The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-05-17
EXPERIENCES OF A TRAMP.
MISTAKEN FOR 4 REVENUE OFF,
GER AND NEARLY HANGED.

from aIii-HuNF tie Joined the Cir
cus-The Three Glasses OF Tramps.
The Life "a Hard Onc.
From the Philadelphia Times.
II has been tersaly ana truly said by
some fin dc steele sage that tho hardest
kind of work IS tryius % do without il.
Socrates himself never gave tongue TO a
thought bigger with truth. The average
bum eNpouds sufficient energy in one
seasons campaigning FOR slow drinks"
"hand outs and gratis lodging 10 build
line of railroad IL employed in the proper
direction Nevertheless the number OF
men who lead this aimless life Is con-
stanUy on the increase They 10 not
seem TO realize the price they are paying
for the pitiable portion they receive. fond
y cherishins the vain delusion that they
are beating their way through life as
they would their passage from one city
to another on the bumpers" of a freight
car.
From time to- time tho habits and doings
of this class are hlazoncd forth in the
magazines, the writer's OF the articles min
CLING with The tramps iu order to get
true insight into their character. But IL
Is not for an outsider 10 get az the true
iuWarIucss OF things, q plain statement
of facts made by ONE OF thc guild being
found discussions Apropos 70 this, the
following experiences. related by dealer
in old china. who resides ia Philadel-
phia, ana who gave titccu years 10 the
rowing life, may not hoe out of place.
Not every man who hits the road,
he said. ''ls "a bum. The wandering W IL
lies one meets all over the union can be
divided into three classes-tne .hopo, the
tramp ana the bum. The hobo as rule,
is "a workman, who finds things dun IN his
own city and tramps and railroads about
IH 4
things are booming Then he settles down
and humps himself The name hobo Is
a corruption OF hello ana was formerly
used AS sanitation Wncn Two or more
tramping wOrkmen met on the road. The
tramp. however, is an irreclalmable rover
and the bum is the same. The difference
between the two lies in the fact that the
former Will work at a pinch, TO get
Lift on his way, but the latter never
II is verp probable that the men who 80
10 form these TWO classes oil Migrants
began tramping In search of employment
but liked the life so well than they stuck
TO Il as "a regular thing
Talk TO one of them and he will reel off
any number of pipe stories regarding the
good time they have Of it ON the road But
l have learned, from personal experience.
that for every soft thing the 'Vag' meets
with he had five hundred tough knots to
unite. At the age OF II I started out on
the road with the fixed determination to
see the country. II took me fifteen years
to satisfy myself that 1 had seen every
thing worth seeing, during which time I
had visited every state I'M the union hut
three, Travelled over almost every line of
railroad from the Gulf of Mexico to the
St. Lawrence, and il never cost me d.
rcctly single. solitary cent
Il first started out with "a suidc theatre
cal troupe, dong song ana dance turns
but we struck on rock in Yonkers,, N.
Y. and for the first time / found myself
stranded in strange town, without
dollar IN my clothes. But / got out Of
town in short time ana Joined King g.
Frankhns circus and went south. Dur
ing the next three years j Travelled with
I)lHenDachs s. George II. Richards, and
finally with Sells Bros shows Ii was
while with the latter organization In FL
Paso, Tex, that l met with an acct
dent that totally incapacitated me for
circus life forever In company with
number Of the show people / took a trip
on the only International horse railway
IN existence, which crosses the Rio
Grande into Paso del Norte, Mexico. The
entire party imbibed pretty freely, and
we wound up our excursion In Mexican
restaurant where we partook Of a din
ner mat almost took the lining from our
throats. II Is remarkable fact that the
larther south one goes the hotter the
1o3od-the Mexieans literally covering some
dishes with red pepper.
u was doing a double bar act fJr Sells
Blothers Of that time, winding up my torn
WIN grant swing and a single somer-
saGlt, clearing the second bar That night
ny brain, fired with the fumes 90 he Mex
lean brandy fitting me for any foolhardy
feat, i esSayed to stretch my sinple sn~1nr.
sault into double-the consequence bSng
that was laid up for weeks with broken
AFTER being discharged from the hos.
pitai l worked my way into st. Louis. Here
j boarded a freight train on the Iron
Mountain railroad for Poplar Blu@s But
brakeman discovered me, ard 7 put of
az watering station called Granite Zen
There were a lot of hard-loOk.ng colo.ed
men and poor whites hanging about, and
] concluded to drill to the next station.
The man that had put me off the train
had, unconsciOusly, done me an iaestiina-
Bile service. / had proceeded along the
railroad not more than three miles when
! came upon that very train-telescoped-
the cars and engine piled up In a heap and
blazing away Ike fury. There were but
or injury. / did all / could TO help the
wounded and put out the fire; but, you can
wager it was long time before l got rid
Of the queer feeling 1t occasional every
time L boarded a train.
Some few years after this l had an
other narrow escape from death one that
has all the flavor Of a dime novel incident
] got into Athens Ca, and got a short job
al my trade. / struck up an acquaintance
with a fireman who boarded in the same
house. lie mad a piece Of blue cloth, left
over from a uniform he had made but a
short time before, and he informed me
that he would sell 1t cheap. ] was looking
pretty seedy at the time; 1 struck bar
gain, and had the goods made into a coat
at low figure. About q week afterwards
] lost my job and started for Atlanta. A
few miles outside of Gainesville, at a lit
tie town called jug Tavern, / left the
freight train on which / had been riding in
order to drum up a meal After filling up
] started for Gainesville on foot It's a
rather lonely bit of country there abouts
1 and when o long, lank, saVage-looking fell
low jumped out into the road and pointed
a shot CUNT at me l began to feel shaky
so cut IL short, there was a dozen of them
around me before | could say Jack Robin
son. They took me for revenue officer
the blue coat being the cause of the mis-
take. IL was a gang of moonshiners / had
stumbled across; they would listen to
nothing 1 had to say but headed me for the
nearest telegraph pole. They soon had a
rope around my neck, and / would have
gone to glory then and there had not new
arrival, who happened to be more cool
headed than the others, prevailed upon his
companions to give me a chance to explain
matters. / showed them the tailors trade
mark on the coat, and to clinch the truth
of my being uncOnnected with the revenue
service / accompanied them to the cabin Of
the man who had a store Of poor leaf to-
bacco. Here / made a practical demon
stration Of my skin as a cigarmaker, and
was suffered 10 depart with many apollo
gies for the rough handling 1 had received
II had been in Atlanta but two days
when j was arrested and claDDed into
jail. A bargler had broken jail in Mont
gomery, Ala. 1 CHANGED to resemble the
telegraphed description Of him hence my