Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-20
Incidents in the Lives of the
Weary Willies.
TYPICAL HAPPENINGS
FIGHT FOR LIFE ON FLOATING
ICE IN THE MISSOURI.
How Men Who Look for Work and
Pray They Won't Find It Travel
Over the Country.


Written for The Star
"A hobo is a man who Is always gong
about the country looking for work and
praying that he won't find 1t. A bum is
man who never looks for work and never
gets IT. A panhandler is a mean cuss who
puts up a ghost story when he is able to
work. I'm hobo, thank the Lord.
The man who prefaced his remarks In this
fashion swore that the adventures here ap-
pended are representative of those contin-
ually Detailing the average hobo. If you
don't believe me- he said, TASK any other
hobo who comes around.
TN tell you what happened to me on my
first trip as hobo" he said. THAT was In
'S7. and though I've been hoboing every
day since, and seen a good deal of the
country. east and west of the Mississippi.
what happened to me when 1 started west
IN 81 has always stuck in my craw, and is
fair sample of what happens to every
hobo of any account.
We left New York on Sunday in sum-
mer. old Kentucky with me. We
walked to Railway before we saw box
car standing on siding. with no one
around. We opened the door-and there lay
fifteen of the scaredest looking hoboes you
ever saw. They thought we were brakes,
who had found them out.
A Queer Breakfast Food.
Well we got in the car, and lay there
till morning. Then We woke UP hungry as
bears. but had nothing to eat There were
several hundred sacks In the car filled with
something soft. Just as old Kentucky
was thinking of>leaving the car to look for
'punk'-thats bread-I punched a hole In a
sack. and out ran some stuff that looked
like finely ground yellow meal. / told nv
pal. he looked at the stuff and said we'd
have breakfast just as soon some hobo
would get out of the car and start a fire
and hunt up tin can.
An old dishpan was found alongside the
track. and old Kentucky poured about
nal1 sackful of the yellow stuff into it.
Then he added some water from the run
ming trough between the tracks and put
the stun over the fire to cook 1t cooked
ana cooked until got sc hungry / Owed
IN with the end of stick on the sly and
Grew out as much of the stuff as would
Stuck and took a big mouthful. Lord 1t
was sawdust!
But l swallowed # Then sat do,,, 10
watch the fun begin, which 1t did in a few
minutes after my pal yelled First call for
pre- breakiast IN the dining car Every hobo
put me made a grand dive for the stuff
ana let on l was, too Then we all began
eating, and splitting and choking and gag
ging. and first thing 1 knew, they were all
pitching Into old Kentucky who had bic
lace all smeared with the breakfast 10
couldn't eat. That smear was what saved
MIN Inc other hoboes saw he was SQUARE
CO. 49, ne. up on MINI and later on. when some
% them went out and found some 'punk
'neS oi'lued with him all right.
Prison Doors Yawn.
We laid in that car for another da,
ana night before an engine hitched on
and pulled US toward Ph,,Iv w.
got to the edge of the town we drorr.lz
on at hobo camp in West PhiIadeInbia
ana pretty soon, some of us going ono
way and some another we got together
.olee: meat and punk and were Just sit
ing ing uoWn TO enjoy our first good meal
heard somebody yell, and turning round
we looked into the barrels of six guns
!! happened this way: Johnson a rail-
road cop, had been killed a few weeks h.
rore near the camp, and the railroad NO
PIE were arresting all hoboes found near
mere. 30 we were taken to the police
station Sa al Ssth street and Lancaster ave-
nue., ana the next thing l knew l was
starting on my first term in jail-six
months In Holmesburg-fo doing moth
ing.
When you are put In Holmesburp tho
nrst thing they do is to weigh you. A
man put me on the scales and called out:
See here, l said, I weigh
Shut yer trap! he said And did
WORKED hard for about two weeks
fretting all the time. when a hobo who
wise. F mo
Sit down and write letter to the
charities people he said. and tell them
the truth, and say you'd like to get ont
Say you're a man looking for work and
not like a lot of the hoboes here who are
always trying to break in and never want
10 lea'e' because the eatings good
Didn't Like the Jail.
1 did what he said, for I'd never been
in Jail before and didn't like 1t, and don't
now. L got no answer, but at the end of
hve weeks the keeper told me I could go.
But hrst he took me into the room where
the scales are kept and made me step on.
a att la no.
One-seventy-fourr he yelled
Look here l said weigh
SMUT yer trap! he said, or back yer
go for another five weeks. Don't you
th1nk we've got to show the oft-hearted
taxpayers OF Philadelphia how well we
treat you hoboes while you are here. and
how you thrive on it?'
We round since that It's a common
practice In all tails to doctor a mans
weight in favor of the jails both when
he's coming in and going out
My pal worked the same game. We
got out at the same time and hearing
that there was plenty of work a Parkers
burg we struck out for there. 1t took rs
two days 10 get there, for the brakes
were on the lookout and threw every
hobo they spotted off the cars We were
made to hit the grit three times Twice
we were thrown from moving box cars
and once a brake found us on top of a
car and made us let go the ladder bv fol-
lowing US down and trampling on our
fingers. Then we threw ballast at him
ana took him In the ear and almost
knocked him from the car That's the
way many brakes lose their balance and
one reason why they are found Injured
alongside the tracks so often.
An Adventure in Tunnel
We stayed in Parkersburg doing odd
jobs around the steel mills till along into
the winter. Then We hit west again
When We struck the Galiitzin tunnel. on
the other side of the Horseshoe Bend we
were riding on the bumper of the first
car back of the engine-my pal another
hobo and myself. We were almost frozen
when we got TO the tunnel but we had
rot got inside a hundred yards when we
began to warm up comfortably all over
Lord! / said TO myself, wish this tunnel
went all the way to Frisco! 1t was great;
and by the time we began to see daylight
at the other end we were almost in
sweat. But we had not been long in the
open where we could see before we found
out why we'd been SO hot in the tunnel
the exhaust pipe of the engine had
thrown steam all over us. and being In
the dark We had not known it. So before
wed gone four miles our clothes froze TO