Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-04-18

How a Lawyer Treated a Tramp and
Himself to a Square Meal.

There is a lawyer in Temple Court, a
prosperous, clean-bOdied, clean-minded
man, with several years yet to run to
middle age, who looks as though he
had never been outside of New York
and as though his clients had always
been railway magnates. To see him
one would never suspect him of this
story, which he told on himself at
luncheon the other day:
after | finished my law studies
entertained a large idea of my capa-
bilities and a corresponding one of the
needs of the new west. 1t is by no
means unusual for young men of an
active habit of mind to pass from the
law school to the supreme bench in
twenty minutes, so | claim no origin
atty for the egOtiSm which l hope
have outgrOWn by this. time. But |
heard the west calling me, and, hay
ing heard it, / could listen to nothing
else. | followed that voice, so seduc-
tive, so alluring, from state to terri
tory, from hotel apartments to fur
nished-pity the mark!-rooms, from
champagne to beer, from beer to
alkali water
"I thought l had struck the inferior
limit in Santa Fe when | found just
enough in my pocket to buy a ticket
for Denver; but it was hardly patch,
gentlemen-hardly a patch. I arrived
in Denver, then as pushing, aggressive,
domineering a town as any one could
wish his worst enemy to be stranded
in, and | was pennilesS, friendlesS,
fOodleSs | walked the streets two
days and n night before I struck my
luck so hard that it turned. 1t is Of
that incident that | am about to tell
you.
IF you have ever been denied a
needed meal you may have some
faint appreciation of the frame of
mind in which | was after that pedes-
trian exercise with neither food nor
sleep, and no prospect of more alluring
character than that of a dripping slab
in the Denver mOrgue. That might
easily have happened had | been
naturally of Il Respondent turn of
thought, but, fortunately, dependency
saved me. I assure you | had no re-
gard for my profession at that time.
and would far more readily have
broken the law than applied it to any
case. | was half minded to break 4
pane of glass in some bakery window
and steal a loaf for the sake of being
put where | would be able to get food
and sleep for a time. and had it not
been for the accident of my being
outwardly we'll dressed-though I wore
no clothing not actually Indispensable,
the rest being hung up'-I might have
yielded to my inclination.
Feeling thus desperate I pushed my
feet along down Sixteenth street. past
Lawrence. and then. despite my de-
sire, they refused to carry me past
the window of Gen. TaylOr's restau-
rant, there by the Brunswick I stood
as one enchanted. and my eyes fed my
feverish brain upon the sight of p:w-
try and meats and salads in the Win
dow. 1t was about the middle of the
day, and people were thronging the
long, narrow room. eating at the cOun-
ter and the tables. paying the young
woman cashier at her stand near the
door, and coming out with Internally
aggravating tOOthpicks between their
ips-I would have liked to stab them
with the little, sharp weapons. And
| stood helpleSSly there and suddenly
some one gave me a bunch in the ribs
that staggered me. and a whining
voice said:
'Sa-ay, boss"
And there stood the frowSieSt I'M
cleanest. tatteredest. unshavenest dog
Of tramp / ever saw. didn't have
strength to move away or to utter a
word he had taken the wind out of
me effectually. He went right along
with his heggarly whine:
BOSS. amt Yer got the price of
somethin' ter eat in yer clos fer me?
Sa-aay boss, don't get away f'om me
like dat-help poor Teller wot's down!
God knows l hate ter ask. but it's
truth, l amt had a bite for three days
| can't work, and I'm sick and ies'
played out. I'm kicked round all the
time, and I'm so low down I don't
much keer. if I could only get some
thin to eat. ia be willin' to take a
lickin' if l could get a dinner by it
when the fellow said that thought
he must be worse off than I was. and
looked him over with a sort Of inter
st: for | had believed myself in the
lowest depths, but 1 was not looking
for licking. And while hesitated he
aDppa1pd 70 mo gain
81 know you can't know how ii
feels to have yer belly wrop round yer
backbone fer support: if yer could
yer'd help me- Yer wear nice clos
and l don't reck'n yer ever was hungry
not RAIL starvin' | be-starvin'-
right now Youse a gentleman anG
don't know nothin' about it. Yor
won't never miss anythin' yer does fel
me-
We'll. you perceive. do YOU not
that 1t was necessary for me to sustain
the character of a gentleman. Will
which he had invested me. on account
of my clothes. l could not betrav +,
him the truth-that my stomach wa.
in as sad state Of collapse as his owl