The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-04-08
AN AMATEUR HOBO AT II.
Experience of a Runaway Lad in An
Alabama Coal Mine Prison.
(New York SUM-

A lad Of II, who has Just come here
from Chicago, has had some remarkable
adventures. He has a disposition to
wander and "a knack of getting along.
He belongs to a good family. 1t has
not been thought best to place too Sc
we're check on his rowing tendencies,
and so he has roved a good deal about
this country, and when only II made a
six months bicycle trip alone in Eu-
rope.
One of his experiences was brought
out by his remark that he learned to
smoke while he was working in a coal
mine in Alabama.
You worked in a coal mine, did
you?" asked the person addressed, won
deringIy.
Yes, something of that sort" and
here faint flush overspread the
youths countenance, and he gazed 81
lently into the fire. 1t was only for a
and he looked up brightly and went on.
Il served my time there-three
months he explained.
DO you mean TO say that you
worked out q, sentence?''
That's it. I amt ashamed of it for
hadn't committed any crime-at least
nothing that I call a crime-hadn't
stolen anything nor tried to kill any
body, nor that like.
@ g g
OO see II ABOUT TINS way. In
the summer of '99 I got one of my rest
less fits on me and nothing would do
but I must take a trip of some kind. I
hadn't saved any money and 1 didn't
want to bother father. But go away
from Chicago, I must. One night
was hanging around some freight cars
and got into conversation with a good
natured hobo, who told me he had Just
come from St Louis on top of q mail
car and meant to go to Pittsburg that
night on top Of another. In lust that
could ride on top of a mail car why
couldn't /, and ! would The limited
express started somewhere about mid
night, and that was the train for me-
1T was an awful hot night, with a
storm brewing. and ] watched the light
ming playing along the rails Well.
pretty soon the limited moved out of
the station and as the mail ear passed
us, my hobo and 1 made a jump for
the front platform. We hung there till
we were well into the dark and then
clambered onto the roof, lay fiat and
hung on like grim death to whatever
we could clutch, for the sWaying and
fitting Of the car kept throwing us from
one side to the other and il was not
pleasant Every time L lifted my head
TO look about me a blast of air filed
with hot cinders stung my face like
needles, and was glad to drop it again
and pull my coat collar up.
Riding on top of a car is a queer
enough sensation TO an old hand. but to
a fellow that's new to that sort of thing
it's-wen, it's something that amt
easily forgotten. 1t was rushing into d
black gulf, with the wind blowing like
mad and the engine sending up showers
of red-hot cinders just ahead. 1t came
on to rain hard. after a while and the
hobo and were soaked to the skin
We'll, that was how I started on my
travels. From Pittsburg I worked my
way south, sometimes walking. some
times stealing rides. had a few dol
lars in my pocket and I did a few
chores. But I rode into Birmingham
on top of a car and saw my finish [
was nabbed for vagrancy and had to
choose between paying a good big fine
or working out a three months SEN
penitentiary, because 1 didn't want to
write and tell father of my plight and
bother him for money. I'd got myself
into the scrape and made my mind
to get out of it the best way ] could
80 l was put to work with lot of
convicts in a coal mine near Bi~ming-
ham A tough lot they We're, tell you
Not the best company for boy of 10
1 guess. We slept in Jail and got up
every morning at 5 working until Z
by iron rods to the ceiling to keep the
cockroaches and such off. 1 suppose
and two of US usually slept in a cot
Our food consisted mostly of salt pork
great greasy hunks-how 1 Ioathed i'll
and once in a while we got a bowl of
soup and We had a weekly allowance
of tobacco. When we came in from the
mine at night we stripped off the suits
we wore which were black as SCOT and
washed in tubs of water, two men TO
a tub. In the morning we put on our
mining suits again, each received his
hunk of pork, etc, and went TO work.
Being such a big fellow. a good
deal was expected of me. But I don't
think anything tired me as much as
the long walk each morning through
passages that weren't high enough for
me to stand erect carrying my two
heavy pickaxes. That was awful
Three carloads of coal a day-a car
held about a ton-was what was ex-
pected of me; and this I had to delve
for as we'll as load.
1.-THE first day I was there; owing to
my not knowing anything about the
work and nobody telling me, I was
idle a good deal and in the evening got
a thrashing for it. It was hard on a
fellow-fOr you must remember 1 was
only a boy, though 1 was so big-to be