FREE TRAVELLING

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 17

FREE TRAVELLING

“JUMPING THE RATTLER" One of the results of the fact that a very large number of men are going about the country looking for work is an increase in the number of persons who ride on railway trains without paying their fares. No statistics in regard to this unprofitable traffic are available (says the Melbourne ‘ Age '). but some interesting sidelights _ on it have been made public from time to time. Ernest Albert Richards, whose own story of his sensational escape from Yatala prison in South Australia was published, mentioned that on the trains on which he stole a ride there were about eighty other men who were enjoying free rides. Again, it was reported that Clifford Davis, a Melbourne motor mechanic, while attempting to board a moving train at Broadmeadows before daylight, fell beneath a truck and had his left arm so badly crushed that it had to be amputated at Melbourne Hospital. Half a dozen other men succeeded in boarding the train at Broadmeadows and thus obtaining free rides. “ Jumping the rattler,’’ as this form of travelling is called, has been prevalent in the United States for many years, and a good deal has been written about it by some of those who have practised it. Mr W. H. Davies, famous in England as a lyrical poet, who spent some years of his early manhood wandering about the United States in the company of tramps and beggars, gives some interesting information about “ jumping tho rattler ” in his book, ‘ The Autobiography of a SuperTramp,’ and tho subject is dealt with somewhat more fully in a more recent book, ‘ Adventures of a Scholar Tramp,’ by Glen H. Mullin, to which Mr Davies contributes an introduction. As a rule the men on the tramp prefer to trayel by goods trains, because it is easier to board them, as they travel slower than passenger _ trains, and because it is easier to avoid detection on a goods train than on a passenger train. In a goods train there are hiding places in the trucks; but on a passenger train the safest place in the roof of a carriage, which is by no means comfortable.

“ I was soon initiated into the mysteries of heating my way by train, which is so necessary in parts of America, seeing the great distances between towns,” states Mr Davies. “ Sometimes we were fortunate enough to get an empty car; sometimes wo had to ride the bumpers, and often, when travelling through a hostile country, we rode on the roof of a car, so as not to give the brakesman an opportunity of striking us off the bumpers unawares. It is nothing unusual in some parts to find a man, always a stranger, lying dead on the track, often cut in many pieces. At the inauest they invariably bring in a verdict of accidental death, but wo know different. Therefore wo rode the car’s top, so as to be at no disadvantage in a struggle. The brakesman, knowing well that our fall would be his own, would not be too eager to commence hostilities. Sometimes wo were desperate enough to ride the narrow iron rods which were under the car, and only a few feet from the track. This required some nerve, for it was not only uncomfortable, but, the train being so near the line, seemed to be running at a reckless and uncomfortable speed, whereas when riding on the car’s top, a much faster train seems to be running much slower, and far more smooth and safe. Sometimes wo were forced to jump off a moving train at the point of a revolver. At other times the brakesmen were friendly and even offered assistance in the way of food, drink, or tobacco. Again, when no firearm was in evidence, _ we had to threaten the brakesman with_ death if he interfered with us. In this way Brum and myself travelled the States of America.” UNPOPULAR PASSENGERS. The tramp’s favourite place for boarding a train is at a water tank, where there is seldom anyone about, except the crew of the train. If he has no choice but to board it when it is moving he selects a spot near the top of a long grade, where the speed of tho train coming uphill has diminished to ton miles an hour or less. He runs beside the train, leaps for the step of a truck or carriage, and at the same time grasps the handle bar. In the United States the tramp has become a serious problem to the railways. There are some thousands of them constantly on the move. Naturally the companies do not like carrying them on their_ trains for nothing, but their chief objection to the > tramp is the damage he does to goods in transit. He opens case after case of goods in the trucks, in search of small, compact, valuable goods that he can carry away concealed about his clothes. He can’t steal bulky goods, because he would be seen carrying them. In his search for what he wants he throws the contents of the opened cases about, and tramples on them. He breaks bottles containing liquid goods, and he bursts other containers, the contents of which are ruined by the liquids flowing about. In this way some millions of dollars’ worth of property is destroyed by tramps. The brakesmen (i.e., guards) on American trains have instructions to search for tramps and put them off. On some trains there are officials whose chief duty is to see that no tramps get on hoard. Mr Davies thus describes an encounter ho and his mate Brum had with the brakesman of a train on which they were riding on the bumpers of a car. “Hullo, where are you two going P” carao the brakesman’s voice from the top of the car. “To the hop fields,” I answered. “ Well, I guess you won’t get to them on this train, so jump off, at once. Jump! d’ye hear?” He cried, using a great oath, as he saw wo were little inclined to obey. Brum was now wide awake. (Both Brum and he had been drinking, and were not sober.) “ If you don’t jump at once,” shouted this irate brakesman, “ you will be thrown off.” “To jump,” said Brum quietly, “ will bo sure death, and to be

thrown off will mean no more.”' “ Wait until I come back,” cried the brakesman, “ and we will see whether you ride this train or not,” on which he left us, making his way towards tho caboose. “ Now,” said Brum, “when he returns wo must be on the top of the car, for he will probably bring with him a pin to strike us off the bumpers, making us fall under the wheels.” We quickly clambered on top, and in a few minutes could see a light approaching us, moving along the top of the cars. We were now lying flat so that he might not see us until he stood on the same car. He was very near to us when we sprang to our feet, and unexpectedly gripped him, ono on each side, and before he could recover from his first astonishment. In all my life I have never seen so much fear on a human face. He must have seen our half-drunken condition, and at once gave up all hopes of mercy from suck men, for ho stood helpless, not knowing what to do. If he struggled it would moan the fall and death of the three, and did he remain helpless in our hands it might mean being thrown from that height from a car going at the rate of thirty miles an hour. “Now,” said Brum to him, “ what is it to be? , Shall we ride this train without interference, or shall we have a wrestling bout up here, when the first fall must be our last? Speak 1” “Boys,” said he, affecting a short laugh, “ you have the drop on me; you can ride.” Wc watched him making his way back to the caboose, which he entered; but every moment I expected to see him reappear assisted by others. It might have been that there was some friction amongst them, and that they would not ask assistance from one another. . . At any rate American tramps know well that neither the engineer nor the fireman, his faithful attendant, will inform tho conductor or brakesman of their presence on a train. The name of Jeff Carr was known to hobos. from one end of the country to another as a fiend who had murdered many of their class. His headquarters were at Cheyenne, in the State of Wyoming. Sometimes he was mounted on a white horse, and as he rode beside a train would shoot at any hobos on tho roofs of the cars. “ What the real facts were concerning the career of Jeff Carr, I don’t pretend to say,”- writes Mr Glen H. Mullin, in ‘ The Adventures of a Scholar Tramp.’ “ But from Maine to Texas, wherever I had foregathered with hobos, bis name had been spoken with dread. Ho must have been a terrific personage to cast shuddering ripples on the most remote shores of Hoboland. Sometimes_ he was represented as dead, sometimes as still alive, murdering and maiming every hoho he could lay his hands on, shooting them off decks (roofs of cars) or rods, or fiendishly manhandling them in cells. Among the hobos he came to bo a symbol of cunning and ferocity; even bis white horse came to be possessed of demoniac powers.” FOOT CUT OFF. In the end Mr Davies met with a serious accident while attempting to jump on a moving train. Ho was travelling with a tramp known as Three-fingered Jack, and they arranged to board a passenger train just as it moved out of the station, Davies allowed his companion to leap first. The latter was successful in getting on to the step and holding tho handlebar, but he was slow in getting off the step on to the platform of tho car, and there was no room for Davies on the step until it was clear. “ I still held to the handlebar, but the train was now going so fast that I found great difficulty _ in keeping up with it,” writes Mr Davies. “ I shouted to him to clear the step. This he proceeded to do, very deliberately, I thought. Taking a firmer grip on tho bar, I jumped, but it was too late, for the train was now going at a rapid rate. My foot came'short of the step, and I fell, and, still clinging to tho handlebar, was dragged several yards before I relinquished my bold. And there I lay for ■ several minutes, feeling a little shaken, while the train passed swiftly qp into tho darkness. Even then I did not know what had happened, for I attempted to stand, but found that something had happened to prevent mo from doing this. Sitting down in an upright position, I then began to examine myself, and now found that the right foot was severed from the ankle.” THE HOBO MILLIONAIRE. The hoho is the slang name for the , tramp in America, but there lias been an effort to confine the term to • the

man on the tramp in search of work, and to exclude the tramp who shuns work and lives by begging and stealing. There are thousands of both these classes of tramps in _ America. The hobos include men moving about in search of work with the idea of settling down if they can find a permanent job, but the real hobo is a man who hates the idea of settling down, and loves the freedom of moving about the country from one job to another. The ‘Hobo News’ a monthly magazine, published at St. Louis, and sold for ten cents (6d) a copy, gives him information about the prospects of work in different States, and discusses topics that are of special interest to him. This periodical is one of the many non-paying enterprises, which were financed by James Eads How, who was known throughout the United States as the hobo millionaire. Hr How, as he was generally called, was a member of a wealthy American family, living at St. Louis. He revolted against the _ ease and comfort of a rich man’s life, and became a hobo, in order to study the problems of the homeless worker. “He was a kindly, ingratiating, almost saintly man, but not an inspiring personality,” states Mr Nels Anderson, in his book ‘ The Hobo: The Sociology of the Homeless man.’ He was a visionary and a dreamer, who looked forward to the rebirth of civilisation on the basis of the brotherhood of man. To him the hobos were “ a chosen people, who were destined to reach the promised land eventually. He founded the International Brotherhood Welfare Association, with the object of improving the condition of the hobos, and ultimately reforming the_ social system. The programme or this association, known as the 1.8.W.A., lays stress on welfare work, brotherhood, and cooperation among the hobos. In contrast to the 1.W.W., which has many adherents among the hobos, and advocates force and “ direct action as a means for the accomplishment of its ends, the 1.8.W.A. aims as revolutionising the social and_ industrial systems by means of education. One of the other projects of Dr How, whose death was reported a few weeks ago, was the establishment of a central hobo university in America, to which the hobo colleges already existing in a number of American cities, would bo feeders. These hobo colleges, which were financed by Dr How, were auxihary institutions of the 1.8A\.A,, As a firm believer on social progress through education, he sought by means of these colleges, to bring the rudiments of the natural and social sciences within the reach of the hobo worker. They provided the hobo with the opportunity of discussing topics of practical and vital interest to his class, and of attending lectures by professors, teachers, and free-lance intellectuals. These hobo colleges carry on their activities only during the winter months, when work in the rural areas is slack, and the hobos congregate in the big cities. Another of Dr How’s projects was the establishment of lodging houses in tho chief cities, where hobos would be able to rest, read, sleep, free of charge, and cook their .own meals, provided by themselves. Before his death he had opened more than twenty of these lodging houses in various cities.