The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1906-12-23

eliminate professions and vocations
that are understood Of the outsider, we
come at last to two that retain an air
of mystery. Phese two are opposites.
One, the theater, is held in high
esteem; featured in conversation and
print, and it's members deferred to,
with only occasionalsg bes supposedly
implied by indignant virtue-but more
often by malicious envy.
1t is Of easy knowledge that Of all
places that attract and interest in a
city, the theater and the jail are the
magnets, Turing and fascinating all.
Stageland, however, is easy Of access
+ and exploration, all that is necessary
being the procuring Of proper guide
the satyrs q think mean managers),
fairies and gnomes Of this shimmering.
mystic domain.
So rejecting the easily attained, we
descend at last to the neither world
where the vapid, vicious, degenerate
and monomaniacal form, human cess
pool, dangerous of approach with in
vestlgation in mind, for the inscription
over Dante g Inferno is written over
latent. in nearly all, or some hereditary
faint, may get strangle hold which
Will endure. So, that is why I get
putfed whenever pick up one of these
"phoney' stories.
To make it a good one, the editor
will have naive preface, or footnote
telling that, The author, during the
summer, spent his entire vacation Gin
the interests Of sociology with tramps
and yeggmen in many portions Of the
country. living with them (never beg
! OF to purchase necessaries. He has
STUDIED them in all their haunts and
the public will be favored with more
Of these novel and interesting revela-
tions' -
Then I toss the book. Take my
word for it-any student or novitiate
VINO camps among a regular tribe Of
"Johns" and ism in with every play
which comes off, the soothing" Of the
"co1mbinations,:" the licking up of the
"alki,'' and the little social sessions
OF tribal songs and "Reminiscences, will
be "necked'5 when he goes to hpur-
chase necessaries, = and when he re-.
turns you will see an exhibition Ola
man standing on his head and change
trlckling out Of his pockets, and then
after the financial preliminaries-
l think had better not go into: details.
| "Good hunting all, who obey the
jungle law; but don It commit con-
tempt Of court. ~. go. i.
NOW, Will De- honest and confess
that Of the hobo and crooked stripeF
east Of Chicago have not much knowl-
edge. From there to the Pacific coast
| am thoroly familiar, having been on
the road-intermittent since the
great panic year of 1913.
. have fallen in with groups Of from
three men to five hundred. Now, that
last numeral may seem an exaggera-
ton, but you can 60 to various places
say, Grafton, N. D., at certain times.
and find that number Of men congre.
gated, and the majority of them cook
ing their own food. * i.
Of course, the larger number of
these are straight working men, but.
If you had tent there, you could sc.
cure specimen of everything that
roams the pike. = ST.: ?. !:
To the general public every man on
the road is q hobo; to the !'sdick''-
(the marshap Of a jay town; to the
police and "fy mugs' Of city every
man on the road is crook, and they.
have all formed misconceptions. -
There is as much complexity in a
hundred men you might snare off the
road, as in the same number picked up
on city street. AS YOU know. the
west and great middle west are in
habited by more single men, than the
east, proPortionately.. Again, worlsing-
men in the west, laborers as well as
mechanics, are more Independent of
. bearing and reckless Of consequences.
than similar types in the east.
The road, for them, has little terror;
from Minneapolis to Seattle is not a
long jump; from Omaha to- Frisco
doesn It look fierce, if you have a card
from your local union and four bits in