Winder weekly news. (Winder, Jackson County, Ga.) 18??-1909, December 31, 1908, Image 18
ABOUT REAL TRAMPS
lgnoranc3 of Public Regarding
Them, by One Who Knows.
HOBO IS SIMPLY A TOURIST.
H* Work* Hi* Way Hero and Then
and Take* In Scenery and Not a Few
Adventure* as Ho Goes, Says Di
lapidated Gentleman.
[Copyright, 1908, by T. C. McClure.]
!TL general ignorance • film
I public regarding tramps eon-
M tlnues to be a source of sur
prise to me, though I have
been bucking up against it for many
years,” said the dlluj (dated gentle
man ns he hitched a little nearer to
the red licit stove In the ollice of the
lodging house. ‘‘The public draws a
line between the doctor aid (lie law-
fffff
CAURinii AWAY ALU TUE IRON ISAKS TO
THE WINDOW.
y<*r, but no line between the tramp
and tbe bum. In (lie latter case every
thing is dumped into one basket and
labeled ‘Tramp.’
“If you will go out and walk tbe
streets for an hour you will come
across fifty men that the press and
then the public characterize as tramps,
and yet not a single one of them be
longs to the profession. They are town
bums. They seldom leave the city for
a day. They are a bad. vicious lot.
AM of are liars and most of them
thieves. No professional tramp hitches
up with them In any shape. 1 have
often argued with officials of the law
about this matter, but have seldom
been able to make them see it.
“A tramp, my dear man, Is simply
an impecunious tourist of America on
foot, lie is working his way here and
there and taking in the scenery and
not a few adventures as he goes. If 1
was worth a million dollars and want
ed to get acquainted with America
and Americans I would sooner take
the role of a dilapidated gentleman
than to travel la a palace cur. Why,
mas, I can tell you more about the
natural scenery, the bills, the rivers,
the villages, the farmers of twenty dif
ferent states in this I’nlou than the
governors of them. Fifty tramps trav
eling over the country could give the
agricultural bureau at Washington bet
ter crop reports than it would get
from a thousand farmers. -**
">\o mallei wb il seuds tbe D. G.
forth ou bis travels, lie starts out to
see the country tbe same as tbe
.wealthy tourist, and be has uo more
evi in Ids mind. He simply has less
money and must attain bis object in
a different way. He beats the rail
roads because he oau’t pay fare; he ap
peal at the Uihfliet| door because he
dimTat Ti hotel. Name any rich
man you will who has ‘done’ America
and I’ll wager that 1 can tell him of
hundreds of points he has missed. 1
oau name ten towns or teu rivers to
liis one. 1 can tell him in an hour
more about rural village life than he
learned In a year of travel.
“Would the wisest college professor
in t*e country plan to go on foot from
New York to San Francisco and steal
his food en route? Would he burn
barns and haystacks? Would lie be
Impudent to farmers or assault their
wives? Well, a dilapidated is uo more
of a fool than a professor in that re
spent. He walks the highways a* lam
est man. If he has a cent in his pocket
he will offer to pay for his food; if he
hasn’t he will offer to pay in work.
The general Idea is that he won’t work
That’S another mistake. The harvests
of America would be a failure but for
the tramps who turn in and do a
month's bard work.. They put in a
moijth in the planting, another in the
hoeing and the third in the harvesting,
and you can’t reasonably expect more
of a tourist. He has got to have time
to shove along and see the country.
Trip to Niagara Falls.
“I was on the road two years before
I got around to Niagara Falls. 1 was
headed that way, but detained here
and there. When 1 got there at last I
enjoyed the wonder of nature Just as
I had a million to my credit
two houses of the st ate
tot. I had to sleep under the steps of
a store and beg my meals from house
to house, but I went away well posted
and haven’t got over the awe of it yet.
“Would you think, to lock at me.
that I ever had a longing to see the
big trees of the Yosemlte? No. yon
wouldn't. The Idea seems absurd to
you, and yet I made a tramp of 1 300
miles to sit In their shadow. 1 walked
around them: I talked to them: I
measured them: I slept beneath them.
In fact, I wrote a poem on them. And
I wasn't fifty miles away when I vra
arrested on suspicion-of having stolen
two chickens, and, though I hadn't a
feather about rue, I was sentenced to
a dirty jail for three months. You'd
laugh If I told you that I walked the
width of n stale just to gaze on the
mighty Mlssfsslpi i river for half a
day and call up I)c Soto and las tire
less ambitions, and yet why net?
“If the dilapidated gentleman didn’t
do o stroke of hard work the year
round he ought to be welcomed und
fed and lodged for assisting in the
cause of general knowledge. lie Is u
walking eacyc loped la. Scores and
s ores of times I have sat down at t'ae
fireside of a farmer and paid my keep
ten times ever by the information I
gave him and his family. I have
helped his children with their school
lessons, and 1 have helped and
his wife to better understand the coun
try they were /living in. It wasn’t
two months ago that 1 asked n farm
er bow much wheat he thought the
United States harvested tills season.
He thought for a moment and then
put it at about 500.000 bushels. When
1 made his figures 5,005,000 bushels he
stood with his mouth open for fully
two minutes. lie was born and raised
in the country, but didn’t think there
was much going on ouk fde his own
county.
“One trouble 1 have found with the
farmer Is his liking for the grew some.
He'd rather hear of a robbery than a
flying machine and of a murder than
all the crop statistics. lie tells you so,
and then as his guest you have got to
humor him. That Is, you have got to
put your imagination at work. His
idea is that because you are a dilapi
dated traveling about you must have
met up with ail sorts of crimes. 1 go
ahead and give him the particulars of
two or three atrocious murders that 1
keep on tap and end off with a bur
glary and a case of horse stealing, and
when we are ready for bed he is ready
to admit that he has passed a pleasant
evening. 1 have made myself a liar,
of course, but 1 settle that with my
conscience by saying that the end jus
tifies the means.
“There is one subject, however, that
I don’t have to draw the long bow in
talking about. That is the county
magistrates, constables and jails. I
am walking along the highway, as is
the right of any man to do. 1 have
been at work for a farmer for the last
fortnight and have $lO in my pocket.
I am no mendicant or fugitive from
justice, atul yet a constable seizes me
and drags ire before the justice of the
pence. They are In cahoots as to foes.
I am (barged with vagabondage. 1
show my money as proof to the con
trary. It is a fatal mistake. I am at
once suspected of robbery. I ask for
a lawyer, but am refused.
Protests of No Avail.
“Tbe c instable swears that I have
been ‘hanging around-’ the neighbor
hood for weeks, and I am given a sen
tence of sixty days in jail. Protests
are of uo avail; demands only bring
the warning to shut up. They won’t
let me send for the farmer for whom
f worked. It's all their way. and to
jail 1 go, and the focal furnished is
hardly tit for a hog. because the jailer
stands iu with the other two to beat
the county by beating prisoners.
“It’s the same old game in every
state, from Maine to California, and
it's no use to kick. Only th prisoners
know how bad it is, aud when they
come out and talk no one believes
them. For this reason the dilapidated
must figure that it’s all in tbe day s
work and put up with it. The only
way he can get even is to do as much
damage to the jail as he can when he
decides to make a hole iu the wall aud
continue his sightseeing tour. The
last coop I got out of I carried away
all the iron bars to the window and
later on read iu a newspaper that 1
was not only a tramp, but one of the
most ungrateful of the species.”
M. QUAD.
Full Information.
“Brother, what's a featherweight
fighter?”
"Ain’t you ashamed, sis. to be so ig
•rerent. A featherweight fighter is a
game rooster, of course.” Baltimore
American.
Would Seem So.
Crawford—Do the rich know how the
other half live?
Crabshaw—After taking their money
from them they must be able to form
some idea of how they are compelled
to live.—Puck.
As You’ve Noticed.
“There is a great fad for imitations
>f stage celebrities nowadays.”
“Yes, and quiteSjaturally many of
them are put on by Taxation actors.”—
Citv Times. '
- nv ' pwpn? ~ - -“
SHE KNOWS ENOUGH.
SHE does not know who Caesar was
Nor when Columbus sailed the
- seas.
She may, for alt she says or does.
Think Botticelli is a cheese!
Now, gentle reader, don't commence
To say you think it is a pity
To iive in ignorance so dense—
You see, she’s pretty.
She will not wrinkle up her brow
To call to mind a verse of Keats.
Ask her if Shakespeare's writing now.
She’ll say site likes the parquet seats.
Of current topics she may speak
And show misinformation simple,
Eut in the rose pink of her cheek
There is a dimple.
She’ll tell you socialism’s cute
Because a friend who’s rather plain
Is lecturing from here to Butte
And has so many in her train.
She cannot tell you what i3 meant
By the philosophy of Ibsen,
But hers is beauty that is blent—
A Pi3her-Gibson.
Of differential calculus
She may discourse in language clear
Until at last it comes to U3
She means some automobile gear.
The fact that Raphael Is dead
Leads not to (alk on pictures olden—
Her lips are cherry -ripely-red,
Her hair is golden.
So what is history to her?
What are reformers and their ilk?
She has the latert word on fur
And wears the newest shades In silk.
Sigli not that she must live alone.
For her unlearnedness quench your
• pity.
She knows all that needs to be known—
You sec, she’s pretty!
—YVilbur D. Nesbit in New York Life.
The Ninety and Nine.
A certain minister was deeply im
pressed by an address on the evils of
smoking at a recent synod. He rose
from his seat, went over to a fellow
minister and said:
“Brother, this morning I received
a present of a hundred cigars. I have
smoked one of them, but now I’m go
ing home and burn the remainder In
the fire.”
The other minister arose and said it
was his intention to accompany his
reverend brother.
“I mean to rescue the ninety and
nine,” he added.—Philadelphia Ledger.
The Simple Life.
W\\ M
l i . ii r7'v. 1,-<i. ■in—
“lf you were to put more water into
the meal, they’d digest it in half the
time.”
“Toitue haiu’t of uo ’count to these
‘ere pigs, mister."—Taller.
Crucial Test.
She vowed tbe man she accepted
must be brave, and be felt as coura
geous as Robin Hood.
“But what proof have 1 of your brav
ery?” asked this apartment housemaid.
“I defy the world!” he shouted gal
lantly.
“Tut! Tut!” she laughed. “I have
heard that before. Go down and defy
the janitor and tell him to put some
more coal into the furnace. 1 am al
most frozeu.”
But the young man paled and called
for his hat and eane.—Chicago News.
No Consolation.
“Well, it’s all over, my boy,” sighed
Mr. Oldboy, an antiquated bachelor.
“Miss De Yonug has refused me.”
“But 1 suppose she let you down
easy by promising to be a sister to
you?” rejoined his friend.
“No,” replied Oldboy' bitterly. “She
wouldn’t even be a granddaughter to
nie.”—St. Louis Republic.
In Training.
“Are you going to miugle iu the gay
life of the capital?” asked Mr. Cum
rox. “It depends ou whether mother
and the girls can teach me to eat ice
cream with a fork without dropping
any ou my Sunday shirt bosom.”—
Washington Star.
Hurts No Feelings.
“One would imagine a boss tailor
would be disliked by his men.”
“Reason ?”
“He often makes cutting remarks.”
“Ye.s, hut he makes up for it by mak
ing lots of fitting ones.”— Kansas City
Times.
Lucky Dog.
“My wife Is excessively fond of her
poodle. Actually I’m beginning to
look ou It as a sort of a rival to me.”
“Say, you’re lucky. I’m only a sort
of a rival to my wife’s poodle.”—Kan
imc" >
F. W. Bondurant & Cos.
Insurance.
Winder, ■ - Georgia.
Do you contemplate a change in
your banking connections?
Come in and talk the matter over
with us.
THE WINDER BANKING GO.
WINDER, GEORGIA.
AT THE
OPERA HOUSE
You will see all kinds of
Buggies, Surreys and Wagons
Made up in the latest styles, of the
very BEST MATERIAL. The quality
is there and the prices are RIGHT.
R. L. ROGERS,
Winder, - Georgia
NOTICE!
I have withdrawn from the firm of
ELROD & BARRON,
And purchased the
SHA VING PARLOR
Locatedfin the Granite Hotel, where I
would-be pleased to greet my old
friends.
Thanking you for past patronage,
and hoping you will call upon me at
my new quarters.
Respectfully,
W. F. FLROD,
WINDER, - GEORGIA.