Gypsy Kept House In Big Sewer Pipe

Chicago, 1901

KEPT HOUSE IN A BIG SEWER PIPE.

For four months Hiram Mourie, a gypsy, has lived in an iron culvert pipe at 107th street, Chicago. The pipe, with its queer household effects, has been lying beside the Calumet River Railroad. It was eighteen feet long and nearly four feet in diameter. In this queer iron house Mourie kept his bedding, cooking utensils, mirrors, hunting traps and fishing nets. He was greatly distressed when be was compelled to vacate his abode and looked on in sadness while it was rolled away by a gang of workmen, who imbedded it under the railroad tracks, where it will serve as a culvert for the drainage of water.

Mourie said he found the iron pipe a very cozy and comfortable home during the winter's cold. Mourie, with a band of gypsies, arrived in Chicago last fall. He sold a mustang pony belonging to the chief of the band and squandered the money. For this offense he was forced out of the camp. It was then that he sought refuge in the big iron pipe, where he lived until ousted by the workmen.

—Before July 6, 1901