The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-05-18
A PRETTY GIRL HOBO.
Beats Her Way on a Freight Train
From st. Louis to Chicago.

An eighteen year old Chicago girl
enjoys the distinction Of being the
first of her sex to make long jour
ney by stealing a ride on freight
train. 1t is not strictly true to say
that she enjoys this distinction. When
her experience was over she declared
emphatically that life on the roll
ing freight did not appeal to her.
"No more hobo life for me!' ex-
claimed Miss Sarah Hansen, as she
crawled out of box car.
Miss Hansen is stenographer. Her
parents live in Chicago, but she had
job in st. Louis. Thrown out Of this
by the firm $ failure, she tried in vain
to find another job.
First her slender savings melted
away. Then she pawned her clothing,
piece by piece, till she had only one
suit left. Her parents were poor, so
that she could not appeal to them for
help.
She did appeal to one Of the firm
for whom she had worked, asking him
to lend her the money for ticket
back to Chicago. The reply she re-
ceived made her decide that anything
would be better than to trust to ap-
peals for help.
She was at the end of her resources,
when it suddenly occurred to her that
she had heard of people travelling
without railroad tickets and that what
other folks had done Sarah Hansen
could do too.
On the spur of that inspiration she
made for me freight yards of the Chi
cago and Alton railroad. There she
found an embarrassment of riches in
the line of freight trains.
They were scooting up and down
and switching back and forth in the
most disconcerting Manner for it was
impossible to this new recruit to the
hobo profession to decide in which
direction any one train would ulti-
mately decide to depart. But an an
gel in the very unusual disguise of
small boy appeared and told her that
No. 6 on the third track was The Chi
cago freight. That was welcome in
formation.
Slipping away from the small boy
angel, Miss Hansen stole along in the
shadow of No. until she came to the
open door of box car half full Of
tiles. She climbed in and crawled into
the corner to await developments.
These promised to take the unwcl-
come shape of two other hobos, who
we're not pretty girls, or even girls at
all. One of them had actually climbed
into the ear and had turned to assist
his brother knight of the road, when
an approaching brakeman caused
them both to take a hurried depart
ure.
Miss Hansen rode all night on her
none too soft bed of tiles. Morning
came and hour after hour went by
without her being molested. But at
Joliet she crawled to 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. 1t was toss-up which of
them was the more disturbed by the
encounter
When the amazed brakeman man
aged to demand the why and where
fore of her presence in his car Miss
Hansen burst into tears and told him
all about it.
"Wcll!' said the brakeman: "I
thought I'd seen every kind o. hobo
that ever beat freight train, but
you re the first lady hobo that ever
came my way!"
Whereupon, like gentleman and a
philanthropist, lie emptied his pockets
Of their contents, which were 60 cents,
and 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 twen-
ty-four hours and departed forever
so she vowed, from the ranks Of the
hobos.