The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1912-09-13


ct boat From week to week, for pos
sibly two months, we received letters
from him. Then came the silence.
The silence continued for six
months, until one morning / received
a note written on American Line "a
per and postmarked Southampton. Il
was signed by Ford.
Shall arrive on Philadelphia with
in 48 hours after you receive this
short of cash. Do you remember that
ten dollars you owe me?''
That was impudence for you. /
should have known who wrote that
note, without a signature. However,
clapped ten-dollar bill in an envel.
ope and mailed it promptly A week
later Ford dropped in to see me-
Much obliged for the cash, old
You see, they trimmed me beautiful
ly in Paris, and l started out for Rio
with my steamship ticket and barely
enough coin to last me three weeks.
In fact, when l got to the Chilean
frontier town across the Andes, I
| was strapped. That made me sick
of the whole job, and | decided it was
time to head for home. There was
prince of a British consul there,
who loaned me ten-spot and got me
a pass for donkey transportation
across the mountains to the Argen-
| tine railroad
Just by blind luck, I'd Clipped &C,
quaintance with the chief engineer OF
the construction gang On the Argen-
tine side, and so when l hit him for
pass to Buenos Ayres, he ponied up
| like good one
II was feeling pretty disconsolate
and l went into cafe near the wa
/ ter front to forget myself for an hour
or two. That was the time when Bra.
zil and the Argentine were seeing
which could build warships the quick.
est, you know. and there was a big
| BraZiliano sitting in the place, with
his feet up, passing remarks to the
occupants in general. AS soon as he
saw me, he concentrated his attention
apparently on the supposition that be-
cause | was small / must be easy.
|
went for him. We were rolling pro
miscuously around the restaurant, and
/ was getting a bit the worst of it
when little man with an arm like a
steam-fail came through the door. Aft
er he got through with my Brazilian
friend there were no scraps to be
picked up:
We'll, we shook hands and told
each other we'd always been longing
to meet, and afterwards we had a
drink. The little man was a British
er, captain Of tramp steamer due
to sail the next afternoon, and when
l told him Of my troubles he clapped
me on the back and offered me free
| passage to Rotterdam. I'll have to
put you down on the books as cabin
boy or steward he said. But you'll
| do no work. Come as my guest: III
| be glad to have you He was a prince,
| that skipper. Fed me at his own to-
he, gave me his own cigars and wine.
| and when we reached Rotterdam he
| staked me to Paris.
Aunt Jane was in Paris. fortunate
| ly for me, and / think she was 80
glad at the prospect of getting me
back to America that she divied up
without any side remarks"
l never really knew Citation, the
fifth Of my vagabonds. l had been
dining at club in Picadilly with an
engineering friend, and as we were
passing out through the club parlors
my friend drew me aside to makg
room for a big, broad shouldered
man wearing blue spectacles. That's
Chatton,' he whispered "He was one
of the principal assistants in the con-
struction of the new trans-Andean
line. He's always had bad eyes, AID
the doctor told me he ought not to
work above the snow line, but that
wouldn't do for Citation. He wants
to be where the fun is. You see, en-
cheering as a science means little to
him. It's the game he likes-the fight
to overmaster some problem Poor
Citation! Whenever there was des-
perate job to be done, he was bound
to be on it-and all for beggarly six
or seven pounds week, I suppose
why do you say Poor Chatton?'"
I asked
Because he'll never get over this
latest eye trouble. He got it from the
snow glare, just as the doctors said
he would
But what will the man do?' | ex-
claimed. How is he going to live?"
He'll live-survive, rather" rejoin-
ed my friend, bitterly. His people
have money. But he'll never work
again. Every one who knows him is
always cut up. And he feels it, too.
although he's deuced plucky about
it."
If you have been in the habit of
frequenting police courts or cheap
lodging houses it is possible that you
have met John Kelly.
AS near as l could make out from
stray admissions Kelly made to me,
he gave up a reputable position in
life to undertake study of the psy-
chology of tramps and thieves. He
used to speak with genuine pride of
his researches, and he was particular
ly proud of what he termed his life
work"-the compilation of a diction-
airy of thieves slang, together with
compendium Of the rules of house
breaking and safe-cracking Nobody
was ever permitted to get an extend