The World. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1891-1896, 1893-01-21

steak ready In haste n TO fetch oEi
the best OF everything she had In addi
tion. The bearing Of the man was Sc
terrifying that Mrs. Perry did not dare
TO refuse, and, greatly agitated, she
brought the steak aud put Il over the
glowing Goals. The other work wa
also continued, the man meantime
cursina her for being slow so confirm.
ally that he did not hear the wheels OF
n blackboard that was driven up to the
rear Of the house. nor did Mrs. Perry
hear them.
The buck board contained Mr.. Perry,
and he could hear the words Of the
tramp very pininfy. Dropping the
rcins he walked silently toward the
kitchen door just as Mrs. Perry APP
preached the stove with a quart shaker
full " powdered salt. She poised the
shaker, and BY accident shook the
cover of SO that more than n pint Of
salt fell on the meat, glanced At the
door and saw her husband coming, and
then fell in a dead faint beside the
stove.
Without a word Perry entered the
room, and. walking TO the table, picked
mp the carving knife. while the tramp
fell IN his knees and begged Tor life.
That WINS the only move that could
save his life. Perry could not kill q
man who begged for mercy, but he
could and did give him a frightful re-
turn for the misery Mrs. Perry had en-
dured. For a moment he considered
how he could punish the fellow, and
then his eyes fell on the stove.
The steak was bubbling on top and
scorching below over the rcdhot Goals,
while the salt in q brow ming heap lay
on the middle.
Hold out your hands Nat, Z said Per
ry. The tramp obeyed, and with the
knife and fork Perry placed the steak
upon them. The man shricked with
pain. but dared not drop IL.
"You ordered the steak quick and
you shall have it" said Perry. Now
eat it.
With the ready knife before his eyes
the tramp .choked it down, salt and
MI, and then disappeared In the night.
The eastern reader may think that
such IN experience the tramp
died on the desert next day. but he
didn't, and the chances are that by ex.
.hibiting his burned hands and telling
some pitiful story about them he OBJ
TIMED more square meals during the
next week than he had had In three
months before. Tint Perry was justi-
fed in his treatment Of the man no one
doubts who knows the desert and its
nomads.
Although rarely II ever done todeath
by the citizens on whom they prey,
tramps die violent deaths in this
country than elsewhere. Because the
countryNis 4 desert they must ride on
the cars in the hot months. There Is q
curious rule among the railroads of the
whole Rocky mountain region that
works to the advantage of the tramps.
The Indians Of the region are allowed
to ride free on the outside of and be-
tween the cars. 1t is great graft" for
the tramp who finds a group OF Piutes
or S~hoshones on a train. The train
men do not notice the addition to the
group, and the Indians are not unlike
" to share their food with the tramp.
But Indians are not often found on the
railroads in this part of the desert,
while tratnps are as plentiful as sand
storms, A train never goes over the
road without carrying tramps or with
out y ii9ht between them and the train
men The utter rccklessness of the
trainPs in stealing rides is enough to
unncrye the inexperienced spectator.
II "a rYsalaas fNr fbara a. trv a., bon.1 j.
train that IS standing at a station in
the daytime. 50 they walk up the track
and wit there till the'train has started
and attained a speed at which 1t would
be dargcact.s for an ordinary man to
try to climb "a 81 even jump from the
platform. aid them, gsasping the rods
that brace the door timbers OF a car,
they swing themselves under and land
on the brake bcarls. This Is done TO
some oxtest - tral1ps in the east,
but railroad a.el say that the tramps
here caa Aoard a brake beam on q
train going from twenty-five TO thirty
miles "a hour. The tourist hears this
told SO of.ca and so candidly that he Is
obliged to believe it. But sooner or
later the nerve or the muscle of the
tramp fails, aad he drops under the
wheels. So many tramps are killed by
the trains that the local papers give nc
nor attention to events OF the kind
than Now Yor' papers give to the
maimiag Of children by recklessly
driven trucks. The stories OF railroad
accidents on the desert are t~elegraphed
to the east only when the lives of pas
sengers have been lost SO eastern read
ers do not laar about the killedtramps;
rhut a-railroad mar told the writerAthat
out Of seven collisions involving freight
trains, with the details of which he
was familiar, traEnps6 had been killed
in four, N. r.. Sun.