Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-04-25
STRONG ON TRAMPoLooY.
He Tells Interestingly of His Experiences
I'm Rock I.land.

| lie calls himself John strong.
tramp" He blew into The ARGUS
Office this morning. introduced him
self, said if the experiences he had in
Rock Island since his arrival last
night were of any value to the read
ing public, he would furnish them.
He was told that his story would be
acceptable He stated that he had
been in the newspaper business once.
| but insisted, in answer to inquiries,
yoicing suspicious as to the genuine
ness of his particular style of touring,
that he was not merely playing tramp
for metropolitan journal, but was
a thoroughbred hobo. Here is what he
wrote:
In spite of the fact that Rock Island
is "A VIGOROUSLY bad town for tramps,
| the genus hobo continues to make
this city mecca. Despite the efforts
of Chief Fender and the railroad Off
Gals the Rock Island yards are
made a rendezvous for hundreds of
buns. All parts of this country, and
even foreign ones, are represented in
the floating population of this tramp
dom. and from early morning until
late at night the CITY of hoboes re-
All walks of life have their repre-
sentatives, but from the lowest to
the highest there exists a boad of
loyalty that is seldom found among
the ordinary men. Each bum con-
siders it his duty TO post new arrivals
as to the condition of the town, so
far as the watchfulness of the police
and the ease or difficulty with which
Ia 4. 4.
system of informing each other, the
people of Rock Island are in many
cases grossly imposed upon by I'M
worthy individuals who visit back
doors in search of meals.
OF course among the ranks of hoboes
there are men who are worthy of con-
sideration from their fellow men; men
out of employment who are earnestly
seeking some form of work, but these
are always distinguishable from the
professional tramp by their willing
ness to work in return for whaJ graf
uities they may receive.
Last night | spent in the
Rock Island yards, and in addition To
eIuding the rigid watchfulness of the
yard hands, lived for few hours in
the midst of wretchedness and shift
Soon after dusk the tramps began
to congregate in obscure places be-
hind empty freight cars on distant
sidings. and i'm the shrubbery that
abouuds along the shore of the Syl-
van waters.
l was carefully picking my way
along the tracks, with n view of
keeping as quiet rs possible and avoid
IL.
which come about when one is walk
ing after dark among piles of railroad
iron, when a villainous figure stepped
out from between two freight ears
and in a husky voice querie d, (which |
way yer goin', Bud?"
.'Des Moines, if l can make it,
so am l. but the bulls are so fierce
that / don't see no chance tonight.
There amt no 'empties' either. That's
the trouble wild travelling west. Ever
things loaded, and fellows either
got to ride bumpers or the rods
Ny limited knowledge of tramp ver-
nacular enabled me to gather from
this that the police were so on the
alert, and there were no empty cars
going west that the man who would
ride west out of Rock Island on a
freight train must either do so on the
couplings or the truss rods under
meath the cars.
Course, continued the villainous
individual, "a Teller can ride stock
ears, but the minute there is n glim-
mer of light the brake spots yer and
then year ditched maybe 20 miles
from any kind of n town. That means
a good hike, and with shoe leather rs
high as it is now, it's pretty tough |
Shedding"
Neither Webster, Worcester. Funk |
Il Wagnall nor the Century dictionar-
les give any definition for hike, =" but
inside knowledge enables inc to in
fern my readers that ''hike" means |
walk"
Hi, there, you buns, get out of
here quick; come there, get n move
on This from n man with a Ian |
tern who appeared around the end of |
string of cars.
Sst, come this way quick" said |
my acquaintance, and following the
example set by the tramp. l crawled |
under two cars, down an embark |
ment, up another and then down
again in the brush that skirts the Svl- |
van waters. As if by instinct the |
tramp led the way through the thick |
tangle of underbrush to an open space
where CHEEKY fire lit up the coarse,
bronzed features of 10 or ID men.
Supper, evidently, had just been
served. Judging from the array of i'm
provised cooking utensils and frag-
ments of food.
Where did they get the stuff to
COOKE ventured-
~Bummed it, of course was the
reply. in which there was unlimited
scorn for the ignorance shown by such
question
From whom"
From butchers and grocers; where
do yer suppose dey'd get it. See here.