The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-01-14
AT END OF ROPE.
Cent? No Longer Cries "Old
Umbrellas to Mend"
Cold Weather Proves Too Much
for Old People.
LIVING IN A TENT.
Sh1Vering and Hungry Found
by PrOvident Association.
Team LIS Better Cared for Than
Their Masters.
LIVING IN A TENT.

Camped on a vacant tract where
grass Tor his horses grows a rowing
son OF fair Bohemia and his wife, both
past the prime of life, have come to
grief and want. Mr.. Cent? and faith
full frau wander the summer through
travelling in a wagon from town to
town, camping by the roadside or on a
vacant lot, and repairing umbrellas
for a meager sustenance. But it isn't
the gain that draws the man from
place to place-just a rowing DISPOSE
ton and love to be close to nature.
The round of her seasons and the
sight of ever changing peoples keeps
the wagon always on the move until
the cold compels the pair to get into
winter quarters.
Never in this country has the old
Bohemian lived in a house. For 81
years he has wandered over the land
living in his wagon or alternating in
tent. Always he has carried with him
the umbrella repairing outfit and his
old violin brought from the fatherland
and cherished as child by the child
less couple.
A month ago Cent? went into winter
quarters on d good grazing tract at the
intersection of Ninth and Spruce
StreetS--that is he pitched his tent
and tethered his horses The winter
promised to be mild and the city look
ed fair. TIL couple though how good
place Topeka would be to stay IN
when they should have become too old
to longer hitch their team and drive
along. Finally this feeling grew so
strong upon them that they decided to
take the little money they had saved
and buy a lot in the city as founda-
ton of their future staple home. A
lot was bought out near the asylum and
the old couple were happy in their
tent. Passersby could hear Cent? hum
ming about the horses and at night the
/, i -fOlfT n n . nm q n
them to listen by the way.
But the winter grew cold and the
umbrella business fell off until the
funds in the depleted little treasury
were insufficient to buy food and bed
ding. Jack rabbits, bought for 10 cents
apiece, became the only food these last
cold days An ingenious little barn
was made for the team from scraps OF
tin sheeting and goods boxes which the
man picked UP in the alleys and the
team is better housed than its masters
The tent, too. was more securely
pegged and the curtain weighted. Old
fodder and dirt banked around the base
kept out the under draft but a tent IS
very cold even to those used to that
little protection. The ground was the
floor and furniture there was none put
that improvised out of boxes. A one
hole camping stove, fed with trash
and sticks of wood. has made inef-
fectual efforts to warm the place.
Finally, appeal has been made to the
ProVident association, not for gifts but
for aid in getting work and If the old
man has not all the umbrellas he can
fix the next week it will be because
there are none needing repairing. some
bedding was taken them yesterday. A
cot sat in a corner, the little stove was
doing it's best. there were no chairs nor
table, but a cupboard fashioned from a
box placed near the stove seemed to
have the entire furniture role to play
No dogs nor cats nor other pets were
there, strange as it might seem, though
the treasured Cremona, If that is what
it is, had the only safe corner in the
tent to itself, wrapped carefully in an
oriental silk awaiting the day when
the master should get his fingers warm
enough to wiring from 1t strains Of
foreign melody. In the little tin barn
the horses We're found to be well cared
for
Suffering, it can be readily seen, is
not the rule with Cent? though he does
not get a great deal stored up for the
wintry day His bohemian life is not
of a Westlawn home and
the change contemplated in the spend
ing of his horde will bring him sad
and sorry winter unless the rent and
rusted umbrellas find their way to the
door of his little tent.