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

'em had a bottle an he'd had just enough
of it to make him generous. He offered
me some. l took it. Before we turheu
into the hay We got right cummings
chummy that we decided to pike II OH To-
gether. Seems that he'd lost his partner
a week before. He'd tried to hop fast
freight when he was feelln his liquor
and taken the big jump.
ar was pretty green at first. L didn {
know anything about hoppin' frelshts.
But Long Bill-that was my budd1e
name-Long Bill taught me. an WASH
long gettin' wise. It's all trick. LOOKS
hard to hop a freight goin' about twenty
five or thirty miles an hour. but II am I.
All YOU got to do is start runnln pe1ore
the train gets to you. Run as 1ast as
YOU can an then when you see one Oh
the handles on the car, make a Jump Ior
it. Jump high and swing your Ieet up
and, of course, you've got 10 De sure "
get a good firm grip. But that's all easy.
Runnin' real fast for little ways, you
can make so much speed yourself that
YOU lust naturally reduce the speed OF the
freight till it's about the same as an orol-
nary street car. rhan
YOU got to climb down and hang with
the inside foot loose When you let CO.
YOU give yourself a push with your arms
to send you away from the car Inc III
side foot strikes first. the OUTSIDE one AZ
erward. although, Of course, both strlke
lust about the same time. SOUNDS 1unhy,
don't it? 'Taint like you do on a street
car, for instance. where you put the OUT.
side foot down first. But with freight
goin' fast is different. You might do 1T
all right, hoppin' off with the outside
foot. but if you fell, the speed OF the train
would be apt to make you fall back under
the wheels. The other way, II you 1ali'
the speed makes you fall away from the
that amt goin very fast you amt apt
to fall.
ANYHOW, 1 learnt all them stunts
how to hop, how to jump, how to crouch,
which is ridin' the rods underneath a train,
how to hide myself even in one OF them
onen-face cattle cars, and how to do all
the other stunts to beat the railroads. l
have been bummin' it ever since but
Long Bills been dead a good many
years. $50
Long Bill, though. He was better'n me.
even, an l amt no SLOUGH. Bill could get
money where there wasn't none. de
could mooch a miser an get by with It:
That's the way we used to work it. IA
mooch for the food and Bill would mooch
for the rhino. l remember one slick
stunt he pulled off in this here great and
glorious capital of our fair land. May
a lot of other folks will remember It,,
too l don't know as It's ever been
worked but that once, for | amt never
told it before. and Long Bill never told
nobody nothin'.
sit was Christmas time. Wed been
workin' south extra slow that year on
account of gettin' locked up In an Ohio
town and havin' sixty days apiece hand
ed us on a charge Of stealing from a
railroad yard, which we never done, not
then, nor no other time. We come in on
a freight and jumped off couple of
miles outside the old Baltimore and Ohio
station. We had some food we'd brought
along with us, but not a single jit Decent
Taece). While we was walkin them
two miles it begin to snow.
"Come on said Long Bill Let's beat
1t to some lodgin' house.
What for says !, We amt got no
coin an they'll just throw us out. These
here hotels. you know, is strictly cash
in advance
Never mind about that says Long
Bill, L got a scheme
80 we went. We went to two or three
Joints, but every time Bill would look
over the boes inside and say the place
wouldn't do.
Seems to me you're gettin' mighty