Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1917-03-23
THE TRAMP'S
SIDE OF IT
He Laments the Wickedness Of the World
By M. QUAD
Copyright, 1916. by the Mcclure
Newspaper Syndicate.

mature as l travel about" replied the
tramp as he put his wet shoes against
the hot stove, and the more l see of ii
the more l wish 1 was a hermit in a
cave up In the mountains"
"Do you find it growing worseT' was
asked.
Preachers tell us that the world is
growing better,' continued Willie. but
df one days travel in the country
wouldn't prove to the contrary I'd give
my old hat. / began touring sixteen
years ago, and l give you my word
that there is at least twice the wicked.
ness now that there was then, and it is
growing mighty fast. Yes; I'll give
you some illustrations.
81 meet SO many liars that l have
come to believe that not one man in a
hundred has any respect for truth. l
get two or three days work with a
farmer. After the days work is done
the family looks for me to sit down
and relate my adventures. They encour-
age me to lie. They want q to tell
about the robberies and thefts l have
committed and the prisons l have been
in and escaped from. If 1 don't lie out
irageously they think l I'm a villain
who will not give himself away; if
I do lie the chances are that they will
give some constable the tip and he will
arrest me for the crimes l have con-
fessed.
81 have heard husbands lie t o wives
and wives to husbands. l have, in fact,
heard so much lying as to disgust me.
and 1 am only a tramp. There are by
pocrisy and deceit everywhere. There
are swindling and graft everywhere. A
country constable who arrests me on
the highway as l am plodding along
will swear before the justice of the
peace that l was just entering or leav-
ing a farmers barn. The owner of
tthat barn can be induced to go into
court and perjure himself, and the JUS
look like a murderer.
II very seldom eve heard one fam
4ly speak well Of another In the coun-
try, but when they met they were al
ways very ELUSIVE. One afternoon a
farmers wife had me in the house
scrubbing floors and washing windows
and moving furniture about. In three
hours time she blasted the character
of every family for five miles around.
She had just finished her TRADE when
ia woman that she had accused most
bitterly happened to drop in. The ac-
Icuser rushed for her with open arms
and kissed her half a dozen times be-
fore she stopped.
81 have read and heard about saw
poisonous gases, the starvation of pris-
oners-but let me tell you that there
is savagery elsewhere than in war.
Man was born a savage.
"Let me give you an incident. l
was plodding along the highway one
summer morning about half-past s
O'Clock. l passed a country school
house. Thirty rods beyond the house
/ met the schoolma'am on her way
to open school. 1 had not quite for
gotten the manners of other days, and
I raised my cap and babe her a good
morning. She passed on without a
word In reply, and a short quarter of
a mile beyond 1 met three children
going to school. l gave them a smile
and a word, and they laughed in re-
ply. That was the whole thing, sir
the whole thing. 1 knew that the
children stopped and looked after me,
but l stepped along without turning
my head.
"At a farmhouse a mile further on l
got work hoeing corn. l worked SO
hard during the day that the farmer
complimented me at night, and /
heard his wife whisper to him that
they had found a tramp at last who
seemed willing to sweat a little to earn
his way. l was to sleep In the barn,
and soon after 8 o'clock and when 1
was getting ready to go out to my roost
there arrived at the house, headed by
the schoolma'am, a gang of five or six
farmers. Three among them had guns,
two had clubs, and one had a coil of
rope in his hand.
""There is the villain-that's the
man. exclaimed the woman as she
caught sight of me
"'What is the trouble?' 1 asked.
"'You ran after me this morning.
she cried. You would have caught hold
of me if / had not picked up a stone
and threatened to throw it in your
face!
"Well that was a nice fix 1 was in,"
said the tramp. Nothing Of the kind
had taken place, and for a minute 1
was dumb with surprise. Then l de-
MED it, but it was no go.
J "In a moment or two more something
would have happened to me If 1 had
not thought of the three children l met.
I asked that some one might go for
them, and my employer was good
enough to hasten on that errand. He
said that | should have a fair show
The children and their father came, and
it put a different light on the story al
once. When the Young woman WAS