Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-10-26
MIR. WILSON.

hot, taTry boards
a chilly town. That's what. Even
III the summer time, " said II. Pember.
ton Wilson as he threw stray nail
into the muddy slip and lazily watched
the rings enlarge and lose themselves
IN faint.t' ''Tples. You take any train,
and II you here, and the only
corru icing here is that there's SO
ma out. s'pose nv stomach
~ tryin to go without any.
l.h week just on a bet The
tou.It} must be sighin for me.
] wonder II turnips are getting large
enoughY'
To designate Fl. Pemberton Wilson
as a hobo would simply corroborate his
opinion of himself
He has carved Hobo Wilson" ON
many a section shanty and milepost
between Scranton, Pa, and Council
Bluffs, Ia, and there were friends who
knew him as Rooster
On one Indiana trip he had earned
the title Of Come Again Wilson because
he had a persistent way of getting on a
train after once being put Off
Like many another of his clacs, he
was not devoid Of sentiment or philoso-
ply. He carried in his breast pocket a
speckled volume of Burns poems. He
had forgotten to return it to a public
library i'll southern Illinois The book
opened Of itself at the lines "A man s
man for a that" Hobo Wilson read
the poem as he lay with his back against
the warm boards of warehouse F, and
then he put the book back into the pock-
ct of his coat, which he had thrown
down beside him.
At the bend in the river a coal vessel
was being unloaded. The click of the
machinery and the noisy dumping of
the big buckets at the regular intervals
became rather soothing when the rhy thin
was understood. Hobo Wilson tapped
with his thumb, keeping time, and lock-
ed through the rigging of a lumber
schooner in the second slip beyond at
the coughing smokestack which reached
up from a small planning mill The mill
was buzzing in changeable tones, like
nest of discordant bumblebees
The smoke rolling from the stack
drifted through the rigging where the
yards and netted lines seemed to cut
into irregular shapes. Hobo Wilson
watched drowsily until to his blurred
vision there were many fantastic forms
floating in the foggy maze. And he was
not greatly surprised when one Of these
forms took ON the outline Of dwarfish
human being and foated slowly toward
him. 1t poised for a moment above a
hawser timber and shook itself, shower
of SCOT falling from it. Then it settled
into comfortable sitting attitude and
looked at him.
"Well, Rooster, how's everything"
The voice was rather small and shrill-
Hobo Wilson could not answer at once.
He was marveling at the appearance of
his strange visitor. The little man was
hardly three feet high Under the
SLOUGH hat was a good natured and
wrinkled face, decorated on the chin
with tuft of beard, which might have
been gray at one time, but which was
now blackened and dusty, the same as
his face and clothes. The latter were of
rough duality-a hickory shirt, shod-
dy pair of trousers tringed at the bot
toms and held up by one suspender, and
a pair of worn shoes much too large and
laced with hemp twine.
"Are you down on your luck, Roost-
err" asked the little man.
"Im liyin on the air, said Hobo,
"but where did you come from?"
II Just dropped in with the smoke
Don't know me, ehy'
That's what; ! don't "
Listen, Hobo Wilson. Do you re-
member last Saturday morning when
you were at Hammond and divided
your handout with brother who alight-
ed from a box car day out from Louis
vile and very hungry"
II do. A man = man for a. that
True enough Rooster, That was a
good deed. More than once I've seen
You give a oomrade good place on the
truck
Where was your
II dare say you didn't look up into
tho rolling cloud Of smoke 10 800 tho
good fairy Of the hoboes
"FaiTyW
Cert You didn't expect the guard,
ian fairy Of tho hoboes % tear around
the country Ia all kinds Of weather with
A little white Tobe and somo ostrich
feather Wingsr
~ s'p0se not
Hobo Wilson, I've watched you, !
noyor saw you do pad any art tho
good things of this world must not az
b. given 10 brakemen and farmers hha
pooplo who work Arc you hnngyf'
'suIel"
"Thep fesl iu the pockets " THAI coat
baside you and believe mo when wll
ou thal every man mutl nYe before no
dias
"sunorip brake beamsl' gssPed
Roosler as hs drew nom ono p4'Asl
fftlr another upmplea rolls ~ NaAA
blls 40 hsspeq lhem w W lhs lels'
fleok cloth, and his tears fell on lAs'A
no more dnllin ~ ihs sho" ~
Dpphuuspsi peYef aRaip w pN'tp'
Aud, you Ye donp" "-
Huf when he looked pp aHalp lhe al'
llpsrd faiV had dlsappealrd apq pa