The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1908-04-17
The Case of Jones.
|. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.


tCopyright1
Jones at the age of twenty-eight was
mechanic and working every day at
fair wages and happy to work. A.
year later he married. A year later
still he lost his wife and babe as the
former became mother. Then he got
into trouble with his union for working
overtime, was expelled from the So
eiety, and during the next year 1t was
a bitter fight with him against odds.
The shops turned him down, bis health
became poor; there were more laborers.
than there were picks and shovels. He
was carrying in ton of coal now and
then or carrying out ton OF ashes.
when he got in the way of street car.
He wasn't killed. Indeed. he wasn't
badly hurt, but policeman took 1t as
bit of impudence on his part to In
tcrrupt traffic. and he was collared and
sent up for thirty days. In one sense
Il the imprisonment was great relief
to Jones. He got something to eat and
got 1t regularly. When night came he
got n fairly comfortable bed. In an
other sense he felt degraded. His keep
ers and most of the other prisoners
would have laughed at the idea, but IL
was nevertheless true. He had made
In good fight for It and had been down
ed through no fault Of his own, and
he had done nothing to deserve impris-
onment 1t humilated and lmbittered
| l,ts had hQQn
served he had lost his self respect and
had a feeling that the world was
against him.
From that day Jones became hobo.
He tramped without any particular
lain except wanting to get somewhere.
when he went among the farmers the
usual thing was to set the dog on him
las soon as he entered the gate or
climbed the fence. IL there was no
jdog. then the farmer came forward to
lgive the hobo the boot For every one
farmer who fed and lodged him fifteen
turned him away. The latter thought
lie necessary to call him names and
threaten him and make him feel his
lposition. The former demanded that
he pay five times the value of the food
lin work, and when he got ready TO
move along they insisted on searching
lhfm to make sure that he wasn't car
Trying off plow or the contents of the
lCranary. Now and then. at long inter-
walls, Jones met a human being. man
or woman. They talked to him as one
human being talks to another, and for
Ian hour after he would feel himself
lagain n man. Then along would come
la country constable to run him In on
suspicion of having stolen wagon
load of wheat or potatoes and abuse
him because the proofs were lacking.
For five years Jones wandered over
the face of the earth. In that time he
met more people and saw more OF hui
man nature than the ordinary man
would see in living two lifetimes. In
lparticular he saw the littleness Of his
fellow men. He discovered that for
levery broad minded man there were
thousand with pinched and contracted
leouls. He heard gossip and scandal
land lying He saw the injustice OF
man to man. He saw so little that
was good and so much to condemn
that. hobo as he was. he became dis
gusted and no longer wondered why
hogs crowded each other at the trough.
One day he picked up an old newspa-
per on the highway and sat down ana
read. among other things. that GER
tain phllanthropic old lady had found
ed and endowed home for the alling
and INDECENT. Jones had known for a
year past that he was victim of con-
sumption and that his tramplng days
were drawing to close. Sometimes
as he lay under a tree and thought or
It he reasoned that the roadside ditch
was good enough for tramp to die In.
Again. there would come longing to
have human beings about him when
the end came, to die under a roof, to
die in his bed, even to have to talk
with minister before the lamp flick
lered out.
A month later Jones was asking for
admission to the home. He was then
la human wreck, and his days were
numbered. Yes. they took him In, but
the attendant in his ward gave him
warning that II he made any trouble
he'd get the bounce. The same attend
ant asked him In the frankest manner
why he didn't die somewhere In
snowdrift instead of coming among
his betters. The doctor didn't look
him over. He said there was no need
Of that. Any one with ears on had
only TO listen to that racking cough
His excellency the doctor further re
marked thaA there was no need OF
wasting good chicken broth and port
. wine on that case and that he suppos
ed there was coffin In the basement
to At. The nurses in that ward had q
great deal OF gossiplng and very httlt
! nursing to do. AT first Jones wanted
this and that and even dared to cal
: out at night and awaken the sleeping
= nurse. but after few days, after h'
D had been talked to a few times, h
1 learned better. One day when he ask
ed for the minister he was laughed at
y They did finally bring him Testament
= but by that time his eyes were to-
( weak TO read the fine print. He realiz
Q ed that the end was near. but wa