Evening star., 1932-12-13
BY DANIEL ROBERT MAUE

story OF the thousands VI HomeieSo'
wandering boys
BY DANIEL ROBERT MAUE.
The rain streamed down.
At midafternoon l drove q small
roadster to the New York City end or
the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson
River. I was starting on trip by hlv-
yer. by freight, by hitch hiking, across
the continent, to get frst-hand the
story of the thousands of homeless.
jobless boys who are rowing the United
States, victims in the main OF the eco
nomic crisis.
A policeman on duty at the Manhat-
tan end of the tunnel was apologetic.
He did not have on hand an assortment
of 20 or 80 hitch-travelers, awaiting a
lift southwark, as he would on any less
stormy day. A few minutes later I
had passed under the Hudson and was
talking with a Jersey City patrolman.
No tranSients TOO stormy" The
Erie freights would be in later in the
day. Then, weather or no weather, old
men and young would be scuttling out
of the neighboring yards and soliciting
passage through the tunnel to Man
haitian. Driving on, I saw near mo-
tionless truck the slight, hunched fig
ure of boy
Bound Tor OKLAHOMA.
1 stopped. The lad ran forward and
crawled in out of the rain. Now
where in time are you headed for, on a
oklahoma City" Going to Okla
homa City on 43 cents!
He talked an incessant stream clear
to Philadelphia, 80 miles. In suit. coat
and sweater over Upper shirt, heavy
shoes and ShapeleSs cap, with grubby,
laughing face and capable hands, he
seemed all boy.
Geographically: Augustus Simonson,
81, of New York City; going to ask work
of the Phoenix Steel Co., Oklahoma; six
years of grade schooling: his mother
and two sisters at home: on his own
since he was IS; simply hitched about
the country until II; Travelled to the
West Coast three times; worked on
| structural steel in several States; taken
off a passenger express in North Florida
and did 80 days with the chain gang; ;
fee grabbers" in Tennessee also had
inducted him into unpaid service.
He might travel westward by way OF
Baltimore, or Washington, perhaps
Richmond-there was no telling yet
This, Boy a Wide Reader.
Augustus carried a copy Of the
reader. and I cannot doubt his word
IIe amazed and all but cornered me
with his wide knowledge, informally ac-
| quired
Am l awake? "Cro-Magnon Man
Neanderthal Man Pithicanthropus
Erectus the Jaffa man" The
youth beside me, in his ough-and-ready
| jargon, is talking of these and specu-
lating where the Missing Link may be
and what it is like. He speaks the
words correctly. if with his own place
ment of accent. Now he is off about
religion and the churches. Again and
again he came back to the subject of
anthropology. He adores Roy Chapman
Andrews, adventuresome anthropologist
Il amt kidding myself. I know !
haven't got a chance at it: couldn't
even make night school with conditions
the way they are, but Say, would
go with Roy Chapman Andrews? I'd
sure work for that man for nothing"
The youth talked on. He was in the
middle of discourse on the financial
condition of Philadelphia when I set
him down before Broad Street Station
in that city. He went running away
through the slanting rain.
I went on foot through the arches of
City. Hall, along Broad street, through
the retail business areas. Many owners
of stricken young faces were marking
time by seeking some spot drier than
the last occupied. In doorway en-
countered a stationary person.
On His Way Back Home
Although bedraggled. the young man
bore evidence Of former good grooming.
He stamped his feet. He said he was
hungry. He wore no hat, and he had
sold his overcoat at Indianapolis so he
could eat. Irish, 21, and native to
Maiden, Mass, he was going home be-
cause the whole business is no good.
He had once been a tennis instructor,
had gone in for stenography, and then
down to restaurant counter man.
Finally employment had run out alto
gether He had been motor transient
for three months.
The somewhat disillusioned fellow
was trying to save his clothing. He
wished ito go into New York and hcme
looking like something"
John Scott, 81, and an orphan since
childhood, told me he started hitch
travelling because he didn't believe what
he read. I talked with him in Phila-
delphia at the Shelter for Homeless
Men.
81 had seen hospital cotton" John
said, "but couldn't believe it grew on
bushes. had thought about cigarettes,
too, and I didn't think tobacco was a
plant. So went to see."
He had never strayed far from the
city in which he had for SO long re-
ceived institutional care; he had gone
only to the neighboring States.
He and his companion, Henry Kutsey,
1s, represent the type of youth I be
lieve to be most often in contact with
welfare organizations. Henrys IS a
clouded mentality. He could tell little
straight. He babbled of fear Of 'the
machine age" about which he has the
merest smattering of knowledge.
Two colored boys came in out Of the
storm. They arrived by freight from
Greensboro, N. c. One was 16. the
other Is. The younger was full of hilar-
ity and laughter as the Other, was sub
! dued and forlorn.
"Iemme blow y up tune. mistah.