The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1910-08-24
SPORTS IN MUCH HARD LUCK
MANY LOST THEIR MONEY ON
THE BIG FIGHT AT RENO.
Are Beating Their Way Home Across
the Continent. Working For
Farmers For Square Meal.

1 FARMERS FOR Square Meal.
, OMAHA, Neb.-Because Jim JET
fries failed to lick Jack Johnson Ne
braska FARMERS are getting their
crops harvested for little of nothing,
and the Union Pacific railroad is car
rying more ''deadheads" and 4bums"
eastward than at any time since one
of General Coxey's armies captured
half a dozen freight trains and ran
them through from the Rocky noun
tains to the Missouri river without
paying a cent of revenue TO the rail-
road company for the 1,S0O-mile
haul.
This summer there is not heard the
usual cry from Nebraska farmers
that unless help is secured their crops
will be lost Instead of Offering IS
day, pie with each meal and all the
comforts and luXuries of a summer
hotel the farmers who live along the
line of the transcOntinental railroads
are taking their pick and choice of
big, husky fellows who are willing
to work a few days for three
squares, with nothing on the side.
Every cattle train from the west is
filled with punchers who never be-
fore used a pole, and from every
box car when it reaches the Omaha
freight yards half a dozen travellers
are routed. Every brake beam has
an occupant and the rods beneath
the cars are carrying their full quota
of near-sports. Side door Pull
mans" are crowded, and brakemen
are making more money than con-
ductOrs are thought usually to make. |
Glad to Work For Square Meal.
According to yard officials in Oma-
ha, some trains bring in as many as !
100 passengers" who never paid a |
cent of railroad fare. Most of them |
are hungry, and all are dirty, with |
the accumulated dust and cinders of |
1900 miles of railway travel costly |
and unsafely sconced beneath a |
freight car or in some other unusual
place where conductors are not in |
the habit of looking for passengers.
AS these trains pass through Nebras-
ka hundreds and even thousands of
Wayfarers have dropped off the cars /
and applied to farmers for a days |
work in order that they might once
more know what it is to eat. So |
numerous have these short-time
workers proved that there is no long
er the demand for college boys, stu
dents and others who usually devote |
their summers to harvesting in. or
der that they may save enough to |
carry them through the coming win
ter.
These "box car tourists" are of
two kinds: one the regular tramp. /
across the country at his
own sweet will; the other, those who,
not accustomed to cumming, but
having been left stranded high and
dry when Jeffries went down before
Jack Johnson, found it necessary to
travel back east and took the only
way open to them. "|T
Vast Army OF HobOes.
For weeks before the big fight
every westbound freight carried a
number of the first kind, but those
of the second went out on regular
passenger trains. Those in the Sec
ond class simply bet on the wrong
man; the others went out, and are
now coming back in their aimless
wanderings. It is mostly the second
class who are working their passage
across the state, putting in few
days here and there in the harvest
fields. The others won't work at all.
Union Pacific railroad officials
state that that line carried at least
$4,000 tramps from the Missouri
river to Ogden in the month previous
to the big fight. Not a single one of
these paid any railroad fare, of
course, but all 'bummed' their way.
Many went on to San Francisco,
while others dropped off at Reno,
Scattered between Omaha and Re-
no. railroad men say, there is a line
of tramps 1900 miles long awaiting
an opportunity of a train which will
bring them to the Missouri. And
waiting out in Nebraska there are
many thousands of farmers who are
thanking their lucky stars that the
prize fight drew so many sports and
that these same sports are compelled
to beat their way back home.