The daily Alaskan., 1908-07-02

rested for assault and battery, and he settled the case by handing me $35.
 If am arraigned nm given Law yer. It's dead easy for him to show exactly where l was at the date, or, rather, where l wasn't On one occa- sion I was at work in the hayfeld six ty miles from the spot. On another ! was chopping wood for farmer sev' enty miles distant. am set at liberty, buc grudgingly. The public had It's mind made up that was guilty and should be hanged, and it's disap- pointment to all.
 Let me tell you that the dllapldated gentleman reasoned things out long ago. He is no more q criminal by in- stinCt than any other man. He doesn't want to lose his life or his liberty. He Is not greedy for gain. Not one tramp in ten would quit the road If he got q legacy of 5000. Give him sufficient for today and the morrow may go hang. He may hit back lf you hit him, but he has no cause to want to murder any one. He may steal to as. suage hunger. but not for profit. Now and then you hear of some tramp rob. ping farmhouse. He Is either drunk or a fool. No pawnbroker will take anything from him, because he is a tramp. No person will buy any of his plunder for fear of being compromised. The tramp with sense In his head knows thls, and If a dozen farmhouses were open to him there would be no temptation.
 Suppose that tramp stole $25 in cash from a house. If he struck Q town and went to buy suit of clothes he'd be suspected. If he went to ho- tel and wanted to become a guest he'd be suspected If he even bought new hat or new pair of shoes 1t might be made the grounds for his arrest. How would 1t profit him, then, to take the money?
 q have worked for q farmer for six weeks on stretch and taken the road with $50 in my pocket. I have been arrested day later and had to send for him to prove that wasn't thief. If I had a ten dollar bill in my pocket I might walk 200 miles and not find anybody to change 1t for me. I once found a twenty dollar bill on the streets of town. I carried that bill with me for four months and then at last gave a tin pcddler $2 premium to change it. He felt sure that had stolen it, but decided to take chances.
 Tramp Is Suspected.
 "You see that q horse has been stol- en and tramp is suspected. Bosh! Where would he go with 1t? Whom could he sell 1t to? You see that a country store has been robbed. It was tramps that did 1t. Bosh! What could they do with their plunder? A post office is entered and the safe blown open. Trumps some more. Bosh! When you find q tramp that can blow a safe you may look for cows with wings. The door of that postOfticc might be left wide open every night in the year and he would pass on.
 "Thrce years ago in Connecticut a farmers barn was robbed of fifty bushels of oats one night. His own bags were used to sack them up. The team used to draw them away was fol. lowed for six miles. was within ten miles of the site of the robbery that night, and next day I was arrested as the robber. l was held In jail for q week before being examined to allow of the sheriff working up the case, but when things finally came to head you ought to have heard the justice score him. He was q man of sense he was, and he made the sheriff out q born fool within ten minutes. If stole the oats [ must have stolen a team to draw them away. Who had lost team? It would have taken two men to sack and load the oats Where was the other man?
 "Oh, yes, there are events in the life of every dllapldated gentleman on the road, and the moral lesson to be drawn from most of them is in his favor. He does less lying than any salesman, less stealing than confidential clerks, and, as for immortality, your millionaire is convicted of 1t oftener than your tramp" NJ. QUAD.