The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-03-11
He USED A J1GaER.
Applied for Charity With a Seemingly
Badly Scalded Arm.
From the Hartford Courant

b6oly Scalded Arm.
From the Hartford Couuant.
viii you give me quarter to help paw
my car fare to Boston!" said fairly we'll
dressed man to COurant reporter on the
street the other evening. al got nv arm
scalded in wreck on the Erie last month,
and l am trying to get home to my folks in
Boston,
Come inside a minute where it is
warmer, replied the newspaper man. sit
down and tell me more about it."
Certainly, and the man began 10 undo
the bandages about his left arm. "Tha
cold has got into it and made it worse
again. / was pinned under the wreck. and
me steam from the boiler, you see, came
near doing me before they got me out.
. as in the hospital three
hold on, now, interrupted the reporter.
% How long have you had this jiggerm
How long haveI had this jiggerF' re-
2eated the man, starting a little. They al
ways repeated the question when they want
time to think up an answer
Yes, this jiRger; not the one before this
nor,the one before that, but this one."
-, cure onto me, l guess" replied the
fellow, smiling.
II think l am. Now, give it to me
We'll, guess it's no use to chuck bluff
mere ms JIgger put on Just before |
struck Hartford. tried p. D. for awhile.
ous that Is more clumsy than Tiger. Be-
sides, you can work the women with this
better. just take a little fly blister, put it
on your arm at night and the next morning
you have jigger ia great shape.
w hen the water ia let out and the skin
torn of, the best doctor can't tell it from a
genuine scald, unless he looks at the hairs
through microscope. It don't hurt much
aIter the first night and you can use your
arm just as well as IL il wasn't on. When
you strike town, put your arm in a sling,
go around to the back door, show it and
they give down every time. With good
Jigger l can make IS or 80 a day in some
towns. guess have had five or six jig
gers on that arm. When they heal up
put on another, il l am hard up.n
w hats the matter with ap. Pr
well, plaster OF paris Is too heavy and
clumsy. Still, it works all right. But it is
more bother to do your arm up in plaster of
paris and put on the shingles, and besides,
you can't show it so we'll and it doesn't look
so bad as jlgger."
forW
80 can work the hospital racket. A
little grease from the box of car rubbed
along under the eyes makes you look pale
and haggard-juss discharged from the hos
pital seep'
But l should think you couldn't jump
freight so hand1ly with jigger on, or per-
hsps you can walk?'
well, guess | don't WALK. I'm no CAV
cat just yet. When can't be yeager I'll
quit the road. Talk about taking a freight
with Jigger on, that's easy enough Why.
I've done it going fifteen or twenty miles
an hour. Pick your car, grab your rods
under the middle, swing in under and law
there crosswise on the other rods Many a
mile have ridden there or on the trucks.
and with board slept there, too. In the
summer time It's ali right, but In the winter
fellow is liable to get stiff and fall off. II
he does they never know which town ought
to furnish the box. o, - a gay-cat. l
can hold down a train for a division while
he is walking mile. They're too Slow
whats this about men on the road haV-
ing kidsl"
20. that's nothing, only IL we meet kid
on the road and take liking TO him we
make him work for us. A moucher is not
allowed to have more than one gunsel and
there is trouble If another bum tries to
snare him. had one for q while till he
got too big, but even then he was the best
Prussiau on the road. He could bring in
more money than any two kids on the road.
l always dressed well as long as l had him.
Many time whenthe gunsels went out on
two-bit plunge he would always get back
first"
What do you mean by a two-bit
plunReP.
"Why, sending the boy out to beg a
quarter on the pave or street, as you would
say. Jersey City and Newark are great
places for that. If the kid doesn't do well
he gets the life pounded out of him when he
gets back, l never struck mine but once
then / was drunk. But bum will defend
his kid as quickly as you will your own son,
especially If he good one. One after
noon l sent mine out with a pup and he
brought me in 81 that night. But if kid
runs off and gives any of the buns away,
it is known all over the country pretty
soon. and If that kid is caught 10 goes hard
with him. He is brought into camp and
the buns have their revenge. Sometimes
a bum will snare a gunsel 10 years old and
cart him around for two or three years,
bu1 it is not often that joker has a Prus-
sian over 10 or TO-"
"You don't seem to think much OF a gay
catg'
mo, and you never saw a moucher that
did. Why, gay-cat will go to a cheap
lodging house and saw wood or even count
ties"
Then you mean a moucher or yeager Is a
tramp who never works or even walks from
town to town.
That's It, Why should he when he can
get good living, dress we'll and see the
country some other wsyl Why, gay-cats
are not even allowed to have a kid, and if
one happens to flag one we take it away
from him. We won't allow them to use the
same fire in camp or the same pail. We
have no use for the man that will work,
w ere good people, we are"
Then there are lots of tramps travelling
about the country we'll supplied with
money and olothes which their kids beg for
themP
Certain. Why, l was kid once myself
till got big enough 60 have one OF my own.
Take boy that runs away from home or
gets out Of a reform school; some moucher
will give him a con. game and cart him
around three or four years, perhaps. Butt
must be going. Since | left Newark have
been flying light CT shouldn't stop now to
egg bloak. You didn't turn me down or
make me take it on the lam, so l didn't
chuck bluff with you. Good night"
The reporter afterward saw more Of him,
and found out, what be already knew to a
certain extent, that what that tramp told him
was literally true. For the interview given
above the newspaper man did not draw on
mis- imagination in the least, but put the
conversation TO paper when the visitor left,
following its course as literally as a mind,
trained to that kind of work, would allow
him to do.
1t would be impossible to put in print the
darker side of the life Of these kids.