Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-20

to Omaha, to look for work. At that time
1t took twenty-five cents TO get across the
railroad bridge. and there was no other
bridge, and the railroad bridge had no
footpath. You couldn't steal q ride across
the lookout was too sharp. So we decid-
ed to go begging for money and meet in
the union depot in Omaha later.
II never was good at asking man TOT
money. This time. whenever thought
had myself screwed up to ask for quar-
ter. I'd ask for something to eat, and soon
l had all my pockets full OF punk and
such truck, and was leaving good victuals
on the fences. At last / got enough nerve
to ask a man for a quarter.
What you want 1t forr he asked.
II told him.
'Walking's good he said.
Then for the first time recalled that
the Missouri was frozen. I hustled down
to the bank and started to walk over just
above where the men at work on the new
bridge were tossing red hot bolts to one an
other. Maybe I'd got half way across,
when from somewhere-maybe 1t was over
head, maybe underneath. for all my senses
could tell then-there was a great groan-
Ing. and the ice all about me heaved up
and then sank, and / found myself stand
ing on the edge of a big cake which was
making down the river along with other
big cakes-some as big as the side OF .
two-story frame house.
1HeIe WuS LOtHlIS 10 90 Dut 10 go VII
going back would have been just as risky:
l jumped from cake to cake. Sometimes !
thought I'd never land, the assures looked
SO big: But 1 kept on jumping all the
the time getting nearer to the Omaha
shore
THE last jump I took was opposite big
smelter. where all the men were lined up
watching me. That was bad tump-plum
into the Missouri I went, and II 1t hadn't
been shallow there and the workmen
hadn't come out after me In a boat I
guess I'd have drowned. They hauled me
out took me in and dried me, and then
took up collection, and that's how I met
my pal at the union station with one sew
enty In my clothes, while he was broke,
having raised only the quarter necessary
to get him across the bridge.
Attempts to Get Work.
1--WE heard that new packing house was
to start up in South Omaha, so we went
to the office Of the man who was to be
manager and asked him for Job. He said
there was nothing doing for while, but
to hang around and wait. hobo always
likes to wait, SO we waited. and pretty soon
found a shack in the big hollow all fitted
out with blankets and a stove which two
homesck Swedes from the northwest coun-
try had deserted. We took possession, and
then went out looking for food. First thing
we came across was a fine ham, Just cooked
and skinned and put out on the kitchen
window sill to cool. My pal was for taking
H. But l put up this game: He made as
II to grab the ham. yelled thief. snatch
ed the ham out Of his hand chased him
a piece up the alley, and then went back
to the kitchen window and handed the ham
to the lady of the house, who had come to
the Kitchen after hearing me yell thief 1t
turned out just as l thought It would. She
questioned me. l told her how we were
waiting for the new packing house to open
up: and she said to come around whenever
fol- h,,p 49,
give me something to eat. For nearly two
weeks we lived off that woman; then got
ashamed to go back and carry off another
meal to my pal
until spring. Then we heard of a new line
being built by the Rock Island in southwest
Missouri. We hit for there. and one night
found the camp In a deep rock cut We
asked for work The boss said we could
have all the work we wanted next day
He showed us the mess tent, and we had
good meal-food was cheap in that coun-
Try, eggs cents dozen But that night,
my pal, not liking the looks of the place.
decided to cut out. He started away as
natural as you please, when suddenly he
brought up against sentinel who hit him
a crack over the head with club and told
him to get back to camp. You see, lot OF
hoboes had been asking for work at night
ana getting filled up on food. and then
ducking before day came around, and the
contractor had lost lot of money.
That knock on the head cured nv pal
but after loafing around week waiting for
the rain to let up so work could begin
again. got enough of the camp, especially
as was shaking with ague and fever from
drinking the water. So at dead Of night /
worked my way to side of the cut-the
ends were guarded by sentinels--and spent
half an hour, anyway, climbing up the side
don't know yet how managed to cling to
the wall-it was almost sheer-bur anyway,
the next morning l was headed alone for
the northwest, where I was told there would
be plenty of work with the harvesting sea-
son coming
In the Hoboe's Heaven.
"At Fargo fell in with a German student
hobo from the University of Heidelberg. !
was still shaking with the ague He found
out what was the matter. begged some
powder from drug store, made me take 1t.
and In q few days 1 was well. Then he took
me round to brewery, where he stood In
with the foreman, and we swilled all the
beer we could drink for week At the
end Of that time we'd drunk too much of
the boss beer, 1 guess, for one day a DO
Hceman came around and gave us tust
twenty minutes-when the next freight
would leave for up the Red River valley
to get out of town.
I'VE went on that train right before the
brakes eyes They never throw you of or
hold you up when you are going to the har-
vest fields. They know you haven't a cent
VI any tNlHS else ABOUT you worth taking.
But when you're on the way back it's diff
ferent. Then it's dollar and two dollars
a head to the end of the division, and more
divvy with the brakes Of the next division,
and so on until the end Of the trip or your
money gives out, when you're thrown Off
unless you're strong enough to hold up the
crew. But there's a way of getting ahead
of the brakes, and I'll tell that In the
proper place.
1t was haying time when we went into
hobo camp near Cummings. Once a day
or so farmer would come to the camp,
lcok over the thirty of u.s. and say, Wall.
boys, It's hayfng time, and I'd like two or
three of you to come along and help me-
After a whole lot of palavering as to
whose turn IL was to work, two or three
would go with the farmer, and then the
rest of US would rob hen roosts and gather
up forage all about. But the farmers never
said a word. They knew what we were
doing, but they knew, too, that all of us
would be reeded to harvest the wheat in
few weeks, so they didn't bother us. And
we didn't give them any cause to worry
about their barns being burned down.
Whenever hoboes hit the harvesting coun-
try they appoint leaders who make the men
turn their pockets inside out at night and
won't let the intake pipes and matches into
the barns.
~ - MI