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

Automobile Driven Into Man's Parlor

1920

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Preston Williamson, chatting with three women in the front room of his home, changed the subject when the nose of a motor car protruded into the room.

"What the ——-" he inquired, and started for the exit.

The women, too frightened to move, saw the nose of the car withdraw. Williamson emerged from the house to see the machine moving up the street at increasing speed. He reported the license number to the police.

He said the driver was a well dressed woman. The police are looking for the car.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 2.

England's Hoboes Are Super-Tramps

1913

ENGLAND'S HOBOES ARE SWELLS

SUPER-TRAMP NO COMMON BO

LONDON, March 1. -- England has discovered that among the 60,000 tramps that adorn her countryside are some sure-enough aristocrats who, patriots believe, would take a lot of beating.

England, in fact, claims to have evolved the super-tramp; a hobo who is shared and manicured as carefully as a west end "nut," and whose dandyism lacks nothing but spats and a crease down his trousers. One such Beau Brummel of the turnpike -- whose cash capital considered on one cent -- leaned against the dock rail of a London police court in an attitude of Piccadilly grace, the other day, and smiled languidly while a police sergeant recited from his note book as follows:

"I found upon the prisoner, your worship, the following articles:

"Razor in case, leather back shaving mirror, shaving brush (badger hair), tablet of Windsor soap, bone nailbrush, case of needles, spool of cotton, thimble, table knife, dessert spoon."

Referring to this case, a Scotland Yard inspector with whom the writer talked, declared that searching an English tramp was "like dipping into a lucky back," and instanced a woman named Willis, who was arrested for vagrancy a short time ago. To the outward eye, she simply was a homeless woman, without money, food or property, but closer examination revealed a leather belt under her waist to which were attached, with a neat row of hooks, an equipment of knives and forks, a collapsible frying pan, changes of clothing, needlework, a purse containing $6.80 and a bag of food.

This outfit, moreover, said the Scotland Yard man, was not luxurious but primitive compared with the portables carried by many British "wearies." One connoisseur is known who brews exquisite China tea under Surrey hedges, while there is another known to the brotherhood as "the doctor," whose luggage include a beautiful little medicine chest which he hides in thick grass or under a heap of stones before he knocks for admission to the nearest "casual ward."

Some British hoboes are ardent collectors. They collect everything except work. The police at Kingston-on-Thames discovered a tramp a while ago, who was traveling about with a handsome kit-bag. They found in it, among other things, 61 lead pencils, four pairs of spectacles, two table knives, three linen collars, three boxes of matches, a looking glass, a tooth brush, two pairs of laces, a handsome magnifying glass, and a silver-mounted pipe.

The owner of this collection proudly denied that he was a peddler, declaring indignantly that he had "never fallen so low." Money he had none, but every now and then a tramp is discovered in possession of a sum that none of us would be sorry to have to his credit in the bank.

One such Monte Cristo among hoboes was Patrick Halloran, who, after touring the beauty spots of Ireland for 35 years, was discovered at Midleton, in County Cork, with $575 in his possession, all in golden half-sovereigns. This money was neatly piled up in two tin canisters on a wheelbarrow which Halloran had been pushing before him for many years. He had a collapsible kitchen and a collapsible bed on his wheelbarrow, too!

Then there was a queer character, known as the "eccentric duchess," who sought the aid of the police at Kettering to find shelter for the night. This "duchess" was as tattered and torn as the man in "The House That Jack Built," and her personal baggage consisted of only two brown paper parcels. When these were opened however, 344 bright sovereigns worth $5 each flowed out on the inspector's desk among the pens and ink and memoranda.

--Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada, March 3, 1913, page 3.

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.

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.