The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-06-11
DIARY OF A HOBO
Being the First Instament Describing Trip From Bming ham to Gadsden By Way of Anniston and Including
 Some Stops By the Wayside
BY 4. D. BEALLE

fNote.-In April, 1s07 the writer, ac- companied by Tom L. Striblng of Flor ence, Ala, set out from Birmingham for a tramp without any definite destination in view. The account which follows Is diary made from day to day. hurriedly penciled and passed on to you as found last week among some old papers in my desk. Written as 1t was in catch-as-can fashion, I have no excuses to make for it's shortcomings. Only, it was done zest- fully and came hot from the heart Look to those chaps, Jack London and Rex Beach, for your polished hobo liter ature. If I give you at first hand some of the real thrills to be had under the open sky and in empty freight car travel, I will have done all that I meant to-
 April Is, 1907-Nothng much is to be said of our first day on the road-nothing much, perhaps, that would make those back 'in the cities we abandoned and left come journeying after. But if one came in our tracks curious to see, the way would have led from Gate City by the open road, eastward (our leave-tak- ing was at 2:15 D. m) to Trussville, thence southeast to Roper Near Roper S+- and l got pretty footsore about the supper hour, when To! there uprose through the woodside palace of logs. I say palace. for presently we feasted
 
 I am a half believer in genii and trolls and woodsy people that look after hungry chaps. We got cold peas with a gener ous hunk of bacon centering 'em (and here let me say that this crusade against Packingtown has been carried too farD corn bread a-plenty, good crips fried ba- con God bless the packersD, biscuits big as two fists, buttermlk as produced by the church. black coffee. The farmers h at ba sta n half enough, but the hungry, tired bodies of us were glad and filled in words where the thanks of him failed. Some fine glirnpses of trees and sky on the long path this afternoon, and under heath a perfect road. We start early in the morning for Tayorsburg, and the day promises to be great. A few threatening clouds just before sunset toward the east, but dispersed pretty soon,
 April 16-The promises for fair weather weren't fulfilled, and we stopped to avoid rain at a cow-house two miles beyond the starting place. I say cow-house advised 1y, for we drove two cows out of the place we are now using as habitat One of these days I shall write An Apos- trophe to a Cow-House,' or an exhaus- tive treatise on the utility of cow-houses as shelter for pedestrians. There is much to be said of cow-houses pro and contra. Having no flooring, we soon had good fire roaring S. read me some llnes from the "Open Road"-Whitman, the great companion to the earth and sky! And to reconcile our attitude at the mo- ment, I have repaid him with Lines to a Compost" Don't leave Walt behind when you go adventuring (Afternoon). Miserable weather, but in tolerable Spir- it's. Had some jolly experiences all the way after quitting the COW environs We got us some crackers and eggs at Moody Crossing as the sun came near the middle of the sky We've quit reckoning time bv watches and have abandoned all civ ilized things but clothes. After trudging fv4. miles under a lowering sky and upon sticky red n'1d we built nre aeas Nhe roadside and boiled our egss in tolaaf1 can (To secure best results, egg sho'hd be boiled in tomato cans-not carmen or steel or iron vessels, according 10 SiFs. Rorer's advice) After lunch our first move was to walk into Cooks Springs, five miles. Found here delightful sulphur water. Caught an evening passenger at | o'clock for Pell City, where we are now recording the day.
 April 17-Tom means to make living by selling subscriptions to Taylor-iro1- wood magazine. and we've been talklns shop to the natives here. Natives as rule are temperamental donkeys, l nho' more especially when intellectual food IS offered up as this we're catering. They don't lay violent hands upon you, demand ing that you list them. Oftener than not they kick or bray, their antlpa- thies against magazine hodge-podge
 well, the Athenians had crow to DICK with Socrates because he planned certain intellectual improvements VI" Visited the cotton mills here and found them, Just as elsewhere, weaving the souls and oooies of little chaps into the warp and wool.
  but past Sunday school talk now, thank God. and we'll have em out playing "leap frog and '.fox and mander' pret- ty soon I tried while passing through to make some of em smile; winks, grim aces, crooked fingers, and all those things that please rational kiddies. failed to rouse 'em at all. (Afternoon) More magazine talk and our victims bit more interested in the many and varied excel fences of the T. T. magazine
 April 1s-Lincoln, our harbor now, mas only 1000 inhabitants, but quite wide awake and considerable evidence of pros perity in the residence section. On stroll this afternoon we saw roses in every garden; lots of arbor vitae. too, bordering clean walks At twilight got splendid prospect of the west all bathed in crim- son and yellow splashes. What do these hints mean that we get from sunsets and sunrises? It is spirit stuff to clothe the crass souls of us in. or merely glimpses of what we conceive to be inn mortal beauty? And those blue reaches beyond the crimson and yellow splashes of cloud-what do they mean? Is there such a thing as getting forwarder in the unknowable? - Fully repaid by this big show for the haggling necessitated through the day by selling themagazines. Arriving at o'clock one of our first moves was to get stopping place for the night Inquiry for hotel developed