The Indianapolis journal., 1894-09-28

IN A TRAMP,s LODGING HOUSE.
How One of the Gentry Got @ Good
Dinner for Nothing.
New York Independei

New \ ork independent.
As to devices for swindlins the kind
hearted public, there is an inexhaustDle
fund of refniniscence. Here is one Of
Snlits,ie's adventures:
You boys all know / have a knack OF
lookin' fair an aboveboard an talkin kind
o soft and repentant-like when L wants
anything. Well, one day last winter when
| went out 10 Camridge and bummed a
breakfast at a house there East Boston
told me about. Then / was thirsty 50 I
went TO another house and asked for mon
ey. sized the woman mp pretty quick
and played the racket OF bein' willin' an
anxious TO work-bore down on ii hard, you
know. She was SO stirred up by the yarn
spun her thai she gave me a dime and
invited me 10 come round again ats O'Clock
and get a good not dinner. She didn't get
hadn't no kids, and her husband he worked
SO far away he couldn't come home. You'd
"a laughed yourself tired and hungry to
see how glad sle was / wanted TO work.
TO spare my sensitive feeln, she kept
tellin' me as how her husband would find
me some wood TO saw or somethin else To
do when he got home, / needn't feel /
was takin' charity.
''of course, / was on hand al o'clock.
They made me wash my hands and set
down TO the table with them. Gee Whit
wnat grubi That was jest about the slick
est dinner ever / set my teeth into I
don't suppose they's pore'n two or three o.
you blokes ever had night dinner; that's
the kind that was. handed on in sections
wench aS rney as e1 well n own py us nsEyf sr
powerful green myself along at first. and
wished i was cain alone SOS not 10 give
away what a lot / was putin in. But
they KEEP pilin' my plate up 20 make me
feel easy, and 'twa'nt long before ! clean
forgot all my fine manners and waded in
with both feet. Um-m-m-m, L en- taste
them orange fritters now,
They got through eatn' before i did,
an set TO work with their mouths plannin'
jobs for me down cellar an out in the
back yard. / felt my appetite slippin'
away from me. for | seen | was billed to
be laborin' man sure enough unless
sprung some bluff on 'em mighty spry.
SO, all to oncet. / made like ] was took
with "A big collie. | squirmed an held on
to my stomach and screwed up my face
until they was that frightened they laid
brandy bottle-real French stuff. mind yer
smooth enough 20 cut figure eight on
with skates
a. Poor manr they KEEP sayin': he must
"a been half starved You see they thought
I'd been hungry so long that a square meal
had done me up | PLAYED OF | was easter
after the brandy. as. in course, / was:
an when l got strong enough TO walk
tney give me more brandy an money
enough for lodgin.
II promised to call around i'm the morn
I'M an do the work IL / well enough.
an I hain't been well enough since. IL
any of you's got a hankerin' for the incest
house an il you're cooney like l was, you
won't have tc lift your hand for the grub.
ONLY You'll have To get UP new game.
| Collie won't work in, that house for some
| years 20 come. l take IT,"
such a parlding of the cieverness OF their
icant feature OF the social intercourse OF
tramp lodgers-the one thing that clearly
| differentiates their talk from the talk OF
average men.