The Ely miner., 1900-02-02
GONDOLA'S EXPERIENCES
By George Ade.
1iNONDoLA" WILSON was not a


" tramp, because he knewia trade
: and he had been known to work. He
was a tramp in this, however, that he
consistently refused to pay railway
fares. Hence his name. ''Gondola" is
submerged tenth for ''flat car"
He was journeyman of the restless
kind. When he had been three weeks
in Milwaukee, then ST. Paul seemed a
more desirable place of residence.
When in st. Paul he had tired hanker-
ing to see the Narcissus lodging house
in Chicago. After he had arrived at the
=. Narcissus he began to watch the trains
: starting for Cincinnati and longed to
curl himself on truck and jolt away
to where the muddy stream fronts the
sloping warehouses.
Once he was away from the Narcissus
for whole year. During his absence
he had been ''put away. To be "put
away" is to be held prisoner in penal
or reformatory institution.
The purpose of this story is to relate
how "Gondola" Wilson, having no Grim
inal intent, became criminal under
circumstances which are not usual.
On the day of his return to the Mar
cissus (the prison pallor on his face and.
his head cropped to show the white
scars) six inmates were sitting near
the windows reading morning news
paper. They had torn the paper into
sheets and divided it. The man who
had drawn the small "ads" was discon-
tented. He could find nothing on his
sheet except "Help Wanted" He low
cred his paper, and before him sat sGon-
dola" Wilson, seeming yellow in the fl
tered light.
Where's the committee?" asked
Gondoia." Where's the triumphal
arch: Welcome Home?'"
You're alive, then?"
'"Alive an kickin.'"
III you're alive, it follows that you're
ikitkim. How long has it been?"
"a gaaf- next month"
"We missed you when it come to the
'round-np last fall. Nobody'd seen you.
You've been udGer roof, amt you?
EHespita1?"
Put:awRy-a year}'
You lhad to go crooked at last, did
your
Well, that's what they called it.. I'm |
iucky rsiBey didn't hang me. Some of |
em wanted to-
Tell'me what you dones amt the
court.''
Say, listen, an seeif ever you heard
the likes lbefore. It wuz in October
year ago last October I'd walked
t'om'L m'Loueyville over to Terry Hast with
'nn4ger that played the mouth harp.
Fee eIM in. the yards at Terry. Hut an
got into an empty stock that we
Ii|u ut wuz headed for DanvilIe. Some
me in the night brakeman seen us
ans fired us out I'd been asleep, an the
first thing remember was fallin' out
~ the car an lightin' hard, with the
coon comm after me. We didn't know
where we wuZ, but could make out
side track an chute for loadin' hogs.
About mile off we could see some
lights, an we judged we wuz near
purity good-sized town. Me an the
coon started to walk toward the town,
an then stopped him an says: Here,
if we go to drillin' around town at this
time O. night an one o. them country |
coppers gets peek at us, he'll shoot
MS first an then ask us our names after
ward. Let's crawl in somewheres an
sleep till mornin', an then we'll go in |
town an try to round up hand-out.
Well, just as / wuz sayin' this, we hap
pened to be wallkin' along past tall
fence. 1 looked through the cracks an
could see one or two lights quite dis
tance off, an right near us wuz long
ouildin' that looked somethin' like
barn. It wuz gettin' chilly an | said
tc this pardner of mine: Coon, gil me
a boost over this fence an think we
can find warm place here So we
skinned over the fence an come to this
buildin'. It wuz big an still thought
IL WIZ a barn. We walked around,
aoolxin' for door or window, so't we
could crawl in. At last this pardne of
mine-his name 'uz JEFF an I'll kill him
If ever I lay eyes on him again jeff
found little door that wuzn't locked,
an we went in, feelin' our way along,
thinkin', you know, that we might find
some hay or straw to sleep on. Purity
soon jeff fell over somethin' an land
ID on top of him. We felt around us
an discovered that we'd run into lot
) watermelons layin' on the floor. /
s'pose lie coon was sorry to meet them
melons, wuzn't he? The first thing
knew he'd split one of 'em open, an l
could hear him chompin' in the dark.