The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1900-07-18
OPPOSED ON PRINCIPLE.
Would Have Nothing to DO with work
Under Any circumstances.

Under Any circumstances.
"A tramp or any numberof tramps,"
said a wealthy retired chemicals man
ufacturer, Twill not work, however
many and good are the opportunities
afforded them. and I speak from ex.
perience. The comic pictures and
jokes make the tramp out to be per-
fectly happy II he has plenty to smoke
and drink and nothing to do except TO
eat and sleep and he comfortable.
But II isn't true. as l proved. A doz-
on years ago | thought | was on the
eve of making great discovery that
would revolutionize n whole lot OF
things In my business, and one of the
necessities of the discovery was cigar
ashes. And cigar ashes made by being
smoked by the mouth. There is n diff
crence between such and those formed
ordinarily, and this difference was
what my discovery was hanging on
| thought. Anyway, 1t became neccs-
snry for me to secure ashes, nlid
though there were thousands of them
about they were not obtalnable. and
so I concluded to hire smokers and get
what | wanted The job was not TO
he steady one. so looked for trnmps
who were exactly fitted to do the
work. soon had 20 of the lean
est ones ! could pick up and | took
them To n nice, wcll-lighted and venti.
lated room in my factory. where had
put In lot of comfortable chairs, an
a ,nF,, txv. LOT NJ
back novels and cigars to burn. was
to pay four cents Il cigar. and calcu-
lated that - cigars would he Il days
occupation. The cigars were not bad.
as paid 81 n hundred for them. r.ach
tramp had lot of checks with his
number on them. and every time .,e
got cigar from the overseer he hand
ed In n check and the ashes of the cigar
he had smoked. The number of checks
he had mt quitting time represented
his earning for the day. In addition
to this bedded and boarded tnem at
the factory boarding house and allowed
them three meals day. Could human
beings ask for more than this2 luey
could not. and mt first the tramps dld
not. and they said that they not oniy
had the snap of their lives, but mat
| was n public benefactor and they
were going to set aside n fund out OF
their earnings to present me WIFI n
loving cup. 1t made ashes come pretty
high, but If my discovery amounted
to what thought it would every ounce
of ashes secured would be worth
twice its weight In gold, so | wasn't
losing anything by my being n public
benefactor. Everything went beauti-
fully for the first three or four ,.ays.
and to look at those chaps In their
smoking room, lounging around read
ing. talking or just smoking ana
dreaming. you would have thought an
earthly elysium had been reached at
last. but they couldn't stand 1t. First
one kicked OF the quality of the cigars.
and then another wanted n cushion on
his chair, and another asked for ham
mock. and another didn't say n word,
but sneaked away between two days,
and he was followed by two or three
more the next night. got extra men
to take their places, but 1t didn't help
the first comers any, and Mt the end OF
two weeks had only four tramps In
my elysium and couldn't find any
company for them. These four weak
ened the following week and my place
was empty. However, l had enough
ashes to go on with my discovery
business. which never amounted to
much except to prove conclusively that
Il tramp Is born vagabond and leg
itimately incurable. e."-Washington
Star.