The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-12-09
HOBOS HEARD FROM.
dwellings ORDER FORCES THE
TRAMP TO COMMIT CRIME
One of Them Told His Grievances to an
Eagle reporter Yssterday-They are
Now Compelled to Brighten
Women in Order to
Get Into Jail

A tramp. like everything else. Is hard t.
find when you want him bad.
A reporter for the EAGLE WAS detailed
| yesterday to hunt one of them down ant
interview him on Governor Lewelling':
| recent order.
Every water tank in town was visited
and the railroad yards bushwhacked from
end to end, but not one could be found.
AS last resort the old Oak street depot
| was visited, and there barrenness prevail
ed. When the reporter was about to leave
I in disgust be turned around on his heel
and was accosted with the familiar re.
mark:
"C.pp'n, won't you please give me the
price of a bed!"
The speaker was tramp. and evidently
thrifty one, for it was then eight hours
before bed time. He was fine specimen
of the Lewelling pet. One shoulder was
higher than the other by several inches,
which indicated him to be professional.
Tramps become economists with practice.
When travelling he exposes as little body
surface as possible to the wind, and hence
always travel with the point of the shout.
der toward the current of air. This in time
makes one shoulder higher than the other
and there is no better way OF identifying a
professional tramp than this. He wore a
pair of checked trowsers that once be-
longed to prize fighter and coat that
shone Respondent on the pulpit some time
in the dim past, for it was now of a
greenish hue from long exposure to the
rays of a summer sun.
1t was closely buttoned around the
neck with tenpenny nail, while at the
waist it was fastened with clothes pin.
leaving an opening at the breast as a
refuge or retreat for the bare red hands.
His footwear was the personification OF
ruin and belonged to what is known as
the shabby-genteel order. The shoes once
belonged 10 a man who WAS not stranger
in the drawing room or at my lady's ball.
HIS hat was like one of the dismantled
towers of some old Scottish castle, and his
face was apparently stranger to soap as
well as tC the razor.
Without needing his supplication for
the rental of bed the reporter proceeded
at once to interview him.
hao do JO0 tALuA VI LChS
order?"
"What order does he belong to, booster.
crib man or every day all round grafter?"
His order about tramps"
"Who is Lewelling, anyway?'
"Why, he is governor of Kansas, of
course"
'Oh, he is the duck that ordered the
police not to tip us over"
''The same"
"Well, the fact is, Cap'n, l am not &C
quainted with the gentleman, l haven't
been in official or political life for so long
that am not familiar with the statesmen
of the present day, except my friend Dave
Hill, Bourke Cochran and few others
whom l knew in TAmmany."
"Ah! you belonged to Tammany then;
what might your name be-"
"Well, Cap'n, it might be John Milton,
or Jim Blaine, or George Francis Train,
but it's not The fact is. Cap'n, am
nameless now forever more am with
out a home, country, a flag, or Il name.
am a vagabond, a vagrant, "a tramp, and
presume l will be all my life. But,
Cap'n, can't you give ME the price Of
bed."
but, my friend, you have not yet told
me what you thought of dwellings,
tramp order?"
"Well, Cap'n, to speak the truth 1 don't
like it,"
Why?"
Why, because, if 1 understand it right,
we can't be arrested any more, in Kansas,
without committing some crime. l am
afraid / will be compelled to break a win
dow, or steal something, or knock some,
body down, or scare some woman to death,
if you don't give me the price of bed"
What has that got to do with the ques
tion?'
sit has whole lot to do with it. If l
can't get a quarter for a bed L must sleep
out doors tonight, for that governor you
talk about has prevented his policemen
from arresting us. l wont sleep out doors,
I'll tell you that right here aud now, for if
/ can't do any better Fll break into Jail ~
"How?"
"Well, / could knock you down right
here, for instance, if thought there was
no probability of you turning around and
licking me- You would then have me ar
rested. would get two weeks and by that
time the weather would be more suitable
for a tourists life. There is no danger.
Cap'n; am not going to touch you; l can
much easier 60 over there to that house
and scare the woman. She would have me
and I'd sleep tonight beside nice
warm radiator in your city jug. OF course,
would sooner sleep in warm bed, where
there is less life, however, Cap'n, if you'd
give me that quarter"
But you would have to work in the
city bastile?"
Work. No, sir. If I ever consent to
descend to the vulgar plane of work. I'll
do it for myself and turn good citizen
You catch me working for Wichita or any
other city and you'll catch white black
bird"
How can you avoid it.''
why. I'll take punk and aqua pura
first
What's that in Englishs"
Bread and water. of course. like Jew
elry very we'll when l am in society, but
you don't catch me pounding rock. Cap'n,
with a chain and ball hanging to my leg.
No, Cap'n; not much. J"
You don't like dwellings order,
theu.'
No, sir; not now. II he made that order
early in the spring when the grass begins
to get green, then l would say be had
a level head. That is the time US gentle
men of travel who love nature would like
to roam about the green prairies of your
fair state undisturbed. Then we could
sleep under the azure canopy aud permit
ourselves to be lulled into sleep by the
.winkliug of those bright stars which |
jewell the blue depths of the ethereal arch. |
Il governor what's his name. really de- |
sired TO be kind to US poor chaps who are |