Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1899-01-15

10000 others, and as | could find moth
ing to do and my money soon gave out,
| was collared by the police as a vag-
rant and got the jug for three months.
For the two weeks l walked around
Chicago | endured more cold, hunger
and anxiety than | ever had in year
as a tramp. That woman was actuated
by the best of motives, but | believe
she shortened my life by a year.
And what did a benign old philan-
thrOpist in Buffalo do for me a couple
of years ago, and thereby come within
a hairs breadth of Wrecking my whole
future I'd beat my way up from To-
ledO, and had seventeen cents in my
pocket and five or six sandwiches tuck
ed away for rainy day, when | hap
pened to run across this gOOd-hearted
old chap. He was on the lookout to
do a deed which might be recorded on
his tombstone, and he dressed me up
in a tweed suit and got me job in a
coal office at $40 per week. On top of
that he insisted that I read a chapter
of the Bible every night, go to church
on Sundays, and leave off tobacco, beer
and cusS words. He fattered himself
that he was giving me chance to
climb to the top of the ladder, and
suppose he figured it out that I'd be an
alderman in about five years, but | had
to disappOint him. Id have pinned
away and died in six months. | stuck
to it for two weeks and then got back
into my own line, and it seemed to me
as if a monster burden had been rolled
off my back
1t was only six months ago that
met a philanthropist in a Massachu-
sets town. She was a rich old maid
and she didn't believe in sending mon
ey on to the heathens OF Africa or
China What she wanted was to res
cue about a dozen tramps from poverty
and obscurity and make Congressmen
of them. | don't know how many size
had practlced on before | came along
and struck the house for a cold bite,
but she hadn't got discouraged yet.
She invited me to partake of a bang
up dinner 1t was too bang-up. Lei a
tramp slOsh around in his own way
and he'll never be bothered with dys-
pepsia. Set him down TO a whooplng
old dinner and keep urging him to fill
up and you may cripple him for life.
That big dinner knocked me out for 4
week. The woman made it worse by
calling a doctor and petting me. After
six nights on a hair mattress a tramp
can't go back to a pine board without
his bones growing over it I tried to
make that good woman understani
how felt about things, but she couldn t
he persuaded. 1t was a hair cut. a
shave and a bath over again, and when
she had rugged me out with a new suit
of clothes she gave me S25 in cash. a
railroad ticket to Denver and started
me off to grow up with the west. I've
just got back. l put in part of the
time looking for work and wondering
where my next crust was coming from.
and another part in police stations and
jails. As tramp l can hit you for a
dime and get it about half the time.
and it is rare that a policeman gives
me the collar. l can always manage
to keep something in my stomach and
pay for lodgings, and there is little to
worry about. Clean me up and dress
me up and give me few dollars in
money and you can knock me out I'm
a hard-up man instead of tramp
The police are ready to arrest me on