faces and Character.
81 am beginning more and more to
doubt the truth Of the statement that
our faces are living indexes to our char
acters, said an elderly gentleman, as he
threw down the morning paper In which
he had been reading an account Of some
peculiarly atrocious murder "Hereis a
case he went ON, ''in which a man
proved guilty Of the most fendish mur-
der has face that is anything but that
of murderer's in appearance. Icannot
even believe that this is an exception to
the rule. In short, do not believe that
there is any rule on this subject; for
when l see around me people who are