The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-29
PRETTY GIRL TURNS HOBO
AND KEATS HERWAY BY FREIGHT
FROM ST. LOUIS TO CHICAGO.

Sarah Hansen Said TO, he the First OF Her
Sex to Make . Long Journey by Steals
! Ing q Ride-"Wely" Cried the Brake.
man VINO Discovered Her.
yt AnSeightesn-year-oid Chicago girl en-
joys the distinction Of being the first Of her
sex to make a long journey by steaIinga
ride on a freight train. 1t is not strictly
true to say that she enjoys this distinction.
When her experience was over che declared
emphatcally that a life on the rolling
freight did not appeal to her.
-No more hobo life for mel exclaimed
Miss Sarah Hansen, as she crawled cut Of a
box car.
Miss Hansen is a stenographer. Her
parents live in Chicago but che had a job
in St. Louis. Thrown out CT this by tho
firms failure, she tried in vain to iLd an
other job.
First her slender savings melted away.
Then she pawned her clothing, piece by
piece, till she had only one suit left. Her
parents we're poor, 80 that she could not
appeal TO them for help.
She did appeal to n OF the firm for
whom she had worked, asking him to lend
| her the money for a ticket back to Chicago.
The reply she received made her decide that
ANYTHING would be better than to trust to
1'y NNAo
appeals for help.
She was at the end of her resources, when
! 1t suddenly occurred to her that she had
heard Of people travelling without rail-
way tickets and that what other folks Lad
done Sarah Hansen could do too.
On the spur of that inspiration she made
for the freight yards of the Chicago and
! Alton Railroad. There she found an em-
barrassment of riches in the line of freight
trains.
They were ~scooting up and down and
switching back and forth in the most dis
concerning manner, for it was impossible
! to this new recruit to the hobo profession
to decide in which direction any one train
would ultimately decide to depart. An
small boy, appeared and told her that
No. 0 on the third track was the Chicago
freight. That was welcome information.
SLIPPING away from the small boy angel;
No. Q until she came to the open door Of
a box car half full OF tiles. She climbed
in and crawled into the corner to await
developments, 49,,
These promised TO take the unwelcome
shape Of two other hoboes, who were not
pretty girls, or even girls at all. One of
them had actually climbed into the car
and had turned to assist his brother knight
Of the road, when an approaching, brake
man caused them both to take a hurried
derarture.
Miss Hansen ode all night on her none
too soft bed Of tiles. Morning came and
hour after hour went by without her being
molested. At Joliet she crawled 10 the
door for the purpose Of spying out the land
and discovering her whereabouts
Instead Of discovering, however, she was
herself discovered, for at the door she
came face to face with the brakeman. It was
a tossup which Of them was the more dis
turbed by the encounter.
When the amazed brakeman managed
to demand the why and wherefore Of her
presence in his car Miss Hansen burst into
tears and told him all about it.
-Welll" said the brakeman; Il thought
I'd seen every kind o hobo hat ever beat a
freight train, but you're the first Indy hobo
hat ever come my way!"
,Whereupon, like a gentleman and q
philanthropist, he emptied his pockets Of
their contents, which we're 90 cents, and
handed the amount TO Miss Hansen with the
advice to complete her journey via the
trolley line. The girl took both the money
and the advice, got herself the first food she
had tasted in twenty-four hours and de-
parted forever, so she vowed, from the
ranks Of the hoboes.