American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1919-03-28
Poor, Crazy
Hobo"
~
BY EDWIN BALMER

crew ana PlSIiA-lhTtt e"'"J'
.broken" twice, stopped for not Don
four times, and had been forced 10
doubie over every hill from Crews 10
stockton.
therefore, at Benton she had "laId
ont" No. II, e%ast-bOund passenger; at
Jefferson she had held up No. 80, u
fast freight of refrigerated perlshables
rushing to Chicago; at Evans she ha''
delayed passenger No. 10 for nan an
hour AT Brunswick she had held back
passenger No. "a and last, at Tavern
She had laid out, for almost an hour
the crack Transcontinenlal Express No.
9, east bound.
In ten minutes No. 81 would com
plete the calendar by laying out No. ~
| also. tile twin Transcontinental rush
ing up from behind. The siding al
Stockton (Which the freight had been
allowed fifty minutes to reach from
Tavern. ton miles back) was still eight
miles ahead. and forty of the fifty min
utes were gone.
The crew, out thirty-eight hours,
were exhausted, exasperated, humili-
ated. They had frelghted toe long
10 mind the mere thirty-eight hours
exhaustion and evaporation, but TINS
time the humiliation was overdone.
Their superiors had Inundated them
personally and pOintedly at the larger
towns and by wire mt the stops between
Their equals on the other trains had
humbled them as they skunk into the
.E1sav.Y hat .xhnt u-uG entirely intnl-
cradle, their interiors and worse, the
very hob0s stealing rides'on the train
had Knocked them and rubbed 1t in.
Thirty hobos had boarded the train
at the hill beyond Tavern, oyerborn'
the weak crew, broken into a car oi
foodstufrs, and, after eating what the!
wanted. had scattered the rest alons
the right of way till it had ceased t.
amuse them.
The crew had found it best to sui
very silently in the caboose at the en-
of the train till the volley of stone
smashing through the windows told tina
the tramps had departed. Then, a
% one man, the crew of No. 81 sprang fOl
ward for revenge.
u ObJNtA wac ~ ~ - 49,
empty at the middle of the trail
. The crew had come upon him som
hours before but that was before the
= had learned the personal advantage
' of enforcing the rule to eject tramp
and before they had laid out the lai
' two passenger trains and the Tran
continental, and received the tel
a graphic comments thereon.
= Harring kicked the object to co
80 seriousness while Kalvert and Bende
20 one on each side, picked him up. Or
~ Of the others opened wider he big do
or Of the box ear.
q "One," Harring remarked, with II
other kick, AS Kalvert and Bend
swung the hobo between them.
N. F"Two," Harring kicked again. \
or -, in a last squirt to reach the sidi,
before No. 10 could overtake it, put
ms speed and jumped ahead, but the m
nj. in the car. did not heed it..
HI. '"Three!" The hobo, at the touch
,ar Harring's foot, swung free from I
hands on either side and love {
,ro through the door in a low parabola.
: " howl! and for an instant a gray .
nv appeared in the flying hedge beside
track.
He's hit the road" muttered II
ring. what do you want to hurI
man for?" He blamed it upon
others. "Why couldn't you let him
into the bush?'
en- Kalvert spat upon the floor,
turned his face away from the liant,
Were hitting it up" he obser
carelesSly. THE damned hobo"
Bender grunted gruffiy.
The hobo drew himself up ON
hands. He felt stunned and deade
all over, and was conscious more ,
w battered dullness than of pain. He
a numbed understanding that he n
have been quite SenselesS after
struck-nOt for very long, but "a
- few moments anyway.
- Yet as he dragged himself arc
and sat up, he saw that he could sea
-. ly have lost consciousness. They
thrown him off halfway aroun
curve. and the red light OF the cab
'"' was still visible at the farther hor
the crescent.
He gazed at 1t stupidity and ruI
4, 90 his eyes with his swollen knuckles
!, ca still the red light persisted there.
.,lr II came To him slowly that the
mo must nave stopped.
$ to The wagon road the tramp had
thrown upon might lead To a town
he couldn't tell how far off it u
be. or in which direction. The
ana was there, and now that he was
he's the hobo thought he might get the
to let him ride to the next StatiO
when not, he might hide himself Someh,
He was wondering only wheth,
now. could catch them in time to ask
to let him on again and If
Yc'ce wouldn't. he was planning whel
his might hide from them.
/, the Then he saw that something
/ the matter with the train. The
ritter, were not straight on the track
were lying across II In every dire
The roofs had slid down and the
N- nj LA--l- - 4