She would see me into the mail-car--she
said so herself--and then that mail-clerk relative of hers would carry
me to Ogden. And then I would have to beat my way back over all those
hundreds of miles of desert.

But luck was with me that night. Just about the time she was getting
ready to put on her bonnet and accompany me, she discovered that she
had made a mistake. Her mail-clerk relative was not scheduled to come
through that night. His run had been changed. He would not come
through until two nights afterward. I was saved, for of course my
boundless youth would never permit me to wait those two days. I
optimistically assured her that I'd get to Salt Lake City quicker if I
started immediately, and I departed with her blessings and best wishes
ringing in my ears.

But those woollen socks were great. I know. I wore a pair of them that
night on the blind baggage of the overland, and that overland went
west.

HOLDING HER DOWN

Barring accidents, a good hobo, with youth and agility, can hold a
train down despite all the efforts of the train-crew to "ditch"
him--given, of course, night-time as an essential condition. When such
a hobo, under such conditions, makes up his mind that he is going to
hold her down, either he does hold her down, or chance trips him up.
There is no legitimate way, short of murder, whereby the train-crew
can ditch him. That train-crews have not stopped short of murder is a
current belief in the tramp world. Not having had that particular
experience in my tramp days I cannot vouch for it personally.

But this I have heard of the "bad" roads. When a tramp has "gone
underneath," on the rods, and the train is in motion, there is
apparently no way of dislodging him until the train stops. The tramp,
snugly ensconced inside the truck, with the four wheels and all the
framework around him, has the "cinch" on the crew--or so he thinks,
until some day he rides the rods on a bad road. A bad road is usually
one on which a short time previously one or several trainmen have been
killed by tramps. Heaven pity the tramp who is caught "underneath" on
such a road--for caught he is, though the train be going sixty miles
an hour.

The "shack" (brakeman) takes a coupling-pin and a length of bell-cord
to the platform in front of the truck in which the tramp is riding.
The shack fastens the coupling-pin to the bell-cord, drops the former
down between the platforms, and pays out the latter. The coupling-pi