The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-12-20
.'.,. BEAT IT" q: Fl e.; e. ::

road. That it would be possible to stroll
into a hosiery anywhere in the outskirts
of an eastern city and ask and be told
accurately by almost anyone you might
accost the best and safest way 10 eaten
a freight for san Francisco | very much
doubt But ii was certainly true that aft
ernoon in the inn beyond the college town
that everyone had suggestion and
friendly advice born OF experience as TO
my route eastward
The west is land of ups and downs to
an extent which the east does not realize,
and a surprisingly large number of west
erners have at one time or another been
Shy the care fare 10 travel from one
city to another in that land OF great dis
tances-
The last of my advisers summoned from
his wagon as he was driving up the road
was Pedler Pete. He was the man to give
an experts decision on the various routes
suggested, was assured. The Pedler was
a great, crooked-jointed, crooked-nosed,
big-footed and big-hearted wanderer on
the face of the earth, who had become IN
volved IN matrimony and had built him a
temporary nest nearby, but whose wings
were not yet clipped. and who would
come at the rurnor of comrade or the
road in need.
He told me stories of the great highway
] ~ he talked. there came into his eye the
/ light of the wanderer as he scans the
road into the unknown Certainly matp-
nlOny and peddling left a gap IN fete
| soul quite untitled. ] am sure II would
have taken but little urging to have had
him for a comrade on my trip
"Podner," he said, after directing me
/ TO the place beyond Richmond station
where the freights slow down, you bet
| ter not start on that trip broke. Now
I with a sweep OF a bony hand-"thar's my
wagon. and over thar on that lot is
/ load of hay and hyar is a dollar. You
put that hay in that wagon and you get
| this dollar"
| / put the hay in the wagon. and I got
| the dollar. Pete drove OFF.
| 1 said to the man at the inn: NOW,
| I'm hungry, and / think I'll eat
al wouldn't stay around here II I was
you" he said.
WHY not?" I asked. astouished.
We'll" he drawled, that wasn't Pete 5
That night 1 slept in my first jungles,
there by the tracks at Richmond. "A
/ iungles,' and please note the singular
article and the plural noun. may be few
/ trodden weeds by a water tank, or sew
] eral deliberately equipped abandoned box
| cars. or an empty barn by the track, or,
| again, simply some old ties arranged, as a
Windbreak-
There are always some kind of ''jun-
| giles near all points where the freishts
stop You can locate IT, or them, by the
! charred embers OF a fire and smoke
blackened tin cans.
| The jungles at Richmond are near q
| city. under possible police supervision,
| and are accordingly simple. They con-
]
make series of rooms, each a trifle
larger than a dog kennel.
In the compartment into which STUN
bled in the dark there were already two
| occupants. They showed no alarm and
only casual interest in me. which in
| terest was directed tobacco-ward.
| Got tn makin's, boz one of then
asked. produced. We lighted our cigar.
cites and puffed away in the dark.
(Which wayT'
| East" said l.
Huh" he replied Muffin doin' Tit
casts dead TIL coast fer mine
| This was our entire conversation. W.
| dropped off 10 sleep. II was cold toward
morning. and / slept well into the sun
Hight When looked about me, my com
panions had gone.
| 1t seems that ! was amateur enough Il
select for my first stage local freight
Locals a graduate DO avoids. because thel
don't get him anywhere, and. contrary u
general report. a DO is always making To-
some particular point. He avoids the 10
Gals also for the further good reason tina
he is apt 10 be captured by the train crew
and made to help them unload freight
l crawled into presumably empty DO,
| car 1t had already two occupants, and
| at the first stop the crew. who appar
emily knew perfectly well where we wer,
concealed, routed us out and put US Il
work unloading a mass of corrugated-froi
my companions, a professional. slid on
the opposite door and disappeared as int
thin air. The other and / went forwarc
and did the unloading.
He Came From Akron, O.
This established a kind OF mutual con
fidence between us, and he told me hi
! story. Narrow-chested, well-dressed, car
rying small leather satchel swung abou
his neck, he didn't appear 10 be typica
tramp, and I was interested. Later / wa
let into the fact that there is no typica
, tramp; the reasons which bring these mel
to the road are multiple, and lead Vi
| into all the cailings and conditions of life
He was from Akron, o.. and had worlxe,
for years, as a fireman for one OF tn
great rubber companies in that city; h
had saved little money, and finally hai
, come to the conclusion that he would us
it to better himself He acquired a larg
quantity of railroad literature desc-'h'-'
the different possibilities of the v
vested his savings in a one-way g
ana finally reached the coast.
, l couldn't gather exactly what he ex
pected to find. Gold, perhaps, lying abou
the streets. Work. certainly, and at won
derful wages ready to hand
He had no weapon OF skill or courag
wrought in his narrow life in the littl
Ohio city with which to conquer the wes
The panic came. He couldn't get q Jot
and he did get homesick. Finally he con
Guided to beat his way back
Hard to Quit the Road.
When met him he had come few doz
en- of the many hundred miles on his way
and was already weeping over them Ger
tainly, his was a spirit neither for tn
west nor for the road. I hope he is BAG
in Akron, o.. but I very much doubt i
| lost him at Benicis-
There 1 picked up Sam" my first pro
. fessional bo-mate. l told him of my Httl
, Ohio fireman. He will be good and gla
to get home and stay there" l said
: Sam was DO of years and discretion
II dunno he said; lit only takes q ma
, about three days to be DO. By tn
time he gets to the Mississippi river, AL
r ron, O., and the little back parlor wit
> the stuffed birds in II will begin to seeI
| right tame"
He told me tales of friends Of his VIII
had tried to quit the road and had faile'
= Then he told me something of his ow
r story. He had been q soldier In the Fifty
r first Iowa. in the Philippines. Up to tn;
time he had led q settled existence
The war put vagrancy into his blood. II
I took his discharge at San Franclsc
: where he met a friend who scoffed at Il
l idea of putting up real money for raj
: road fare. and under his tutelage Sam h
| the pike for his home. somewhere in low
q l-Muscatine, I think.
I In the nine years which have passe
D | since he left the army, he has been ever,
D | where, except to that little Iowa town.
! II dunno" he said 81 just got goin
D | And IL may have become so with nj