Green Giraffes, 4-Tailed Elephants, Haunt the Victim of Wood Alcohol

1920

BY DR. BEN L. REITMAN

Wood alcohol is one of the most dangerous poisons known to science. Because it is one of the best known poisons in the world, people are losing their fear of it.

Thousands of persons in the United States probably have drunk it in the last three months. But the main reason that we are having so many cases of wood alcohol poisoning lately is that prohibition has only become a reality in the last thirty days. Previous to that time it was possible to buy a drink almost anywhere for 25, 35 or 50 cents. Today it costs 75 cents or a dollar, a prohibitive price for the poorer workers. They have sought a substitute.

Fatal Dose Is Eight Ounces

They have tried what we call "wood alcohol." The fatal dose of pure wood alcohol is eight ounces. The denatured alcohol which they are purchasing in drug stores, etc., that is, the great part of it, is grain alcohol diluted with 10 per cent of wood alcohol. Thus a man would have to drink a fairly large quantity of this denatured alcohol to obtain a fatal result.

The bum, the hobo, the man who just must have a drink, gets a bottle of denatured alcohol and goes into a saloon. He orders a glass of near beer. When he gets it he pours in an ounce of the alcohol — and gets a kick.

A few doses of this and he begins to get drunk. Then he gradually increases the dose. of alcohol until he is drinking it virtually straight.

Sees Four-tailed Elephants

A man doesn't necessarily have to drink a fatal dose to suffer ill effects. He suffers from strange hallucinations after but a short bout. But the major part of the cases we have heard about recently have been those where drinking the poison has been persisted in for two or three days.

There is a peculiar psychology in the effects of the poison. The victim sees four-tailed elephants and green giraffes and all the other different animals so long associated with delirium tremens. And then there is a peculiar half-blindness. The victim looks at you, but he can see only half of you — the other half, say the upper half, simply dissolves into space.

Regulations for sale? It would be a hard matter. Wood and denatured alcohol now is a commercial commodity widely used in industries the nation over. The people are able to buy it in department stores, in drug stores, in paint stores, and stories have been told of chauffeurs getting it out of the radiators of their automobiles.

A man might be able to drink a small dose of wood alcohol daily for some considerable time — but he shouldn't forget that it will get him in the end — and its after effects don't wear off easily and sometimes are incurable.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 1.


Lightning Plays Queer Prank

1920

MARIETTA, Pa., Jan. 1. — During a heavy electrical storm a bolt of lightning struck the residence of Charles Spanger and knocked out a beam in the middle of his garret without tearing a hole in the roof. The outside was considerably damaged. Fire ensued, but the downpour of rain extinguished it.

Vags Are Plentiful

1916

The city authorities should insist that vagrants cease their begging from house to house. Housewives should refuse to feed men at this time of the year who refuse to do small jobs about the home. There is plenty of garden spading, rug cleaning and general cleaning up work about the house that would give the man who really wants work sufficient work for a meal.

The facts are, however, that the average beggar will not work when asked to do so. Two such shiftless fellows appeared one after another the other Monday at a home where the housewife was hard at work. They were told they would be fed if they beat a rug. One of them said he would and disappeared after looking at the rug. He said he only wanted a few potatoes anyway and he didn't feel like working until he saw his partner. He never came back. His partner appeared a few minutes later and said he didn't want to work. It made him tired. — Murphysboro Independent, Illinois, March or April 1916.

One Cure For Vagrancy

1900

Policeman's Simple Scheme to Make Door-Sleepers Move On

The New York police force is credited with being one of the best in the world, but at least one member of it is a genius born for greater things. He has invented a method for ridding his beat of vagrants and doorstep sleepers.

This officer is attached to the Church street station, and patrols in the neighborhood of Washington street and the Battery, where cheap lodging houses, small beer saloons, "labor agencies," and the genuine "Weary Willie" luxuriantly abound, so he has almost daily opportunity to test his invention.

The vagrant is not particular where he sleeps, so that it costs nothing, and doorways are favorite lodging places. It was a sleeper in one of these that received a never-to-be-forgotten shock the other day. He was asleep in the doorway of a saloon, with his head thrown back against the jamb and his legs sprawled over the pavement. "Watch me make him more on," said the inventor. His hand went under his coat-tails, and it looked as if he were going for his gun in deadly earnest.

A spectator stood petrified, waiting to see a bloody tragedy enacted, but the bluecoat pulled out a small vial, and leaning over the sleeper, poured some of the contents on his thick, reddish mustache. The effect was electrical. With a wild snort and a gurgling gasp the hitherto inert figure sprang into the air and clawed at his mouth and throat; the tears streamed out of his eyes, which were distended with terror, and he stood gasping and making horrible faces and still clawing frantically at his mouth and throat, while the policeman smiled grimly and waited for the customary denouement. It came in a moment.

As soon as the terrorized doorstep lodger had recovered enough of his breath to permit his moving he started hurriedly up Washington street, sans coat, sans hat, sans everything but a consuming desire to put as much distance between himself and that door as possible.

The policeman laughed heartily as he watched the rapidly retreating figure. "I'll bet he don't come back here again," he said. That dose'll last him for a month. Ammonia's a great thing. It's better than insect powder, and it saves making arrests. That fellow is not only obeying the move-on ordinance, but the dose sobered him up, to boot." — New York Mail and Express.

As Straight Men See Him

1909

The Dead-Beat is Probably the Most Despised Creature That Walks the Earth

No man is wholly free from sin, but so many lesser evils are tolerated that a man should hesitate long before becoming a dead-beat.

Criminals are despised and abhorred, but to the dead-beat all that is coming, as well as the contempt of his fellow men. There is something at once so mean and so little in taking advantage of the confidence which comes with friendship that the hand of every man is turned against a dead-beat as soon as his reputation is well established.

The dead-beat may fondly imagine he is living easy and making money without work, and, of course, he takes no account of the confidence he violates and the hardships he inflicts on others. But, that aside, he really has a harder time than the man who is honest and fair. He is compelled to move a good deal, and peace of mind he knows not. Like other types of crooks, he doesn't prosper, and his finish is more unpleasant than the beginning. — Atchison Globe.


1900

Deadly Blunderbusses of Guatemala

Down in Guatemala the favorite weapon of the native bandits and desperadoes is a sawed-off muzzle-loading shotgun of the blunderbuss pattern, and when they run short of buckshot they sally out to the railroad and steal a few dozen seals, which are simply disks of soft lead about the size of quarters. Pounded into rough balls, they make projectiles by the side of which a Dumdum is an angel of mercy, and when one of their blunderbusses goes off it generally kills everything in sight except the man directly behind it.

A Snap For Bums

Chicago, 1908

A city newspaper has started a movement to provide meals and lodgings for unemployed single men, without pay or price. Without questioning the free advertising the paper may get from it, the course is very ill advised and should be stopped, as it will mean the assembling of every hungry "bum" and "hobo" in the country who will hasten to Chicago where they may be provided with a good living without work.

Anyone can guess the answer to this; it will mean robberies, holdups and all kinds of crime perpetrated by these lazy and irresponsible tramps, who will avail themselves of the kind invitation of the paper.

The city relief committee proposes giving unemployed men work on the streets, each day's work to be paid for a ticket entitling those who work to three days' board and lodging, the two days may be used in hunting for work, and the committee will see to it that vagrants who will not seek employment will be arrested, and compelled to move on. This may seem hard hearted, but it is the only way the people of the city can be protected against the horde of bums who will flock to the city to avail themselves of the soft snap this paper is offering them.


1900

On A Clear Day Pigeons Can See Forever

It doesn't always pay the supercilious doctor to cut his patients.

Words are the blossoms and deeds are the fruits.

The clothing of a growing boy refuses to grow with him.

On a clear day a pigeon can see 200 miles.

The Pestiferous Corner Loafer

Chicago, 1910

A week's attendance at any police court will convince anyone that the curse of the town is the loafer, the professional "out of work" cuss who pretends to be hunting a job, and hunts well that the job may not overtake him.

He manages to live off of some one. If foolish relatives do not supply him with a living, he makes it by his wits, with the help of a brace and bit and a "jimmy" and friends (?) who through fear, or by influence will take the stand to testify to his character, hence he escapes and the community suffers. He can always find a way around the vagrancy laws, and like the poor, he is always with us.

Lost to all sense of shame or decency, he lives off a mother, brother or sister's work, or even a woman's shame, anything but work by his own hands. The health department is great on prescribing remedies for all sorts of evils, and we sincerely wish they would tackle this job of getting rid of the pestiferous loafer.

—Suburbanite Economist, Chicago, Aug. 19, 1910, p. 1.

Note: The typesetting on this editorial had some of the words and portions of lines switched around, and apparently some words left out. I patched it up to make it make sense. The question mark (?) after "friends" is as in the original, which may have been someone in the typesetting department with a bad manuscript wondering what was going on with the context. I think it's questioning whether the loafer's friends are really friends. But with the botched up text, the "com-" from community is hooked on to "friends" and someone might be saying, "What???"

Decrease of Vagrants Seen, Fewer Seeking "Flop"

Janesville, Wisconsin, 1915--

DECREASE IN "VAGS" WHO SEEK LODGING

Only Those Who Refuse to Work Apply to Spend Night In City Hall "Bull Pen."

This morning when Officer W. E. Gower opened the doors to the city hall cell room there were five men who walked out after being lodgers in what is commonly styled the "bull pen." One year ago there were just twenty transients released after the night's lodging. The difference shows the decrease in number of transients, hobos and vagrants coming into the city.

So far during the month there have been but eight registered at the city hall station for the so called "flop," as the transients call the lodging. Last year in December there was 287 registered at the free lodging place. In November this year the police books show that ninety stayed at the station, while a year ago during the same month there was a total of 236 listed. Now it appears that the "floppers," as the police call them, who do stay at the jail are professional transients. They belong to the "W. W. W. W. W. association, which means "We Won't Work Will We?"

"The only reason I can account for the enormous decrease is that the men have been able to find work and only those who wouldn't work for love or money are coming into the station. These men who come here report that there is considerable employment to be had around the state and jobs are out looking for the men instead of men looking for jobs," said Chief Champion.

Consequently the police department is not using past kind measures in caring for the transients. Since they won't work, they are not provided with breakfast of coffee and bread. In the past two years this menu, which proved very welcome to the transients, was given in the morning to prevent them begging in the residence district. In the morning the men in the station are given a curt warning to leave the city and if found later in the day are generally brought before the court for vagrancy.

While the increased demand for laborers may be largely responsible for the decrease in the number of vagrants sleeping at the station, the ninety day sentences and strict watchfulness of the department may be partly responsible for the reform.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, December 23, 1915, page 4.

Seven Vags Arrested, Will Break Stone at Jail 15 Days

Sheboygan and Janesville, Wisconsin, 1915--

SEVEN VAGS ARRESTED IN SOUTH YARDS

WILL BREAK STONE AT THE JAIL WORKHOUSE FOR FIFTEEN DAYS

A wholesale arrest of "vags" was made this morning by Detective Luft of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, Undersheriff Hugo Fesing and Deputy Sheriff George Goodell. Seven hoboes were arrested in South Yards. They give their names and ages as follows:

Frank Bertschy, 26; Rodger Plude, 21; E. Becker, 28; Jim Wise, 30; John Marshall, 22; Matt Kowatch, 30; John Zagortz.

The vags were taken before Justice of the Peace George Reuther and sentenced to 15 days in the workhouse. Most of them are from Milwaukee. They have been hanging about the yards waiting a chance to beat their way out of the city.

--The Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, August 27, 1915, page 6.



VAGRANT IS SENTENCED FOR A THIRTY DAY TERM

William Morris, formerly of Milwaukee, was sentenced to thirty days under the commitment law in the municipal court this morning when he pleaded guilty to the double charge of drunkenness and vagrancy. Morris was arrested for "panhandling" on Main street by Patrolman Charles Handy.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, November 11, 1915, page 2.

Some Day You'll Be Busted, Herding with the Vags

Racine and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 1915--

"Walt Mason Says"
By Walt Mason

IN YEARS TO COME

Money comes in easy, when a man is young, and in manner breezy to the birds it's flung. "He's a tightwad fossil who would save," he cries, and in rout and wassail, fast the money flies. Thrown into the gutters, thrown at drakes and ducks! "There is more," he mutters, "where I got these bucks." Youth, alas, is fleeting, as a pair of steers, and there's no repeating of the sunny years. You don't duly prize it, boys so blithe and gay! You don't realize it, till you're growing gray! Youth is swiftly speeding, years that won't return, and you'll soon be needing all this coin you burn. There is nothing sadder in this vale of tears, than a worn-out gadder, crippled by the years, toiling, poor and lonely, up and down the street, sighing, "If I only had some grub to eat!" There is nothing tougher than to see a gent starve and weep and suffer, when with age he's bent. All the battered relics who for handouts crave, once were giddy alecks who refused to save. Don't be too disgusted when you see their rags; some day you'll be busted, herding with the vags!

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, August 3, 1915, page 4.



HAS NO HOME, DOESN'T WORK, MUST BE VAG

"Where do you live?"
"No place."
"Where do you work?"
"No place."

These questions and answers settled a case in court this morning when John Klabeck, Austrian, was arraigned on a charge of vagrancy.

Klabeck was unable to understand much English and did not know the meaning of the word "vagrant" or "guilt," so the judge used simpler terms.

Klabeck was given 10 days in the county jail workhouse. He was arrested by Officer Heimke in Mike Keenan's horse shed, which he would not claim as his residence.

--The Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, August 27, 1915, page 3.

Police: No More Coffee and Bread for Vagrants

Janesville and Grand Island, Wisconsin, 1915--

STOP FEEDING VAGRANTS AT CITY POLICE STATION

Chief Champion this morning discontinued the practice of giving the transients and city police station lodgers coffee and bread for breakfast. It was decided the demand for labor was sufficient for the men to find jobs if they cared to work, and the "vags" will be "drilled" out of town each morning after being released. A report will be made on the number received at the station and the cost of feeding them by Chief Champion within a fortnight.

The begging evil is promised to be checked by the energy of the police department in preventing "panhandling," and the heavy jail sentences that have been given offenders for vagrancy in the municipal court.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, March 30, 1915, page 2.



POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR A MAN WHO LOST COFFEE

One day last week John Wollach bought a large can of coffee from a stranger, and he bought it so cheap that the police were under the impression that the coffee had been stolen. He was interviewed on the subject and he described the man he had bought the coffee of, and it was decided that the man was James Wilson, a fellow had been released from the county jail only a day or two before. Wilson was rounded up, and notwithstanding that he denied all knowledge of the coffee, he was identified by Wollach as the one who had made the sale.

The police were unable to discover anybody who had lost about ten pounds of roasted coffee, but Wilson plead guilty to a charge of vagrancy and was given twenty days in the county jail.

The police are under the impression that the coffee might have come from the circus that was in the city on Friday, a friend in the cooking department having set it out where it could be picked up a passing stranger without exciting any suspicion.

--The Grand Rapids Tribune, Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, July 21, 1915, page 2.

Comment: The circus that was in town on Friday was the Sells-Floto Circus, including Buffalo Bill's Original Wild West, Friday, July 16.

The Worthless Wrecks of Hobodom

Janesville and Racine, Wisconsin, 1915--

An item from Court News

Charles Alberts, a veteran dwarfed member of the clan of hobodom, who makes a regular visit at the Janesville Police station, came once too often to suit Chief of Police Champion, and he was arraigned in court on the charge of vagrancy. Alberts, on his way to the vagrants' lodging place, stopped in front of the city hall, in plain view of the police station, and started to beg from a pedestrian. He was given ninety days by Judge Maxfield as a thirty day term, given him eight months ago, was not effective in correcting his transient habits.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, February 24, 1915, page 2.




BUMS MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR CITIZENS

Racine is infested by a large number of worthless vags and bums. They seek shelter at the Wisconsin street tramp house at night and during the day time make life miserable for citizens. Rear doors are visited by these men and they demand food. When refused insulting language is generally used and often threats are made. Sometimes two and three of them hang around dark corners and accost people, begging nickels and when it is given they "hike" for a saloon. Often they are arrested and taken into court and ordered out of the city, but generally the gang is back in a short time. Solitary confinement of terms from three to five days with bread and water diet is being tried, but that does not seem to chase the fellows away. It has often been suggested that a workhouse might be a good thing.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, March 4, 1915, page 12.




From column: Happenings in Our City

Vags In Court -- John King and Mike Reed, two vags, were arrested last night and in the municipal court this morning each was sentenced to jail for five days, solitary confinement on a diet of bread and water.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, March 22, 1915, page 5.




From a longer article on sports

Signs of spring are evident and plentiful but few have elected to shed the winter clothing for fear the weather man would turn freakish and do the unexpected. There are plenty of geese and ducks going north and the Honk! Honk! of the northern ganders have been heard frequently during the night and early morning. Nearly everyone has seen the first robin of the season -- and now the "spring dopers" are looking for other spring harbingers. The police will tell you that warm weather is surely here, for the clan of Hobodom has shed their winter collection of clothing and do not come to the station in great numbers for a "flop" or night's lodging. Hundreds of the transients have passed through Janesville and all declare "they are on their way to Baraboo to join a circus." The Ringling Brothers would have enough "razorbacks" for three shows if all the tramps and "vags" that have stopped off in Janesville really go to Baraboo.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, March 25, 1915, page 3.

Vast Army of Weary Willies Find Their Way To Racine

Racine, Wisconsin, 1915--

Members of the police department agree that just now a larger number of vagrants and tramps infest the city than was ever known before. They come from Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities and pretend that they are in search of employment, but the majority of them would not work "on a bet." These fellows seek shelter at the Wisconsin street tramp house and the hard luck stories told would fill a big book. Usually they claim to have a wife and children in some distant city suffering for the want of the necessities of life, while they are out seeking something to do. Of course they always walk into town, when the truth is they steal rides on freight or passenger trains.

Some nights as high as forty can be seen sleeping on the plank beds in the Wisconsin street abode. When released in the morning the majority hike for the back doors of homes and beg for breakfast. They tell housekeepers that they have not had a morsel to eat for from twenty-four to forty-eight hours and are fast starving to death. Usually a warm breakfast is served and a nice little paper of food put up for lunch while they are traveling the highways looking for a job.

Only yesterday morning a citizen offered to pay not less than five strong and able bodied fellows 25 cents an hour to shovel snow. Two of the men took shovels and after starting in quit before the sidewalk was half cleaned. The other three complained that they were ill and unable to do such hard work.

On the other hand, many men who call at the police office for shelter are unfortunate and only too willing to work and to do anything to earn an honest living. It is this class of fellows who suffer on account of the actions of the disreputable and tricky vags. It should be a stone pile or workhouse for the dishonest crowd and kindness and help to the worthy -- but discrimination is hard work.

Although Judge Smieding sentences these unworthy tramps to the county jail for from three to five days' solitary confinement, they seem to come back every week or two and often flatly deny that they have ever been arrested before.

On Main and Sixth streets these fellows haunt the dark doorways; they linger close to some of the churches on Sunday morning and beg for nickels and dimes, and, if successful, nine out of ten of them get into a sample room as fast as possible and call for liquor. It is seldom that one of them spends the money for food.

Chicago, Milwaukee, and other cities have ruled against the imported tramp, that is, the tramp and vag who is placed on a train and shipped from other towns.

There is no doubt but that a good per cent of the human wrecks who come here are chased from other cities, in fact placed on trains and sent out of town in order to get rid of them.

More than one-half of the robberies in boarding houses and farm residences are committed by this class of men. They sneak in, steal a suit of clothing or any other article of value, get away, travel to another city and do the same thing.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, February 2, 1915, page 1.

The Trouble With Vagrants

Racine and LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 1915--

From Police Blotter

Joe Davis and Joe King, strangers, regular vags, appeared at the corner of Sixth street and Grand avenue on Saturday night. They held up every pedestrian who came along and demanded money. Both were locked up at the police station.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, January 11, 1915, page 6.



Happenings in Our City

Vags Arrested -- Joe Davis and Dave Carr, two vags, appeared in front of the Holy Name church Sunday and commenced begging from people. They were arrested. Each was sentenced to jail this morning for three days' solitary confinement.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, January 25, 1915, page 5.



Man Freezes His Feet

The first case of a jail sentence for having frozen feet took place today, when Judge Brindley sentenced Frank Weltemut, La Crosse, to thirty days in county jail. The formal charge was vagrancy.

--The La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, Wisconsin, February 1, 1915, page 6.

Herds of Hobos, Tramps, Bums, Idlers Cleared From Town

Huron, South Dakota, 1909--

City Briefs:
Herd of Hobos Driven Out, Big Hail Proves Useful

Wednesday morning the police made a big cleaning up around the yards of the Chicago & Northwestern, where a herd of hobos have been taking their ease among the freight cars. The Chief of Police stated that about 40 bums were gathered into the fold and afterward were shipped bag and baggage from the city. This is the time of the year when this class flocks into the farming states of the northwest under the pretense of being farm hands and harvesters, and the summary disposal of this large number of these most undesirable citizens is a good thing for the town, and for their energy the police are deserving of commendation.

E. T. Gorsuch went to his farm near Hitchcock Friday. At the time of the storm of one week ago he and his wife were at their farm. The hail at that point fell so fast that one could not see through it. The hail stones were not large, but nearly every chicken was killed in that neighborhood. A grove of cottonwood trees were entirely stripped of leaves, and all crops were destroyed. Worse than in many places, the corn stalks were cut off about a foot and a half above the ground. The wind moved Mr. Gorsuch's large barn, which is very heavily built, eight inches on its foundation at one end, and put it out of plumb. The amount of the hail may be judged from the fact that twenty four hours after it fell he gathered sufficient hail in a protected corner near the barn and froze ice cream. Several of his neighbors' barns were blown to the ground.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 19, 1909, page 2.


Another herd, maybe some of the same hobos...

DRIVING OUT THE TRAMPS.

Authorities at Aberdeen Roused to Action by the Assault on W. J. Brown of Brookings

Aberdeen, S. D., Aug. 9.—Roused to retaliatory action by the petty crimes, which have been committed by tramps for a week or more, culminating in the slugging and robbery of W. J. Brown of Brookings on Wednesday night, orders have been issued to the police department by Chief Zirbes to rid the city of the tramps and to keep them out. Men seeking legitimate work are welcome. All others must stay away.

The first action in this campaign to drive out the men without visible means of support or inclination to exertion, was taken Thursday night about 4 o'clock, when Officers Daly, Culhane and Pierson and Special Officer Savage made a raid of the box cars and cattle pens in the Northwestern railroad yards.

The officers rounded up 153 hobos in the early dawn, routing them from their slumbers in holes and corners in the open air. They were herded together and driven in a body from the city. Down the Northwestern track as far as the Lockington packing house the band of idlers was sent on its way.

--Weekly State Spirit and Dakota Huronite, Huron, South Dakota, August 19, 1909, page 7.