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

and he takes the cue. .'Mebbe 1 got an
old suit 1 kin let you have" he says. -,
"'"But l want to work for what get, y
I puts in, KNOWN that there amt
chance in a thousand that he'll nave
anything for me to do.
"'"That's all right" he comes back.
Believe l got hat, too-an, by the way,
can give you somethin to eat now. But
what'n you do tomorrow"
"'"Weu," says, ST guess I'll be able
to find somethin' to do tomorrow. In a. big
city like this there must be work for an
honest man somewhere"
"'"Sure," says he, PLENTY of work for
those willin' to do it, but maybe you
won't find it as quick as you expect.
Guess I'd better let you have a little
money-enough to buy you some food
tomorrow, anyhow. If you want to.
when you get work, you can pay me
back"
81 acts sheepish and pretends don't
want to take it. IAN really need Is the
Shoes l tells him. But they just nat
urally force the stuff on me-so what
could I do" And Bill gimme that ia
nous grin Of his'n.
well. to make long story short. me
and Bill worked that scheme up until
after IL O'Clock that night, when the sec
ond-hand men closed. Course We had TO
pick out different second hand store
every time. to keep the proprietor from
gettin' leary. When they closed. course
we had to quit-for the same reason.
Takin' bunch of duds into iodgln
house wouldn't never do. First place
the proprietor might get leary fer fear
he'd get his house in bad with the police
fer harborin' stolen goods. Second place.
even if he didn't. once you got the buds
inside you'd have to sleep in 'em or the
chances are you'd wake up without 'em.
Some other DO would have EN-.
But as long as it lasted the scheme
worked slick as could be. We hit a dit
ferent street every time, and Bill dlon
get turned down once. Always he got
Shoes, nearly always clothes with 'em.
and about third of the time he'd get
money. and hardly ever less than quar-
ter When we figured it all UP at the
finish, countin' the coin we'd been gwen
and what we got for the clothes We sold
we had forty-one dollars and some cents
Guess that was bad nights work, Ell?
X X
1.-The funniest thing of the whole even
in, though. come at the wind-up. After
we'd made our last trip to the second
hand men. Bill stepped in and bought
big bottle of liquor. Then We beat 1T
for the lodging house where the man that
Bill had traded shoes with was stoppin'.
He was just getting ready to turn in
when we got there, but when We showed
him the bottle he frightened up consid-
cradle. Well. he took couple Of swigs
and then he went up to his room. He
took a good many more swigs up there
and pretty soon he began to get sleepy.
Bill kept offerin' him more booze, which
he wasn't never turnin' down. Finally
he keeled over sound asleep and then
well, then Bill just naturally stole his
own shoes back again.
While Dad was talking, young, shrewd
looking hobo, clad in dirty gray sweater,
evidently a mere boy. with a face that
might once have been kind. but with eyes
that were red trimmed from dissipation.
and bearing an expression not good to
see sat and listened with rapt attention.
"Some bo," he murmured almost rever-
emily. when Dad had finished. THAT beats
the stunt that Georgia Slim pulled off over
in Baltimore a couple Of years back when
he bet Reddy George two bits he could
mooch a regular turkey dinner for eight OF
us. supplyin' us with one complete turkey
and all necessary trimmins, such as cram
berry sauce and all that.
THE bet was that he wasn't to go to no
organized charity nor nothin' like that
not that he could of gotten away with 1t
II he had, for organized charities amt