Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1900-10-13
: OPPOSED ON PRINCIPLE.



"A tramp or any number Of tramps."
eAid wealthy retired chemicals man
utaeturer, according to the Washing
ton Star. will not work, however
many and good are the opportunities
Afforded them, and speak from ex-
perience. The comic pictures and
jokes make the tramp out to be per-
fectly happy if he has plenty to smoke
and drink and nothing to do except to
eat and sleep and be comfortable.
But it isn't true. as proved. A dozen
years ago thought was on the eve
Of making great discovery that
would revolutionixe . whole lot Of
things in my business, and one of the
necessities of the discovery was cigar
ashes. And cigar ashes made by bc~
ing smoked by the mouth. There is .
difference between such and those
formed ordinarily, and this difference
was what my discovery was hanging
ON, thought. Anyway, it became
necessary for me to secure ashes, and
though there were thousands of them
about they were not obtainable. and
20 / concluded to hire smokers and
get what wanted The job was not
TO be . steady one, so looked for
tramps who were exactly fitted to do
the work. ! soon had 70 Of the clean
eat ones l could pick up and took
them TO q nice. weu-lighted and venti-
lated room in my factory. where l had
put in a lot of comfortable chairs. an
old sofa lounge or two. lot Of paper
back novels and cigars to burn. l was
70 pay four cents cigar, and calcu-
lated that IS cigars would be a days
occupation. The cigars were not bad,
40 paid four dollars a hundred for
them. Each tramp had Let - checks
with his number on them, al every
time he got cigar from the overseer
he handed in q check and the ashes
Of the cigar he had annexed The num-
Der Of checks he had at quitting time
represented his earnings for the day.
In addition to this, bedded and
boarded them at the factory boarding
house and allowed them beer with
each meal, and three meals a day.
Could human beings ask more than
this? They could not, and at first the
tramps did not, and they said that
they not only had the snap Of their
lives, but that was a public benefao-
tor and they were going to set aside a
fund out of their earnings to present
me with loving cup. 1t made ashes
come pretty high, but il my discovery
faA % -h0 ~
every ounce of ashes secured would
be worth twice its weight in gold. SO
l wasn't losing anything by being a
public benefactor. Everything went
beautifully for the first three or four
days, and to look at those chaps in
their smoking room, lounging around
reading, talking or just smoking and
dreaming you would have thought an
earthly elysium had been reached at
last, but they couldn't stand it, First
one kicked on the quality of the
cigars, and then another wanted a
cushion on his chair. and another
asked for . hammock. and another
ddn't say word, but sneaked away
between two days. and he WAS fol-
lowed ty two or three more the next
night. l got extra men to take their
places, but it didn't help the first
corners any. and at the end Of two
weeks l had only four tramps in my
elysium and couldn't find any com
pany for them. These four weakened
the following week and my place wa.
empty. However, l had enough ashe.
to go on with my discovery business
which never amounted to much except
to prove conclusively that a tramp il
. born vagabond and legitimateIy in.
curAble."