The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1912-09-13

from him. Then anne the silence.
The silence continued for six
months, until one morning l received
a note written on American Line pa
per and postmarked Southampton. II
was signed by Ford.
Shall arrive on Philadelphia with.
IN As hours after you receive this.
short of cash, Do you remember that
ten dollars you owe met"
That was impudenee for you! !
should have known who wrote that
note, without a signature. However,
| clapped a ten-dollar bill in an enyel.
ope and mailed 1t promptly. A week
later Ford dropped in to see me.
Much obliged for the cash, old
man." he said. 1T came in handy.
You see, they trimmed me beautiful.
ly In Paris, and | 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,
was strapped. That made me sick
of the whole job, and | decided it was
time to head for home. There was a
prince of a British consul there,
who loaned me a ten-spot and got me
a pass for donkey transportation
across the mountains to the Argen'
tine railroad.
Just by blind luck, Id Clipped &C.
quaintance with the chief engineer Of
the construction gang on the Argen.
tine side, and SO when | hit him for a
pass to Buenos Ayres, he ponied up
like a good one.
Il was feeling pretty dlsconsolate
and | went into n cafe neal the wa
ter front to forget myself for at hour
or two. That was the tl,uD Phep Bra.
I'll and the Argentine were seeing
which could build warships the quick
est, you know. and there was a big
Braziiiano 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. /
stood about two sentences and then /
went for him. We were rolling pro-
m~iscuously around the restaurant, and
| was getting a bit the worst Of 1t,
steam-fail came through the door. Aft
err 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
err, captain of a tramp steamer due
to sail the next afternoon, and when
| 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 ia
BILE, 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 OWED up
without any side remarks"
I never really knew Citation, the
fifth of my v%agabonds. l had been
dining at a club in Picadilly with an
engineering friend, and as we were
passing out through the club parlors
my friend drew me aside to make
room for a big, broad B~hOuldered
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, and
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 a des'
perate Job to be done, he was bound
to be on it--and all for a beggarly six
or seven pounds a week, suppose"
why do you say Poor ChattonT "
| asked.
Because he'll never get over this
latest eye trouble. He got 1t from the
snow glare, just as the doctors said
he would.
But what will the man dor I ex'
claimed. How is he going to hve?"
Hell live-suryive, rather" rejoin'
ed my friend, bitterly. His people
have money. But he'll eve work
again. Every one who knows him is
always cut up. And he feels 1t, too,
although he's deuced plucky about
It,"
II you have been in the habit OF
frequenting police courts or cheap
lodging houses 1t is possible that you
have met John Kelly.
AS neal as | could make out from
stray admissions Kelly made to me,
he gave up a reputable position in
life to undertake a 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 q
compendium of the rules OF house
breaking and s~afe.cracking. Nobody
was ever permitted to get an extend
ed view OF this. For a dollar or two,
now and then, when the man was hard
UP, he would permit n to copy out q
few stray phrases; but he was very
suspicious, as q rule, n believed