Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-19

SEkTOST hitch-hikers carry no luggage for
they are true hoboes at heart They do
not want to be burdened by baggage. But there
are q few novice adventurers who start out
with all the equipment Of Scout. They also
carry along enough funds 70 pay for necessities,
but they hope, By begging their way, to con-
serve this nice little nest egg. There have been
cases where these girls have 'bummed' rides
from motorists, been held up and had all their
funds taken from them.
These are the girls who realize that pan.
handling has its risks and that, while the home
atmosphere may be DUH at times, it is at least
safe. After hold-up, girl hoboes usually
scrTy home to shelter, terrified by their exc
perience
"Kind-hearted but ahort-sighted motorists
are, I'm . large measure, 10 blame for encom-
aging this rowing spirit in girl adventurers
They must learn that it Is all right to be wisely
generous, but harmful TO the girls they think
they are helping, because it fosters their hobo
impulses by giving them free rides around the
country. It is actually harming young girl to
carry her free miles from her home city. She
Is thereby merely pushed on and ON to other
cities, each one not caring to harbor potential
vagrant Then, too, giving her free rides Is actu-
ally encouraging her to become panhandler.
There are few really understanding motor
lists who realize that hitch hiking is a beggarly
form Of adventure. Such a motorist and his
wife, who had been carrying two young girls in
their car for several hundred miles, even pro-
viding them with meals, since they had no
money, felt that they ought to do something
about it. When they arrived ct q city where a
Travellers Aid Society was located, they drove
the girls to the station and put them in charge
Of our representative. Eventually they were
sent home, for we try to head of girls and per.
suade them TO return home. II they are of age
and determined to journey on, there is not much
that can be done about it.
Sometimes groups Of girls travel in cheap
l0RaR aiAnr <vn cal RQfrp
no money. Their tinny old cars just about fall
to pieces ON the way, and they are reduced to
panhandling in one form or another.
00FTEN girls become stranded and turn to
hitch-hiking In an emergency between
jobs. These are the ones who seek jobs at Sum-
mer and Winter resorts at various periods OF
the year. In Summer they get work in Maine
and the Adirondacks and in Winter in Florida
and the Southern Winter resorts. While the
larger hotels send down groups of employees
carefully chaperoned. many girls start out on
their own, and get stranded all along the At
lantic Coast
I'VE find, occasionally when we take some
stranded girl under our wing that she has been
on the move so long that she actually has no
real home She is familiar with every State In
the Union, but can claim no city as her home
town. She has been away from her original
birthplace too long actually to be identified with
It any more.
"Quite often we find that these rowing girls
are members Of broken home. Their parents
are divorced and they drift from lace to place
as casual help year after year, picking up free
rides along the way, grateful for any little
hand-out they can get. Stabilizing such q girl
requires much effort and considerable sympathy
and understanding.
Boys are doing less adventuring than girls
these days, although we occasionally do pick
up lad who has 'bummed his way around the
country. Just the other day 15-year- old boy,
who had started from Los Angeles and hitch.
liked to New York, boldly approached our or
ganization and asked to have his passage paid
back to his home. He said that he had let
ter from the Los Angeles branch of our organ
ization, instructing US to pay his way back, but
he had lost It.
I'VE wired Los Angeles and found that he
had lied. He had run away from home without
money and apparently, when he reached New
York he hated to face the prospect of bum
ming his way back again, 50 he spun q tale
to get money from us.
This lad was unusually bright and came
from home with an intellectual background.
His mother was q superior woman engaged In
an artistic pursuit. She, of course, paid his
passage home
az think, however, that even now the motor
ist is beginning to get fed up ON these young
beggars who want to travel free by private car.
But the motorists cooling enthusiasm has only
prOdded the youthful hoboes into connecting
more ingenious tales and to working out slicker
methods for getting free transportation around
the country"