The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-09-06
TRAMP TALKS.

"Once in a while 1 feel a bit re-
vengeful towards my fellowman," said
the Dilapidated Gentleman, as he
lighted his old pipe and got a rest for
his feet on the lodging house. window
sill. lone of those times was when
struck a certain neighborhood in the
state of Pennsylvania and was arrest
ed by an officious country consta BILE as
suspected murderer. I was lying
u--der a roadside tree when he came
upon me with five farmers at his back.
The constable himself was armed with
double-barrelled shotgun, and his
first action was to point the gun at
me and exclaim:
Surrender, you murderer, or I'll
blow the whole top of your head OFF,
well, words are of no use In such
case. You may protest till black in
the face and they will take you along
just the same. 1 was tied hand and
foot, placed in a wagon and tied
again, and the six men drove into the
county seat town in triumph. There
was as much excitement as if Fourth
of July had come around. I had been
arrested for a double murder COM
mitted in North Carolina two years
before. The constable had saved
newspaper account until he found
man to somewhat fit it. The supposed
murderer was supposed to have red
hair, and as my hair was red and
fore had been in Jail an hour it was
reported and believed that 1 was
guilty of seven different murders
"Of course, I was asked to own up,
and of course 1 hadn't word to say
as to whether was innocent or
guilty. That was my play-to give
them all the rope they wanted. That
evening the minister of one of the
churches called on me in my cell. Had
he been like some ministers I have
met I should have given the thing
away at once, but he started in on the
assumption that l was a cold-blOode
fiend and he wanted me to make a
confession. He worked with me for
an hour. and when 1 wouldn't plead
guilty and give him the honor of ex-
torting a confession from me he with
drew in indignation. He told me in so
many words that I was the most
hardened wretch it had ever been his
experience to meet
Next morning a female appeared
in the Jail. She was an old maid who
made a hobby of saving bad men.
She hadn't come to save me. for
was bound straight to the gallows, but
she wanted me to die repentent.
saw that she firmly believed in my
guilt and that nothing, L could say
would change her mind on that score,
and so 1 determined to give her all
the blood-curdling details she could
hold. 1 owned up to having choked
way.
II confessed to having chopped
farmer to pieces with an ak.
IT admitted that I was the man VINO
slew a mother and child in Maryland
IT described in detail how entered
a farm house. one night during thun-
derstorm and murdered seven people IN
their beds.
II told of killing peddler and throw
ing his body into certain millpond
II recalled the fact that I had met
four children on their way to a coun-
try school in Indiana, and of choking
them 10 death and concealing their
bodies in the hazel bushes.
81 confessed to the robbery of ten
stores. seven postof1ces, eighteen houses
and Lord knows how many barns
snokehouses and diaries.
Il had fred 20 different buildings,
blown up a dozen highway bridges and
PLAYED highway robber at least four
nights in the week
poorhouse and arranged matters SO that
NV father had fallen into an old well
and been drowned
ssAT this and a lot more, and I had
that old maid constantly gasping for
breath At my suggestion, she wrote
~ ali DOWN One of the local papers
Maid her ten dollars for the account,
and a daily gave her $50 more. Don't
In zine II was all done at one sitting.
I'd lie as long as 1 could, and she'd
write until her fingers cramped and
then we'd adjourn to another Gay.
There were men and woman in the
town who paid so cents a head Just to
see me in my cell. Two more minis
tiers and three or four deacons came to
see me, and not one of them had
good word for me. / was characterized
by the local papers as that cold-blood-
ed wretch, that unhung villain and that
murderer. For a week the
constable and the jailer were the two
biggest men in the state. Such was the
thirst for details that the old maid,
who had three offers of marriage in
as many days. had to stand UP in q