the K.C.
passenger at 3.30 A.M. I caught her and rode her till after sunrise to
Masson City, 25,000 inhabitants. Caught a cattle train and rode all
night.

"Tuesday, May 29th. Arrived in Chicago at 7 A.M...."

* * * * *

And years afterward, in China, I had the grief of learning that the
device we employed to navigate the rapids of the Des Moines--the
one-two-one-two, head-boat-tail-boat proposition--was not originated
by us. I learned that the Chinese river-boatmen had for thousands of
years used a similar device to negotiate "bad water." It is a good
stunt all right, even if we don't get the credit. It answers Dr.
Jordan's test of truth: "Will it work? Will you trust your life to
it?"

BULLS

If the tramp were suddenly to pass away from the United States,
widespread misery for many families would follow. The tramp enables
thousands of men to earn honest livings, educate their children, and
bring them up God-fearing and industrious. I know. At one time my
father was a constable and hunted tramps for a living. The community
paid him so much per head for all the tramps he could catch, and also,
I believe, he got mileage fees. Ways and means was always a pressing
problem in our household, and the amount of meat on the table, the new
pair of shoes, the day's outing, or the text-book for school, were
dependent upon my father's luck in the chase. Well I remember the
suppressed eagerness and the suspense with which I waited to learn
each morning what the results of his past night's toil had been--how
many tramps he had gathered in and what the chances were for
convicting them. And so it was, when later, as a tramp, I succeeded in
eluding some predatory constable, I could not but feel sorry for the
little boys and girls at home in that constable's house; it seemed to
me in a way that I was defrauding those little boys and girls of some
of the good things of life.

But it's all in the game. The hobo defies society, and society's
watch-dogs make a living out of him. Some hoboes like to be caught by
the watch-dogs--especially in winter-time. Of course, such hoboes
select communities where the jails are "good," wherein no work is
performed and the food is substantial. Also, there have been, and most
probably still are, constables who divide their fees with the hoboes
they arrest. Such a constable does not have to hunt. He whistles, and
the game comes right up to his hand. It is surpr