Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-22

any time. For one thing, they say the
residents of village a lone farm
house see in every follower of the road
possible burglar or dangerous criminal
with vicious designs on the post office
safe or at least petty sneak thief. Also.
paradoxical as it may seem. the hoboes
say that people in Washington live bet
ter'-meaning their tables are more
abundant than most of the farmers or
small town residents. Especially, they
say, is this true during the Christmas
season. The city man. they say, may not
have as great a quantity of any one dish
on his table, but usually he Will have
far greater variety.
Usually during the Christmas season,
and especially Christmas day, it is
enough for the hobo to appear at the door
and announce simply that he is hungry.
Even such a simple plea would be more
than apt to bring forth results. Such.
too, are probably the tactics that would
be followed by man temporarily down
on his luck and unused to begging. But
the professional DO scorns such a
method as being unworthy of his craft.
1t is all right for an amateur or a begin
ner he reasons. but he regards himself as
a professional. Hence he feels it incumbent
on himself to tell fanciful tale-not
extending to the very limits of proba-
bility.
The professional "bo" is keen student
of human nature; he has to be in order
to exist And he knows jus. how far to
go. to just what limits he may extend
his story SO as to touch his victim with
out arousing his suspicion. Also he
knows just what kind of story TO tell,
for the tale that impresses one man may
have no effect on another. Still more
positively, the tale that would bring re-
Spouse from a man very frequently will
no: do at all when a woman is the lis
tener, and vice versa All the stories, of
course. are pure fabrications. Frequently
it is the case that the truth would be
equally If not more effective, but here
again the professional instinct comes IN.
The true DO would be ridiculed by all
his fellow hoes" If he ever even thought
of making his "mooch' on the truth.
So the "bo" carefully maps out a long
series of stories. suitable for any and all
people. any and all occasions. Sizing up
his victim, he will decide, in the most
fleeing fraction of second, which tale 10
use, and then he will proceed to tell II
with pathos which frequently convinces
the most skeptical. The ''bo'' takes pride
in the telling of h story. no less than the
actor takes pride in reciting his lines with
proper effect. In a way too the view
point of these two is similar
When the actor makes an impression on
his audience he feels thai he is earning
his salary. When the DO impresses his
listener he feels that he has earned his
hand-out. This reasoning. indeed. is the
cause of the thrilling stock of hard-luck
stories Of which one "bo" to whom The
Star man talked mildly boosted.
Sure, i give 'em a good story" said
this ragged, totally unashamed denizen OF
the world of beggars, FER one thing. dey
expects il Dey likes to hear about what
hard luck somebody else had so dey kin
think how lucky dey is themselves. Meb-
be dat's I. mebbe deres some folks
that just naturally likes to be made fee
bad-like de folks dat goes to a theatel
an pays deuce spot for ticket to a
show dat dey know is goin' to make der
cry. So if dey feels dat way about it,
say give 'em what dey wants. Nothin
mean about me. l got string o. stories
dat 'ud make bill collector weep An
do / get by? Well. / usually eats thre,
good meals a day an when night comes
/ nearly always got de necessary dime
fer de big Sleep
y keen professional rivalry exists be-
tween these wanderers of the road in the
framing up of their stories and meth.