The Powder River County examiner and the Broadus independent. [volume] (Broadus, Mont.) 1919-1935, 1922-01-27


tana must 60. The Northern Pacific
railroad, chief sufferer by the acti-
vities of this latest student deviltry.
has thrown down the gauntlet before
the executive board of the university |
and announces that II 1t is further |
pestered with this new type Of anna
teur hobo, the Jail, the calaboose, the |
hoosegow and the lookup OF many
country town is going to harbor
young gentlemen, while their In
structors at Missoula, Bozeman or
Butte will be wondering what has
happened. Il
But the Student Hobo clubs were
the real stuff while they lasted. The
chief high gazabo Of one of these
clubs says that he has bummed his
way 10000, yea, even Tin moments
Of exhilaration he makes it, 10000
miles and he has never paid a cent
of railway fare.
Wall from the Campus
Now comes the wall from the
campus. The undergraduate, the
freshie, believing that the railway
company is either q charitable or an
eleemosynary institution, declares If
the proud chiefs of the Northern Pa
cific could but realize what these
hoboes 60 through, just to see their
football idols perform on some for
eign field for half an hour or so, they
would think twice before putting
their ultimatum into effect. The
big guns of the Northern Pacific fail
to understand that to see game in
Seattle, for instance, proud Mr..
Freshie wearing boiled shirt and a
full dress suit under his overalls,
has hung onto the rods or chung to
the roof of railroad for for "a
hours without sleep or food. It's all
for the glory and prestige of the old
alma mater, declare the youngsters,
and he's present on the station plat
form in Seattle with the welcoming
delegation that meets the football
team at the train. He gets to Seat
tie in time to welcome the team to
that foreign city and he gets back
to Missoula in time to be one of the
gang at the depot to welcome the
team home.
At the University of Montana, at
Missoula, the students have formed
the most active and aggressive Hobo
club. This organization has regular
meeting nights and the member ho-
boes tell of their exploits on the
road and keep a tally of their hobo
mileage.
Entry to the Club
It is not possible for every student
to gain admission into this club. He
first must have a certain number of
miles at hoboing to his credit. This
mileage can not be gained in one trip
and the trips must be made with
the varsity teams. The applicant
must make many trips before he is
even q pledge. Then as a pledge, he
must make more trips and finally
when he has the required number
of miles of actual hoboing to his
credit, he is initiated and is a full
fledged student hobo.
While on these trips the veteran
hoboes are required to make it a
point to watch the pledges and the
hope-to-be-pledges for possible in
fractions of the club rules. Candi-
dates must not at any time on q
hobo trip pay any money for carfare,
II they are caught by brother ho-
boes doing this they are barred from
the club, or rather they can not ap.
ply the mileage that they have gain.
ed ON this trip to their club initia.
ton.
AS q rule when they start on these
trips, the student hoboes time their
movements so that they will land al
their destination about IL hours be-
fore the team goes into action. Their
II some ICON or brake" kicks them
off at way station, they will still
have time to catch another train and
be ON hand for the game. Many 9
youngster, as the newest hoboes are
called, has arrived in town Just IL
time for the game and not a few have
missed the games entirely.
Pooling the Detectives
One incident, that was recalled a,
a meeting of some old timers, hap
pened at Paradise, Mont. Whenever
q train pulls into this freight divi
sion point there is always "yart
bull" waiting to pick up any stra!
hoboes. As little strategy, THU
"bulr' has caboose parked across
from the depot and as soon as tn
train stops to change engines nat
urally the hoboes who don't know
his game make bee line for it.
welcome shelter. They plan on run
ming out as soon as the train start
again and continuing on their way
This Is the way that they figure OF
beating the railroad detective. Blu
this man also has his plans laid.
As soon as the hoboes have all ga
thered into compact little group OF
this platform, he steps up on tn
back platform of the caboose, wher
he is least expected, and throws
scare into them by saying: Don
move or run away, because I am arm
ed and will shoot" The SURPRISED
bunch usually submits quietly to ar
rest. However. this bunch Of stu
dent hoboes let themselves be herde,
around the front Of the engine. Blu
they were all thinking fast, becaus
they didn't want to spend the nigh
in q cell, neither did they want t
pay their fares into Spokane an
forfeit all of the mileage to Seattl