The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-10-10
TO RAISE The WIND.
\ CHARACTER WHO MAKES Ills
LIVING BY WRESTLING.

"Whistling Mule" Sam Coleson spent
half a day in Washington last week. He
made a stop-over here between trains. He
was recognized as he paraded Pennsyl-
vania avenue, by Star reporter, who
first made his acquaintance at the famous
Cliff house. near San Francisco. and who
saw him last, little over three years ago,
on the streets of Buena Ventura, in the
United States of Colombia. Coleson has
been a street whistler all over America,
and several times out of it, for twenty
years. In the United States he has chief
ly worked the country from the other side
of the Alleghanies 20 the Pacific slope His
short stop-off here was the first time he
had been in Washington, and he was bound
for New York, which queer town he has
also suffered to get along without his
nightingale notes up to the present. In
the matter of apparel, he was gotten up
regardless, according to the race tout
standard, as he promenaded the avenue.
81 only wear sporty goods like these
when I'm making long Jumps" he said TO
the Star reporter. when l anchor in
town for business my makeup is rusty
black sack suit a bum hat, skates out at
the toes and a hard-luck face. NO
crowdn stand for it if you pass around
the jingle-at when you're putting up
good front. You've got to dress the part.
They want to see that you're on the hog
before they cough up their coin. let EN-
see it; I've studied this thing, you see,
and that's the reason I've done pretty well
at it,"
The final word of Coleson's nickname
was bestowed upon him because his ears
stand out from his head like those OF the
animal beloved of the government, anu
because he can move them backward ana
forward as easily as winklng. lie IS red
haired. shrewd after the manner or the
pave. and is probably somewhere near 80
years old His whistling is really re-
markable. He told something of his own
story in an uncomfortable patois both or
the levees and of the pave.
Pm a ST. Louis wharf rat" said ne,
"but I never went over the road, for
swiping brass fittings from the riveS
boats, like most of the rats | was raised
alongside Of l took to whistling early
enough to keep out of any trouble like
that. When 1 was only years OLD
could whistle pretty nearly any old thlng.
Guess 1 got it from my mother. l lost
track of her when l was years ora, put
remember well enough what a fine whist
Ter she was. The old man told me before
he croaked that she used to whistle us
kids to sleep, instead of singileg, like most
women do.
"Anvhow. by the time I was 8, and had
lust begun to sell papers, l could whistle
anything that came my way in the shape
of a tune, and the bigger kids down on
the levee used to make me whistle Tor
,en, nv the hour When / got tired and
quit they'd chuck me in the river and
when | got back on dry land l was glad
enough to whistle until they let up on
me. 1t was good practice for me, but
couldn't see it then.
"T was selling papers out at SHAW
Gardens one Saturday afternoon, ana
whistling to keep on edge, for l was stuck
bad with a whole armful of first editions,
and felt weepy, like a 1O-year-old does.
I noticed a crowd gathering around, ana
I went on whistling. 1t had never struck
me very hard until then that mad
good thing in this whistling game, al
though a lot of people had often asked
me on the streets where I'd learned some
of the things l whisted. But this ShaWs
Gardens crowd kind of put me onto the
thing and ] whistled for all l was worth
1 passed around the jingle cap when | was
through and it was big pull-doWn. mat
settled it. / didn't sell any more papers.
1 worked the parks and beer gardens Tor
a couple of years in the summer time,
and in the winter I hit up the hotel bars
and the places where the sports got to-
gether 1t was good thing until the cops
got to chasing me around. 1 had a-plenty
of dust during those two years to jam
around and play the races with Play
the ponies when 1 was only ten years old?
Wei. 1 guess yes, and beat 'em out often,
at that!
"When the cops got on my trail for
whistling all the spare change out of
folks clothes in St. Louis. I took to the
river boats, doing the trips all the way
down to New Orleans, and made a fat
thing of it. 1 worked the boats for two
years The summer was the best time
I'd slip into the smoking room or the card
room and begin to whistle mellow things
to catch the ears of the guys half jagged.
After the whistling had attracted their at
tention they'd ring me up for a whole
nights work, and I'd whistle the whole
layout of soggy rummy things that l
knew like 'SchuberFs Serenade,' and such
things. They'd always produce up to the
limit the pipey mugs. full of wine and
stuff that I'd work this way. l had a
barefooted, one-suspender makeup on
the boat trips that always did the trick
and when 1 was asked any questions l
always threw 'em a ballad and waltz
bout cumming my way down to my aunt
in New Orleans, or to my sister in st.
Louis, If it was an up trip. The officers
of the boats never gave me away-because
why, l bought 'em Off
"Well, after couple of years on the
big river, the regular passengers on the
lines began TO get on to me, and although
they continued to give up some when L
whistled new ones all the time, the rake
off didn't size up at all with that it had
been. The last trip l made on a New Or
leans boat had a queer sort of wind-up.
The old Robert T.. Lee was the boat. She
was within an hours run of New orleans,
and / was up on the hurricane deck CIV
ing 'em moonlight music. Among the
things l started TO whistle was that weepy
ballad Marguerite. hadn't gotten into
the dozenth bar of 1t before there was a
big yell from a swell-looking guy sitting
by the starboard rail, and he was just
about to jump overheard when a. couple
of men with him grabbed him. He threw
such a fit then that they mad to tie him
up. His two friends explained to the other
passengers that the man had recently
been let out of an insane asylum at Mem
phis, and that he had gone daffy over the
death of his wife, whose name was Mar
guerite. And here was J. kid-like' (but
how'd I knowD, spelling off that moist
tune for the sake of the quarters 1 got
from the mugs holding girls handsl I
shelved that song after that.
THE first time hit up foreign country