Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-26

R THE KING OF TRAMPS.
| a while in the harvest fields. Then. with
| a little bunch of money. | rode the blind
| back to st. Paul. determined to so to the
| Pacific coast. II was getting rather cold
! in the north. and | was averse to riding
| GU side in such weather. l investigated
| the opportunities for riding il: sheltered
| position, and finally discovered that the big
! buffet car on the fyer.Cn which | proposed
| to ride had a huge coal box under it for
| carrying fuel for cooking purposes. l got
| into the oo2l toX of the, diner at st. Paul,
| MINI, one Thursday night about o'clock
| and rode all the way to Spokane Wash,
| arriving there Sunday evening. | had with
me considerable bread and q bottle of
water. ard DID not IN the least suffer on
account of the cold.
Played Prank On the Porter.
| Several times during the 14I5-mile trip
| the porter of tie car came down and
! shoveled coal cut from under ne, but on
| account of the darkness in the box he
! failed to see me When we stopped in
| Spokane the colored porter again opened
the box to get out some coal. He took out
shovelful and began talking with some
other colored men about the car l thought
L would have a little fun with the porter
so when he put in his shovel the second
time l let my foot slide down on it, The
fellow stopped suddenly, took hold of my
foot and pulled gently, and then gave a
Whoop that would have raised the dead as
he started away from the car. His COM
panions then came to the coal box to pull
out the supposed dead man. | let them
pull me out, and after they had laid me on
the ground l quietly got up, shook the dust
on myself and walked out of the train
yard. while the colored men stood about
speechless.
Il worked as swamper in a logging
nd la IA
trips up and down the coast on some of the
hnest flyers in that section. | then de-
cioed to take trip by water. SO l signed
as fireman on Il steamer and went TO \ ol,o
mama Japan. 1 went all over the country
visiting the various ports in China and
Japan. finally working my way back to the
United states on steamer. After a little
recreation in beating my way on the steam
cars on the Pacific coast / went to the
fhihpplnes on a transport. working nv
way. l was gone almost a year on that
"Trip and when l returned to San Francisco
L worked as a porter in one of the biggest
department stores there for several weeks
but the spirit of wandering was upon me
and l had to hike out again.
Slmms then related incidents of his trav-
els In TINS country. He claims to he the
only man who has ever beat his way over
the the Pixies Peak railroad. He tells of this
little trip is follows:
Riding Trucks Up Pixies Peak.
L happened to be out in Colorado in
jury lool, when the Christian Endeavor-
ers were going through to San Francisco
mace little trip to Manitou. and then
concluded to steal a ride on the Pixies
feak cog road. They Were running lots of
extra trains on the line then, and got n,
one loaded with Christian Endeavorers.
OUT L didn't mind that. | secured a shin
gle and crawled in under the rear trucks
mad to rest against the back axle and
Mh9h we started up grade my feet were
Ilshef IMAM my head. put the shingIc
uhGer my arm and against the revolving
axle. The train hadn't gone far when the
sh1ngle broke, and ] Rad to rest nv arm on
the turning axle / tucked the tail of my
coat up under my arm, and had an excit-
ing time of it for the rest of the trip.
When | got out from under the car a. the
top OF the mountain my coat was almost
worn away by the friction worked at n
hotel on the summit for my supper and
breakfast, and then walked down the
mountain. I am the only person who has
ever stolen ride on the Pixies Peak road"
Simms then told of going from the west
to the Buffalo exposition where the at
fractions on the day of his arrival
according to his diary. were "a mar
rage OF couple in cage of lions
the human bomb and Chauncey NJ De-
pew After visit al the fair the Young
traveller went to Australia, where he SAYS
ne worked for while as chambcrmaid in
a livery stable in Adelaide The only
time he ever paid car fare, said Simms
was in going on excursion across n
sandy desert in Australia. The rates were
so cheap for the excursion he said, that
he didn't care to beat his way, and then he
had more agreeable company by riding in
side the car.
Wanted to See the Coronation.
While in Australia Simms conceived the
idea of viewing the coronation of King Ed
ward. In fact the young traveller seems
to have n strong curiosity in being pres
ent at all great national events. He Sc
cured passage as a coal passer on a steam
er bound for Bremerhaven. Germany, and
left Australia. He visited Naples, Vienna
Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfort-on-the-
Main, Brussels and many other European
cities, beating his way to the different
cities on the railroads. He says the rail-
roads in America are easy but in Europe
they are easier still.
In Germany" said this young man who
uses the railroads at WILL II paid small
fares twice, until | caught on to the sys-
TEN there. In order to get through the
station gates to the trains l would buy a
ticket costing about 10 cents. and then /
could ride clear to the end of the division
without any trouble On one occasion an
official in charge of the train caught me-
He could understand English pretty WELL
and got away by recitng to him little
verse of my own composition:
''IIurrah for der Kaiser,
Three cheers for me;
He owns the railroads,
i ride on EN- free.
After / had enjoyed myself pretty thor
ouehly riding about on the railroads of
France and Germany and other countries,
| concluded that l would try my hand at
stealing q ride on a steamer, so l slowed
away on a boat bound from Calais ito
LcrGon. / got there III time to learn or
postponement of the coronation cere
monies, so l decided to sample the free
rioes in England, Scotland and Ireland.
The fastest ride l ever made was on The
Flying Scotchman' on the London and
Northwestern railway. i rode underneath
the train, and We made 40 miles in eight
hours, with three stops on the trip. l
went to Glasgow on Il little trip. Say,