The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1896-02-14
WORK! WORK.!
Desperate Attempts of Chicago
TrampS to Earn a Living.

VI W. Il ~" III ~ W. SS"AN
out the news that the company
wanted to pack ice at its Fish Lake,
Ind, icefelds. Early the next
morning 800 tramps assembled at
the Grand Trunk station applying
for the job. Agents of the Swift
Company told them they could not
take any men then, but for them to
come back on Monday. The men
who reported for work that day
forthwith spread the good news in
every police station and cheap
lodging house in the city. When
dawn broke on Monday morning
there was an exodus of the tramps
to forty-ninth street.
The army of tramps formed at
the Harrison street station, where
$50 of them lined up and marched
through the streets, causing all
sorts of exciting rumors.
cam wot is it, [ want to know? F."
said a big policeman at Halsted
and Thirty-ninth streets. 'Is it
! Coxey's army? Shut up now, or
I'll run you all in" he said when
they began to say uncomplimentary
thing about him.
The policeman followed the crowd
down to the Stock Yards Police
Station, expecting some kind of
mischief. But there he met with
another surprise. In front of the
station was crowd of $50 more
tramps, and they fell in and fol-
lowed along behind the delegation
from the Harrison street station.
Then the suspicious policeman was
told the tramps had been promised
work Oh the icefields and were
going to the railway station to take
a train to Indiana. Another dele
patton from the Hyde Park station
joined the procession, and COM
mittee of seventy from Englewood,
not to mention various delegations
from the Twenty second and all the
other small stations.
Many of the tramps, impatient
for work and fearing to be too late,
went to the Grand Trunk station
on Sunday evening and staid all
uight in the vicinity. They hung
around the saloons, slept in box
cars and alleys, and insisted on
sleeping in the station. AT first
the Waterman simply threw them
out, but they came so thick and
fast that he barricaded the door
and nailed down the windows.
When Agent Weeks appeared in
the morning he found his way to
the station blocked by 300 of the
tramps, and more were continually
arriving. When Foreman Burn
ham appeared and told them only
twenty five men would be taken
the hungry and ork-seeking crowd
closed around him, yelling and
kissing. Mr.. O'Hoolihan, who pre-
sides in the top of the watch tower
at the Halsted street crossing, call
ed his rat-terrier, barricaded his
door, and with revolver in hand
kept the men back. He tried to
tell some of his neighbors to get the
police, but his voice was drowned
by the yelling of the men. The
tramps crowded into the station in
such numbers the partition of the
operators room began to give way,
and to get them out Detective Levy
yelled, "Get out of here, boys, into
the open air, whore we can see
what you look like, and pick the
men we want.o
A hasty scramble to get out en-
sued, and when only twenty five
men were left in the raom Foreman
Burnham closed the door and said
"Here, to save any more trouble
I'll take you fellows" and he dis
tributed tickets.
When the mob outside found
what was going on they became
furious. Detective Levy, looking
out, saw a squad bearing down on
the station with railroad tie for a
battering ram. He threatened to
shoot the first man who touched
the door. For twenty minutes the
excitement continued, until the
9.20 train came along and the
twenty five lucky men were march
ed out and put on hoard the cars.
The tFaipmen, Detective Levy, and
A cent Weeks kant the rest of tho