Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1891-07-22
TO FRISCO FORA DOLLAR
Cow AN OLD SCOTCHMAN MADE
THE TRIP.
Lodged in Jail Twice, but Not Witlo.A
rjends.

James Hall is an old Scotchman
formerly well 10 do, but for the past
year or two sadly .'down on his luck"
He made small fortune in the grain
and hop business in San Francisco, took
his money home TO Glasgow, and lost
it. a year ago he made up his mind
to go back TO frisco, and had Just
money enough TO pay his fare from
Glasgow to this city. His wits and
his countrymen, whom he encountered
en- route, then took him on his trans
continental journey, and three weeks
ago he reached the Golden Gate after
a series of adventures which he has
quantity put upon paper. He knocked
about the metropolis three months be-
fore he got started on his trip. lie
says:
"My overcoat and ring had quietly
gone down my 9sophagus or gullet,
along with the occasional dollar, and
withal | was not overfed: far from it,
was losing flesh every day. My quasi
friends or correspondents were grow
ing tired of me, and at last, one after
the other, they would give little with
a look that said as plainly as if they
said 1t i'll so many words, "See here,
we give you this, but that shuts the
door. DO you understands
He got start tinanally in the shape
of ticket 20 Chicago from a Scotch
man whose sympathies were excited
by his plight, and the Chicago Grain
Exchange gave him another lift to
St. Louis. "At this point" he says,
"began my very veritable struggle to
get West. l was asked by gentle
man to go down the Mississippi 100
miles to his pavement quarries. He
thought he might get some work for
me at Apple Creek. There was moth
ing. He left me sticking there. |
walked up the bank of the giant river
seven miles in the moonlight, and only
fell into one slew on the way. on the
Missouri side. j came at last to a vii
lage, where | remained till morning.
Then | got over to Grand Tower, H.,
by the Post Office boat, where | fell in
with a young Scotch engine driver,
who gave me a 'cast up on a service
train to Murfreesboro. / found some
good Scotties in this small town. |
had little money in my pocket, but
preferred to Ike, it, and seeing three
empty cars on a train about TO start for
st. Louis jumped in, got into a dark
corner, and sat down to await results.
/ got as far as Waterloo, 10 miles,
where the three cars were quickly
shunted. This was my first ride as a
'bum,' but not my last. Twenty-Five
miles to st. Louis! Nothing daunted,
after a good sleep pedestrianized it in
six hours and twenty minutes to the
Post Office. This gave me my first
lesson and first experience of what was
before me-"
He succeeded in reaching Burlington
BY easy stages, and the Masons there
put him through to Omaha, where he
was stranded for month. Then a
fellow countryman who owns a 900
acre ranch near Columbus gave him a
lift to that town. Then he had to
rough it.
columbus was too small TO interest
me. | walked out TO Duncan and
waited there for freight train to pass.
One came along soon. | saw chance
and jumped in. | was actually undis-
turbed and went straight until we
, reached kearny-a two-thousand-and-
forty-mile free ride! l was walking
moodily along, wondering what was
to happen next, when | happened to
stumble into a store with a Scotch
name over it. This, as luck would
have it, was no other than the Mayors
place of business. He calls in the
Marshal, who was at the door. Now
thinks |, 'rm in for it, He says:
GIVE this man good dinner and a
ticket to the next DIVISION viz, Plum
Creek. And turning to me, says he:
That's all | can do for YOU as mayor
of these few shanties.' | was never
more put out. | expected ten days.
Hall managed to scrape together
money enough to pay his fare to North
Platte, where he found many Glasgow
boys. zone engine driver says to me :
| BE at hand, and when the bell rings
| jump up and sit by me- got to Jules
| burg, $50 miles from the Platte, very
comfortably, the weather by this time
being mild and delicious. Iwould like
to mention the engine drivers name,
| nc was such gentleman in the native
| sense of the word. He did not stop
at Julesburg with his goodness, but
| hunted up the next conductor-engine
and caboose both change at each divi-
sion-and got him to take me along
| with him; so | made my first ride i'll a
caboose, and very comfortable it was,
| from Julesburg to Cheyenne, nearly
2+0 miles, level and easy. Tho Union
Pacific Company's machine shops are
being built here, and some of them
were in full blast. You may guess,
therefore, that had little difficulty in
crossing the paths of lots of Clyde lad
dies. Did you ever notice there is a
more distinctive love of country-a
thrilling of the heart in the natives of
small countries, such as Switzerland,
Belgium, and Holland, more markedly
in the mountainous, as in the first two,
but decidedly in them all? Is it be-
cause the confines of the State are not
too extensive to be enclosed within the
grasp of human heart, the whole ma
ton seeming but as one family? In
these circumstances had no difficulty
after two or three DAYS in getting on
10 Laramie. / had only TO wait till
the right man came up.
1t was at Rawlins had my next ad-
venture. Being thus left to my own
resources at Rawlins. but also being
determined to move West at all hazards,
/ got into a car loaded with harvesting
machinery. l thought L was hidden
and safe; but no. The brakeman had
seen me go in among the jagged ar
rangements, and when the train was
in motion he came along the roofs of
the cars and looked squarely down
upon me. He asked:
"sHavc you any stuffH
"sStufl7 means money. | fecbly
and cowardly said NO Then he said /:
".You must get off next stoppage.
..Next stoppago really did get off,
but, as he did not come to see that