"I make these and can carve anyone's face, and I can sell them
anywhere from 25 cents to $2," said the tramp. "I'm the only man
in this country who can do such work, and there's a demand for it
everywhere I stop long enough to do it. I only stop to do it when I
have to, so that I can get a little money for a meal and pay little
expenses, although my living doesn't cost me much. Then, again, I
never drink or smoke, so that item is cut off. They don't know so much
about me in Chicago as in other places, because I never stopped here
long enough to get acquainted; but they know me back East, all right,
and out in the West."
Then A. No. 1 paused long enough to draw his breath and showed a medal
certifying that in 1894 he had hoboed his way across the continent in
eleven days and six hours in company with the representative of an
Eastern paper and had been given $1,000 for doing it.
"That's how I first became famous," he said, "but I took good care of
the money. I went and bought myself a lot in a graveyard at Cambridge
Springs, Pa., so I could be buried respectably when I die, and I paid
part of the premium on a sick benefit so that I can be taken care of
in case I fall sick suddenly. I'm a member of the Chamber of Commerce
of that town, too. I believe in looking out for A. No. 1, and that's
why I've been so prosperous in the tramping way."
Then A. No. 1 launched into a long and picturesque description of the
ways of tramps in general and himself in particular.
"I've always been particular about some things," said he, "and one is
to keep clean. I find that in asking for a handout the man who looks
up-to-date is the man who gets it. I always wear a suit of overalls
when I'm tramping, for I find that it prevents me from being annoyed
by watchmen in railroad yards. I am generally taken for an engineer.
While I was down in a yard here in Chicago one man came and asked if
I had a car lock, thinking I was a railroad man. I told him I did not
have one and walked off. I have prevented a number of train wrecks,
tramping about, probably at least one every year. The last one, as
you see by this letter, was a few months ago. I saw a freight running
along with a broken truck dragging. I jumped aboard and gave the
warning, as you can see by this clipping. I have also been in a number
of wrecks myself, and have never been injured. I always carry a little
bottle of cyanide of potassium in my pocket so that in case I am
ever fatally injured and in great agony I can take it and end all my
trouble in about 20 seconds."