Winder weekly news. (Winder, Jackson County, Ga.) 18??-1909, January 28, 1909, Image 8

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

ABOUT REAL TRAMPS Ignorance of Public Regarding Them, fcy One Who Knows. HOBO IS SIMPLY A TOURIST. He Works His Way Here end Then end Takes In Scenery and Not a Few Adventures as He Gaos, Says Di lapidated Gentleman. f Copyright, 19M, by T. C. McClure.] “^ HE general tjutuTfiU‘ e 'f the 5| public regarding tramps cun tinues to be a source of sur prise to mo, though I have been bucking up against It for many years,” said the dilapidated gentle man 11s lie hitched a little nearer to the ivdhot stove in the office of the lodging house. ‘‘The public draws a line between the doctor and the law- isb A . CARRIED AWAY ALT, TOR IRON IIAIiS TO THE WINDOW. yer, but no line betweeu the tramp and the bum. In the latter ease every thing Is dumped Into one basket and labeled ‘Tramp.’ “If you will go out and walk the 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. All of tho"i are liars and most of then) thieves. No professional tramp hitches up with them In any shape. I have often argued with officials of the law about this matter, but have seldom been able to make (hem see it. “A tramp, my dear man. is simply an Impecunious tourist of Amerjcn on foot, lie is working his way hero and there and taking in the scenery and not a few adventures ns he goes, If, I was worth n million dollars and want ed to get acquainted with America and Americans 1 would sooner take the rale of a dilapidated gentleman than to travel !:i a pala.e car. Why. man, 1 can tell you more about the natural s- enery. the hills, the rivers, the villages, the farmers of twenty dif ferent states In this Fniou than the governors of them. Fifty tramps trav eling over the country could give the agric ultural bureau at Washington bet tor crop reports than it would get from a thousand farmers. “No matter what sends the I>. G foriti on liis travels, he starts out to -see the country the same as the wealthy tourist, and he has no more evil iu his mind. lie simply has less money and must attain his object in a different way. lie beats the rail roads because he can't pay fare; he ap peals at the kitchen door because he can’t dine at a hotel. Name any rich man you will who has ‘done’ America and IU wager that I can tell him of hundreds of points he lus missed. 1 cau an me lyn towns or teu rivers to t*" on?' I calf Tell him in an hour more about rural village life than he learned In a year of travel. “Would the wisest college professor iu the country plan to go on foot from New York to Sail Francisco and steal his food en route? Would he burn barns and haystacks? Would he be impudent to farmers or assault their wives? Well, a dilapidated is no more of a fool than a professor in that re- spect. lie walks the highways an hon est man. If he lias a cent in his pocket be will offer to pay for his food; if he hasn’t lie 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 hard work. They put in a inocth 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 anil 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 1 pajo.ved the wonder of nature just as as if I had a million to my credit •- rovpd longer and saw Mr tv. \ McDonald am, Ist. I had to sleep under the stepa 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 look at me, that I ever had a longing to see the Idg trees of the YosemPe? No, you wouldn’t. The Idea seems absurd to you, and yet I made a tramp of 1 3X) miles to sit In their shadow. 1 walked around them: 1 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 wn* arrested on suspicion of having stolen two chi-kens, and, though I hadn't a feather about tae. I was sentenced to a dirty jail for three months. You’d laugh If 1 t Id you that 1 walked the width <fa state Just to gaze on the mighty Misshsip; i river for half a day and call up I3e Soto and his tire less ambitions, and yet why not? “If the dilapidated gentleman didn’t do a stroke < f 1: ird work the year round he ought to be welcomed and f.d and lodged for assisting in Ibe cause of general knowledge.. He Is a walking encyclopedia. Scores and r errs < f times 1 have sat down at the f.rcside cf a farmer and paid my keep ten times ever by the information I gave him aid his family. I have helped his children with tlicir school lessons, and I have hop ed him and Ids wife to better understand the coun try they were living in. It wasn't two months ago that I asked a farm er Low much wheat he tin ught the United States harvested this season, lie thought for a moment and then put It at about 500,000 bu. hels. When I made bis 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 cut ide his own ceunty. “One trouble 1 have fecund with the farmer is his liking fir the growsome. He’d rather hear of a robbery than a flying machine and of a murder than all the crop statistics. He tells you so. and then ns his guest you have got to humor him. That Is, you leave got to put your imagination at work. llis Idea Is that because you are a dilapi dated traveling about you must have met up with all sorts of crimes. I go ahe ad and give him the particulars of two or three atrocious murders that I keep on tap and end eff with a bur glary aid a case of horse stealing, and when we are ready for bed he is ready to ndmit that he has passed a pleasant evening. I have made myself a liar, of course, but 1 settle that with my conscience by saying that the etcl jus tices the limans. “There i.-> one subject, however, that 1 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 tile last fortnight and have $lO in my pocket. 1 am no mendicant or fugitive front justice, and yet a constable seines me and drags ire before the justice of the peace. They are in cahoots as to fees. I am charged with vagabondage. 1 show my money as proof to the con trary. It is a fatal mistake. lam a( once suspected of robbery. 1 ask for a lawyer, but am refused. Protests of No Avr.il. “The c instable swears that I have been ‘hanging around’ the neighbor hood for weeks, and 1 am given a sen tence of sixty days in jail. Protests are of no avail; demands only bring the warning to shut up. They won’t let me scud for the farmer for whom I worked. It’s all their way. and to jail 1 go, ami the food furnished is hardly lit for a hog, because tlie jailer stands In with the other two to beat the county by beating prisoners. “It’s the same old game iu every state, from Maine to California, and it’i* no use to kick. Only the prisoners know how bad it is, and when they come out and talk uo one believes them. For this reason the dilapidated must figure that it’s all in the 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 ho can when he decides to make a hole in t lie wall and continue his sightseeing tour. The last coop 1 got out of I carried away all the iron bars to the window and later ou read in a newspaper that I was not oaly 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 gerent. 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 M stage celebrities nowadays.” “Yes, and, quite naturally many of them are put on by Imitation actors.”— Kansas City Times. - c - ■- SHE KNOWS ENOUGH. SHE does not know who Caesar was Nor when Columbus sailed the seas. She may. for all she says or does, Think Botticelli Is a cheese! Now, gentle reader, don't commence To say you think It is a pity To live 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 she likes the parquet seats. Of current topics she may speak And show misinformation simple, But 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 iter train. She cannot tell you what is meant By the philosophy of Ibsen, But hers is beauty that is blent— A Fisher-Gibson. Of differential calculus She may discourse in language clear Until at last it comes to us She means some automobile gear. The fact that Raphael is dead Leads not to talk on pictures olden— Her lips are eherry-ripely-red. Her hair is golden. So what is history to her? What are reformers and their Ilk? She ha3 the latest word on fur And wears the newest shades in silk. Sigh not that she must live alone, For her unlearnednesss quench your pity. She knows all that needs to be known— You see, she’s pretty! —Wilbur 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. lie 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 aud said it was bis intention to accompany his reverend brother. “I mean to rescue the ninety and nine," be added.—Philadelphia Ledger. The Simple -Life. ifl j 1 w ii -A# 1! & jC"' “If you were to put more water into the meal, they’d digest it in half time.” “Toime haiu’t of no ’count to these ’ere pigs, mister.”—Tatler. Crucial Test. She vowed the man she accepted must be brave, and he felt as coura geous as Robin Hood. “But what proof have 1 of your brav ery?” asked this apartment house maid. “I defy the world!” he shouted gal lantly. “Tut! Tut!” she laughed. "1 have heard that before. Go down and defy the Janitor and tell him to put some more coal into the furnace. I am al most frozen.” But the young man paled and called for his luit and cane.—Chicago News. No Consolation. “Well, it’s all over, my boy,” sighed Mr. Oldboy, an antiquated bachelor. “Miss De Young 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 me.”—St. I.ouis Republic. In Training. “Are you going to mingle in 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 uiy Sunday shirt bosom.” — Washington Star. Hurts No Feelings. “One would imagine a boss tailor would be disliked by his men.” “Reason ?” “lie often makes cutting remarks.” “Yes, but he makes up for if by mak ing lots of fitting ones.”—Kansas City Times. / * Lucky Dog. “My wife is excessively fonf- of her poodle. Actually I’m beginning to look ou it as a sort of *v rival to me.” “Say, you’re lucky. I’m only a sort jfA'T rival to my wife’s poodle.”—Kan- F** > ‘ City Times. ~■ - • • _r 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 r-: SHAVING PARLOR Locatediin 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: P. ELROD, WINDER, - GEORGIA.