The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1919-04-01
Poor, Crazy
Hobo"
an
By EDWIN BALMER
Copyright.)

OHe crime renamed Tor NO. 0Z-
mixed freight, west bound. Short
handed and overloaded give In the
crow and eighty-three cars), she had
broken" twice, stopped for hot box
four times, and had been forced to
double over every hill from Crews to
| Stockton.
Therefore, at Benton she had '1aid
OUT No. II, east-bound passenger; at
Jefferson she had held up No. 80, the
fast freight of refrigerated perishables
rushing to Chicago; at Evans she had
delayed passenger No. Is for half an
hour; at Brunswick she had held back
passenger No. "a; and last, at Tavern
she had laid out, for almost an hour,
RE crack Transcontinental Express No.
| 3, east bound.
IN ten minutes No. 80 would com
plete the calendar by laying out No. 10
also, the twin Transcontinental rush
ing up from behind. The siding at
Stockton (Which the freight had been
allowed fifty minutes to reach from
Tavern, ten 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 freighted too long
to mind the mere thirty-eight hours
exhaustion and evaporation, but this
.!me the humiliation was overdone.
Their superiors had Inundated them
personally and pointedly at the larger
towns and by wire at the stops between.
Their equals on the other trains had
humbled them as they skunk into the
sidings; but what was entirely intol-
cradle, their interiors and worse, the
very hobos stealing rides on the train,
had Knocked them and rubbed 1t in.
Thirty hobos had boarded the train
at the hill beyond Tavern, overcome
the weak crew, broken into a car of
foodstuffs, and, after eating what they
wanted, had scattered the rest along
the right of way till it had ceased to
amuse them.
The crew had found it best to sulk
very silently in the caboose at the end
OF the train till the volley Of stones
smashing through thewindows told that
the tramps had departed. Then, as
one man, the crew of No. 80 sprang for
ward for revenge.
The object was still asleep IN the
empty" at the middle of the train.
The crew had come upon him some
hours before; but that was before they
had learned the personal advantages
of enforcing the rule to eject tramps,
and before they had laid out the last
two passenger trains and the Trans
continental, and received the tele-
graphic comments thereon.
Harring kicked the object to con-
seriousness while Kalvert and Bender,
one on each side, picked him up. One
of the others opened wider the big door
Of the box car.
One" Harring remarked, with an
other kick, as Kalvert and Bender
swung the hobo between them.
Two" Harring kicked again. No.
81, in last squirt to reach the siding
before No. 10 could overtake 1t, put on
( speed and jumped ahead but the men
in the car did not heed it.
"Three" The hobo, at the touch of
HarriEg's foot, swung free from the
hands on either side and dove out
through the door in low parabola. A
howl and for an instant a gray gap
appeared In the flying hedge beside the
track.
Hes hit the road" muttered Har-
ring. "What do you want to hurt
man for?" He blamed it upon the
others. why couldn't you let him go
into the bush?"
Kalvert spat upon the floor, but
turned his face away from the lantern.
'We're hitting it up" he observed
carelessly. "The damned hobo"
Bender grunted gruffiy.
The hobo drew himself up on his
hands. He felt stunned and deadened
all over, and was conscious more of
battered dullness than Of pain. He had
a numbed understanding that he must
have been quite senseless after he
struck-not for very long, but for
few moments anyway.
Yet as he dragged himself around
and sat up, he saw that he could scarce
ly have lost consciousness. They had
thrown him off halfway around a
curve, and the red light of the caboose
was still visible at the farther horn of
the crescent.
He gazed at it stupidity and rubbed
his eyes with his swollen knuckles, but
still the red light persisted there, an6
it came to him slowly that the train
must have stopped.
The wagon road the tramp had beer
thrown upon might lead to a town, but
he couldn't tell how far of 1t nigh
be, or in which direction. The train
was there, and now that he was hurl
the hobo thought he might get the crew
to let him ride to the next station; If
not, he might hide himself somehow.
He was wondering only whether he
could catch them in time to ask them
to let him on again; and If they
wouldn't, he was planning where he
might hide from them.
Then he saw that something wa
the matter with the train. The car:
were not straight on the track, bu
I were lying across 1t in every direction
The roofs had slid down and the sides
bulged out. Big boards and barrels
and boxes were thrown about, and as
far as the tramp could see through the
darkness, the wavy line Of cars zig
Jagged crafty over both sides Of the
track. Some were rolled over on their
rides.
But nowhere in the long line was
there a sound or sign of life, although
the little fiaring wick in the red lamp
at the rear Of the train still burned.
The tramp pulled the lamp from its
fastening and walked along the wreck
age, until, from under pile of boards
at his feet, he heard a groan.
The hobo kicked the boards and the
groan sounded again. He leaned over,
and, with queer, silly feeling at his
weakness, tugged Intellectually at the
planking. His fingers kept letting go
their hold and he sat back helplessly,
but he knew the man underneath was
conscious now, for the mutterings were
audible, though still incoherent.
Number ten ten
ten ten =. damn Z.
ten !. ten ten" the
man underneath was saying as the
hobo tugged over him.
The tramp tore a board free and
the man below shuddered and twisted
his head in the ragged hole.
Number ten, damn you," he gasped
in pain from the weight Of which his
lungs were relieved.
stop ten ten you