The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-14
TRAMPS TRAVEL IN STYLE.
Make Use of Quartermaster's House
 hold Effects In Box Car.
From the Atlanta Journal.

From the Atlanta Journal.
 One week ago Col. s. R. Jones, chief quartermaster of the department of the gulf, ordered his household goods to be shipped here from Vancouver barracks, which is in Washington state, toward the northwest end of the continent. After the car had been packed, but before 1t had been locked, three tramps, who felt the nip of the north, peeped in throuNh the crack of the door, then crawled in eau tiously When the car began its long trip southward they were ensconced snugly inside.
 The first day on the road they unpacked Colonel Jones' white iron bed and set it up in one corner, then they equipped 1t with warm blankets and a fringed coun- terpane. and drove a nail into one side of the car and hung up copy after Titan. Next they hit upon a bundle of Cuban cigars and unpacked box containing the cream of Colonel Jones' library. One seemed to take liking to a rare copy of "Omar Khayyam," another selected Bur tons Anatomy of Melancholy" and the third turned his attention to Bernard Shaw.
 Through the day they regaled them selves on pure literature, but toward even ing when the train stopped at a town in the northwest. one slipped from the car with few of the thickest and more elab- orately bound of the books under his arm, and returned with a round bottle, rye bread and bologna sausage.
 Then 1t was that they discovered a col lection of claret and champagne glasses Colonel Jones had stored away. While the train flew southward they ate and drank, and as each glass was emptied carefully smashed it.
 The tramp who had selected the copy of "omar Khayyam'' marked this quota ton:
 Drink for you know not whence you
 came nor why;
 Drink for you know not why you go nor
 where"
 Then they appropriated the only two nighties the car boasted, and, since there was not third, dress shirt was donned as substitute, and the three snuggled into the white iron bed. They awoke with sharp appetites and found that the train had stopped again. More books were sold, more food was got and the joyous life of the day before was continued. One by one the claret and champagne glasses were smashed, and steadily the books dwindled away. For at each stop more books were sold, and at each draught a glass was smashed. The philosophy of this seemed to be that use of the same glass twice took the flavor off the liquor The second night there appears to have been some dissension over one of the nighties. for it was torn from neck to hem; then another dress shirt was pressed into service.
 The train veered southward toward New Orleans, and the care-free life of the three men in the box car continued. They sold more books, bought more to eat and drink and lived like true epicures. One must have had touch of the aesthetic, for he unpacked all the pictures and carefully hung each, then tore off the wrappings of chairs and arranged them about the car The final effect was that of a drawing room or salon.
 At New Orleans the last of the books with the exception of the copy of "Omar Khayyam" and Bernard Shaw and Bur tons Anatomy of Melancholia,' were sold, and the remaining glasses were smashed. Then the three tramps slipped quietly out and disappeared. It was at some station between here and New Or leans that they alighted.
 The car arrived in Atlanta and was switched to Ft. McPherson, and there Colonel Jones found 1t as it had been left by its occupants across the continent The three books lay on the floor; in little pile were the smashed claret and champagne glasses and on the bed were the two nighties and the two dress shirts. About the walls hung the pictures