The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-02-19
STUDY OF HOBO DEVILTRY
4 BOSTON BOY WHO TRIED TRAMP
 LIFE.
His Experiences in New York City-Hobo Habits and Passwords-A Springfield Minister Sent the Youth II ome.

NeVer Tn the history of Boston, says the Evening Record, has the city been so threatened with an influx of the worst class of criminals the country produces, but never have the police been so alive to the danger. Yet, de- spite every effort, the holding-up of storekeepers, as well as citizens on the streets, at the muzzle of revolvers and even the shooting down of officers, has become matter of weekly record. That this is the work of one class of criminals the police know we'll, but from their very organization and methods it becomes a necessity to ar- rest them in the act of crime. These men are known as ''hoboes." To un- derstand something of this organiza- tion of hoboes, the following plain un- vanished story of the sixteen-years- old son of one of Boston's wealthy and man is under the doctors care in his fathers handsome home, with an ex- perience and scars that he will carry to the grave.
 His own story is as follows: "I just thought I would start and see little of the world for myself. I only had money enough to get to Providence. This was a little over two months ago. When I got there wandered around and at last found myself at the wharf There was a boat there and a man told me that I would have to show my ticket, so I went aboard without know ing where the boat was going. I sat up all night and the next day we got In New York. I tried to slip off at the first opportunity, but was stopped. l tried to pass off an old theater check for a ticket, but the officer stopped me. Then I ran for the pier, but police man caught me and took me back. l told the officers of the boat story about wanting to get home and they said I could work out my passage by helping unload. They gave me some thing to eat, and the man who gave me truck to unload with was good about not giving me the heaviest boxes, but 1t was the hardest work I ever did. I wandered around the rest of the day and slept in different elevated stations | for few minutes at a time, or until l was put out that night.
 '"The next day I went around from saloon to saloon and got little some thing to eat, until at last l got to 10S on the Bowery. tried several times 1 to beg, but could not bring myself to l do it. At this saloon I ran across a lame man and told him how I was i fixed. He asked me why I didn't sell my overcoat. It was fifty dollar one, and after he had taken it in a back room he came out and paid fifty cents for it. That was the first I knew of the 'Hoboes.' That night I slept in a cheap lodging house, and had money enough for supper. The next day l went back to 1OS after had got a dol l lar from a man l met on the street. l The lame man was there I told him how I had tried all the stores I had passed, but couldn't get anything to do. He then told me he would get me | something to do and took me in a 1 back room, after saying something to the barkeeper. There were four or five men in there, and there was pile of silver and change on the table. He took up ten-cent piece and we had a glass of beer apiece. That back room | Is one of the headGuarters of the hobo gang and no one not a member of the organization is allowed to even stand around it. The barkeeper looks out for | this. I told the man who is known as New York Blaclie' that I had got one dollar, and he said all right he would fix me. Then he wrote letter in tine handwriting. It said ] came from Bos- ton and couldn't get work and re- auested that as I was deserving boy help should be given me to get home He signed this with fictitious name.
 q gave him my dollar, and he went out and brought back some song. books. Then he took me over the bridge to Brooklyn, and along to the fashionable part of the Heights. He knew the houses, and told me when tt ask the servant to take the letter tt the mistress of the house, and when tt ask her to buy gbook In mos of the houses I was told to stand in thu hall. where there were coats and fur. and canes I thought it was danger | ous carelessness to let a stranger reall! begging in 'Blackie' would limp along on the other side, and I would turn al the money I got over to him. Tha
 first day I got over three dollars in z few hours, and 'Blackie gave mt enough for dinner, lodging and ciga
 retts. The next day he gave me 10
 of packages of court plaster, and w went to another part of Brooklyn, ant I got over two dollars.
 "Then 'Blackie' took me to where h' and his partners lived in New York
 It was a big room, with stove in i
 and good beds. The hoboes don't dar'
 to be seen eating in good restaurants so they do their own cooking and liv'
 like lords The best-looking and new
 est boy is sent to the butchers ant
 brings nothing but the best. All th' time they are not stealing or cheating
 the public they lie around and drinl
 and smoke or play cards in thei
 rooms. They divide a city up into dis
 tricts and don't interfere with eacl
 other a bit. The recruit never is al
 lowed to keep any money, so he has tt
 stay with them. After we ha'
 worked Brooklyn we were assigned the west side of New York from Fifty
 ninth street up and took room il
 RrookIvn. The hobos never believe il