Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-06-14
HOBOES' BANQUET
Feast for Migrants at Chicago
Was Arranged in Inter
eStS of Science.
NO MOVE TO REFORM GUESTS
Real Object of Welfare Association to
Learn Needs and to Add to the
Worlds knowledge.

given the other night ut the Windsor
Clifton hotel under the auspices of DR..
Benjamin l.. Reitman of the Brother
hood Welfare association, says a Chi.
cago special dispatch 10 the Philadcl-
phia Press. Ninety guests were invited
and attended, while 1900 sought inyi
tations. No attempt was made to re
form the guests by making it dry
| banquet.
The purpose of the banquet was to
| learn just what these men need, ac-
cording to DR.. Rcitman. He said: We
have no right To tell of the needs of
men whose lives we do not know. We
will let them tell their stories. They
will tell us the truth. and they will tell
many other things. Socioiogists can
! learn much from the statements of
| these fallen men"
From the lodging houses, the barrel
houses and the cutters gathered the
| guests. There We're men who have
beaten their way in almost every coun-
| try of the globe. There We're thieves,
who told i'll speeches at the dinner of
! their thievery, and eX-convicts. who
made postprandtal remarks about their
penitentiary experiences and explained
i how hObodOm is the only field open II
an ex-convict. There were men who
told how they had never worked and
didn't want to begin.
Among the most notable of the guests
We're strawberry Shorty" Scranton,
Pa. Nearby was Bum Nit Casey"
who vowed eternal hobo friendship to
slim and Fat, the Travelling Twins"
Around them at other tables through
the banquet hall drank and ate 12O
more prominent representatives of the
soldiers of misfortune - the men
whom the "wanderlust' has called to
the life of the tramp. Before pro-
ceading to sociologic discussion the
guests made surprisingly short work
of bOunteouS menu.
Toastmnster Once n Tramp.
When cigar anu cigarette smoke ne
gan to rise Toastmaster John II. Drake
in aslrcss suit. who declared he used
to he tramp himself rose too.
Order" said lie. Il want to make
an announcement from Washington
Fat Known to all Does. He was to
have been toastmaster, but he inter
viewed the police and has left for st.
Louis under Il freight car. So l'~ sub
stitute. The programme will now get
moving"
The tramps cheercd, clinking beer
glasses together in appreciation. They
cheered louder yet when Gloomy Gus"
|, was introduced to speak to the topic
I t"Fourtcen Carat Misery" With a
broad smile showing above a collar
I less red shirt Gloomy" spoke in this
! wise:
Z 81 can't get no work They told me
( TO wash windows, but l amt able 10
hang five stories above the sidewalk on
! the end of 4 rope-am l now"
Z "Of course you amt numbered the
J, chorus.
Well there you are. 'Ere's the dope
) as | see it. I'll work if l can. If l
( cant work III beg"
< Hot Tamale Kelly" demanded at
( tention from the chair. He declared
< he wished to make an important
Z speech. 1t was made brief by inter-
( ruptions. He said:
z 81 came from Pittsburg. and I've
! tramped in China and South Africa
( and everywhere else. But | come from
< IittSburG originality
D do you know Corey" yelled Fatty
Johnson.
DO you mean Mike Corey or this
steel clerk COrey?"
Steel Corey" was the answer
"Naw, l don't know him. He amt
respectable enough" declared the
Pittsburg citizen
He sat down, and Fatty Johnson
caught the toastmaster's eye. Fatty
was CARRIED in collarlesS yellow shirt
with a plaid tie around his neck. I'm
called Fatty Johnson because l weigh
ninety-seven pounds with my jewelry
on and ninety pounds with it off" he
pronounced. Il only got up TO say !