The Meeker herald., 1919-10-11
Poor, Crazy
Hobo"
0o
(Copyright)
By Edwin 1ALMHl

handed and overloaded tive In the
crew 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 "laid
out" No. II. east-bound passenger; at
Jefferson she had held up No. IS. 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,
the crack Transcontinental Express No.
Q. east bound.
In ten minutes No. SO would COM
plete the calendar by laying out No. 10
also, the twin Transcontlnental 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 thlrty-eight hourr'
exhaustion and evaporation. but thu,
time the humiliation was overdone.
Their superIors had Inundated theH
personally and pointedly at the Target
towns and by wire at the stops between.
Their equals on the other trains had
krp laA hos int N
sidlngs; 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. overborne
the weak crew. broken into a car Of
foodstufrs, 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 1t best to sulk
very silently In the caboose at the end
Of the train till the volley Of stones
smashing through the windows 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.
70, 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 II.
''Three!" The hobo, at the touch Of
Harring'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 Q
man for?" He blamed 1t upon the
others. "why couldn't you let him 60
Into the bushf"
Kalvert spat upon the floor, but
turned his face away from the lantern.
Were hitting 1t up" he observed
carelessly. 1.-THE damned hobo"
Bender grunted grufiy.
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
. numbed understanding that he must
have been quite aenseless after he
struck-not for very long. but for q
few moments anyway.
Yet as he dragged himself around
and sat up. he saw that he could scarce
~ 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
inc crescent.
He gazed at II stupidity and rubbed
his eyes with his swollen knuckles. but
still the red light persisted there. and
It came to him slowly that the train
must have stopped.
The wagon road the tramp had been
thrown upon might lead to a town, but
he couldn't tell how far of It might
be. or In which direction. The train
was there, and now that he was hurt
the hobo thought he might get the crew
to let him ride to the next station; II
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 II they
wouldn't, he was planning where b
might hide from ! 'en.