The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-01-18
rear OF the mouse, nor did Mrs Perry

hear them
The buck board contained Mir. Perry,
and he could hear the words Of the
tramp very plainly. Dropping the
reins he walked silently toward the
kitchen door just as Mrs Perry ap-
preached the stove with a quart shaker
full of powdered salt. She poised the
shaker, and by accident shook the
cover off SO that more than pint of
salt fell on the meat, glanced at the
door and saw her hus band coming, and
then fell in a dead faint beside the
stove.
Without word Perry entered the
room, and, walking 70 the table, picked
up the carving knife, while the tramp
fell on his knees and begged for life.
That was the only move that could
save his life. Perry could not kill a
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 redhot Goals,
while the salt in browning heap lay
on the middle
Hold out your hands fat" said Per-
~. The tramp obeyed, and with the
knife and fork Perry placed the steak
upon them. The man shrieked with
pain, but dared not drop it.
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
all, and then disappeared in the night
The eastern reader may think that
after such an experience the tramp
died on the desert next Gay, but he
didn't, and the chances are that by ex
hibiting his burned hands and telling
some pitiful story about them he OBJ
tanned more square meals during the
next week than he had had in three
months before. That Perry was justi-
fed in his treatment of the man no one
doubts who knows the desert and its
nonads-
Although rarely If ever done todeafh
by the citizens on whom they prey,
more tranps die violent deaths In this
country than elsewhere. Because the
country is desert they must ride on
the cars in the hot months. There is
curious rule among the railroads Of the
whole Rocky mountain region that
works TO the advantage of the traInps
The Indians of the region are allowed
20 ride free on the outside of sRd be-
tween the cars. 1t Is great graft" for
the tramp who finds a group of Piuses
or Shoshones on train. The train
men do not notice the addition to the
group, and the Indians arc not unlike
IL to share their food with the tramp
But Indians are not often found on the
railroads in this part OF the desert,
while tramps are as plentiful as sand
storms. A train never goes over the
road without carrying tr8nps or with
out fight between them and the train
men. The utter reckleSsness OF the
tramps in stealing rides is enough to
unnerve the inexperienced spectator.
1t is useless for them to try to board a
train that is standing at station in
the day SO they walk up the track
and wait there till the train has started
and attained a speed at which it would
be dangerous for an ordinary man to
try to climb on or even jump from the
platform, and then, grasping the rods
that brace the floor tim bers of a car,
they swing themselves under and land
on the brake beams. This is done to
some extent by tramps in the east,
but railroad men say that the tramps
here eau board brake beam on a
train going from twenty-five to thirty
miles an hour. The tourist hears this
told 50 often and SO candidly that he is
obliged to believe it. But sooner or
later the nerve O. the muscle of the
tramp fails, and ne drops under the
wheels. So many tramps are killed by
the trains that the local papers give no
more attention to events of tho kind
than New York papers give to the
manning of children by reckiessly
driven trucks. The stories of railroad
accidents on the desert are telegraphed
to the east only when the lives Of pas
sengers have been lost so eastern read
ers do not hear about tbs killed tramps;
but a railroad man told the writer that
out of seven collisions involving freight
trains, with the details of which he
was familiar, tramps had been killed
in four.-N. Y. Sun.