Show HOBO LIFE UFE IN DEATH VALLEY j. j 1 SOlitary Life of Tramps ramps Who I Wander Over the the Desert SOMETIMES COMMIT CRIME cic 1 The They Pear Fear to Herue Tho Tramp I a. a would you ou who VIto feed an oci oc- oc i hOllo from y your our UP back doorStep door door- Step anI nt at l his feet Ceet worn wOIn from 11 over O a f few w miles of oC well laid roads road his hIa strewn Jm grass from think Sleeping In Iii ha or of n. n tramp mp who vio of ot Covers hundreds are arc miles from Crom n n a Year vo Jear x whose whoRe o feeding places Span apart wi whose twenty e to fitly fifty miles places es are aro equally rt distant rO from frons each euch other other other-In In H ort win b 1 C d and ond bout beat boutto so to speak are the tho va vast t floor v l of the thc c desert Yet lot there la Is exactly such clans claM a u real tramps yet et aS us different cren from Crom rom t the tramps of ot clUes cities as cia day Is from night ht tramps with l nothing to do Jo hut ut eat cat They to do not Kl have to b bog e f food oJ comes them f fear r. r The They do not at have o oat to pearch 1611 out sheltering barns a I bush Is 18 theIr shelter the thC sands of f the thc desert deMelL theIr couch In spite of oC f Its aril wastes Bastes in spite ot of the c discomforts and tile the positive dangers to c which even well equipped on the desert lesert are subjected says 18 the time San Francisco Chronicle the tho great reat sand sandy plain Is s come to have havo a species of ot tramp hamp of Its own not nol an outgrowth oute from civilized places but an nn orl origination of or its own an all inter inter- esting as ns well as lloyd novel no branch of ot u It worthless tribe Even Death Valle Valley the most baren bar bar- ren rca and dangerous of all deserts known to cIvilized el man nina has its hoboes Who wander wandel up and down its dismal length through all fo seasons of the tho year save savo the thc vel very hottest part of th the sum sum- I. I mer Conic Come fi from ii Small Toxins JO 4 Time The headquarters of or all de desert crL tramps are arc in some small town on the thc borders of oC the re region lon over which q thc they wander Daggett has more than its Us share of them So o also has Handsburg Randsburg Hands Rands- bur burg Johannesburg Ivanpah and anI all that dot lot the level plain julain The They riley arc aIe not that dot clot the time levi plain They are UIe not numerous these foot travelers tra yet et in proportion to tile the population they the are probably a as plentiful a as their belt brethren of tho tile coast const are arc aroun around San Francisco and Los Angeles Their methods of operation are arc vastl vastly different from tho those lo of oC the Co Coast st hol hoboes oco Lc Leaving Ivan- Ivan I pall pali or whatever little town lown they th have havI cumbered luring during th the months month of greatest great great- est eat heat some time lime In late September or October the they strike out alone alono across the time desert One Otie ne p peculiarity of this class clasi of It tram p is It that tha t tIll they Lucy never Cr move mo about in c companies Indeed one ono desert hobo hoho is usually lI the time sworn enemy of nil all tho the rest of his 15 kind Pot For clothing thc they r hn have such things sa as thc they can ron beg possibly a n few earn a u little their months of Idleness idleness idle I ness floss In the town toun and spend that for clothing but as a n rule the they are arc garbed garb sarh- I ed cd in more different colors than was as JON Joseph Ih though of more subdued hue Over his hiM back the d desert lesert lt tramp slings Hn s a gunnysack aCle In which are arc a a. couple of empty tin Hn cans ns a beer bottle or 01 two o of water anti and such food as us he Ito can leg beg or steal Thus equipped usually without n l weapon of an any sort he Invades n a country which has haM brought more men to death tenth than any other equal area In the world outside the great battlefields Travels cl Usually his first stop slop will be bo some twenty live miles out at n a. desert ranch or a n solitary mining camp On the thc way ho travels as slowly us as his food supply will Jet let him Th The cactus fruit i In I. ripenIng about the time time of or y str r In he lie tho and this thin lm a t bit hit on onIs his Is way WRY lull theta there ft art are huge chuch- chuch a lizards of two feet teet in l or more Inore with wHit edible tails tali to tobe tobe tobe be ha had for o tho billing and with the o he lie can can live for r wine m tune time on en a n small Where here nr night ht overtakes overtaken him he sleeps and b by de lear r experience h lie hl kno known which water r holes he can depend de de- dc- dc head pend on to contain the life liCe giving giving JI ing fluid Should one of oC these tanks lank nil fall him him In iii time timo of or exceptional drought ht he hp must push on to the thc next one or retreat to time the settlement whence he lie came cam It If either of these I is too fur Cur for him to reach he ho dl dies s 's an as mummy many of his kind have hR died In the years that arc are gone one for Cor by byman byman I man or beast for tor not even th the dogs doJ's of the will accompany th o f train tramps ru on their Journeys Teamsters and prospectors do 10 not stop slop to hur bury the time tramp when shen his body hody I is hI found which is not often the tho sun iun an and time the storms nf hh naCe take care r of f him im when h lie he lies dies T n I as Indeed thc they did In life liCe Prospectors l Disappear But If the lie water hole toward towAr 1 which he tramps toes does contain plenty of or water he lie will sometimes camp near neal It for tor several ral days clay To rem these springs too come occasional prospectors alone save R. e for or their faithful burros When one cite of these theS whose grubstake was extra large c disappears II his taking talc taJ In ing ore oft Is usually charged to lO the thc Plutos Piute More often ofton so I am told by hy old df f rt t men some seine tramp has felled Celled him with a stone and then after atter robbing his middle middle- bags bals or Om I the thc Into Inlo the th pack on his burro pushes on heart henrt of the desert It Il Is days lays before the dead miner Is discovered dl sometimes sometimes some seine times the thc da days 8 run Into weeks and then all aU trace of the thc murderer has been covered co up and he is somewhere far out out outon on the tIll winding white whito trail living on the food he lie committed an 11 awful crime to get bel The Thc circuit of the desert tramps who start out from Daggett frequently frequent nt I ly runs muis entirely around Death Valley From Daggett tho they go JO out to the China Ranch or 01 to Resting Restine- Springs thence on across low lo lava Java hills Into the Furnace Furnace Furnace Fur Fur- nace and down to tile the theold old borax works at the north end of the allo valley From there It Is a short and anI comparatively safe hike e of a couple of hun hundred red miles into some one of the muting mining camps so that their I tramp all told reaches vel very close to three and sometimes four hundred miles I Circuit of Hf ne On this journey journe water Avater holes arc arc- far apart and amid very uncertain ranches are scattered and tIme tho network of trails so Interwoven cn by the thc feet of or prospectors and of burros that they become a veritable ell veri table maze to the man who does lees not keep close watch on them year ear by br year To 10 make this circuit requires at atlease Ica least lease nine months of the year year from from late September or October to thc tile last of May Slay Pot For the tue remainder of the time year as has been said the thc tramp loafs JonCs around some border town where here he lie has lias to 10 behave himself Jf ropes and tele telegraph raph poles and anI willing men arc are too near neal at al hand for the time committing of crimes climes It is the time lonely ranches on the lie desert that thal suffer suITer most from this class claims of oC wanderers Coming Coniing to the thc ranch house the they In insolently demand food and clothing and they thy get et It ft too If It they do III not nol the he haystack Is burned that night or oven event the thc hou house e is set on lire If Ie the thc family depends on oil a U spring of as HS likely as not hot the tho water hole hoJe will be hued with s st mes nn and earth frequently C springs along the trail are aIe areso so 80 tl treated tho lie tramp thinks that ono one of his Ills en is likely to pass that thaL way in the thc near future and depend on tho the presence s o oC of water in the tank for or himself and hIs Ills stock Ordered Tramps amps Out One incident ent of or this lila 1 kind may be told to Illustrate tile tho devilish schemes these fellows concoct A new manager man man- tiger ager was sent to the thc borax plant on the northern rim of or Death Valle Valley lie was a n. most excellent man mian for the thc work worl worlIn In hand hut but he knew nothing of the people with whom he lie was to todeal todeal todeal toI I deal and tile the first tramp who came caine along was roughly ordered to get out and stay out Now the road over which the borate borato from this tills particular plant was hauled battled to the thc refinery was wasI I long and amid it dr dry and the company had hall nt at necessary nC in- in tanks HUed filled with water waler tf I keeping them for 01 the tho use th them heal on and anel depending and their drivers of lr tile tho wagon walon trams revengeful and angered The Tine tramp an out al alOng nJ this at his treatment set hundred for Cor one road and The Tile result can tank emptied every en the described be bc Ima Imagined than hail better desert out nut two huge hue train next wagon mules and drawn tl lJ by r twenty wagons walon coming to the thc handled b by tS' tS two men inch pushed push push- tank and On finding ln no water first they next by hy the thc lie line ed ell on Oil to lo the tho well nigh reached reache that that- the thc lie men inch were awaited await awalt- but no water crazed with thirst dragged and ani on tho they there ed 01 11 them hem until unlit It Is presumed presumed pre pre- bodies their we weary r they team abandoning the and anti tiled died wandered away II BC c. c and amid the thc lie mules the thc latter laller lat lat- The Thc wagons Weeks weel round found two dead were ter ler quite the skeletons skeleton of not even later but bul desert the men were ever seen cen The Thc better hetter than the thc lie sen hops keps and this its Ils' was secrets ono one of or them Men SIan followed followed fol fol- fol- fol r he lie was sa say lowed the tramp some followed him him who caught The Flie men I have seen desert still live on the thC one of them hut but none can whether they caught Cl this tills particular pile of bones tramp or not Possibly a could tell if it Il could speak for short be lC h he he- shift Is meted metel to the tile man meddles who mine owner tramp or 01 Store More valuable val val- with Ith water on oil the h desert than hail gold Jold It Is and amid worth man many human lives when thrown In the bal hal ance nce I On the desert too mere I is L kind of tramp by no means mean a crimi criminal Pal nal and anti yet ono one of oC tile the most Int interestIng interest interest- West West- Ing ng characters of oC the thc the tho tramp prospector lIe Ho makes the lit easiest living of any allY man mami In Itt the world of oC wildcat 1 not excepting the promoter mines mimics Anti And Jik like liko the promoter h he helios lives os by fleecing the tho credulous The h tramp prospector Is forever discovering discover ing a f fabulously rich prospect Back from Crom lie tho heart of the lie desert ho hn comes cornes loden with samples supposedly from hl his new now discovery but realy picked up imp on the lie dump ump of some established mine Arm Armed d with these It is little trouble for or him to enlist the help 0 of some seine man with more money than hail knowledge e of or the thc desert to develop It the tho mine His first demand deman Is of course a a. grubstake This will consist of 01 a n burro or two If time tho man mami can be talked tallied out of them a sack of beans beaus bacon flour molasses es and amid cooking utensils as aswell aswell aswell well as ns other small things s needful In ill Inthe Inthe the work ho ha r rays ays he is going to tn un nn- nn Thus provided the time prospector pros pros- sets out camps at some ome wen well hidden water vater hole and anti there spends his limn until the lie grubstake gives Ives out nut Then providing with still null betor better hottel bet hot tel ter or samples of or ore he lie returns reports report to hl his Imis angel el that there here is yet more moro work tp bo ho done oro re the best ore can cnn be reached und and if possible talk him out nut of a fresh supply of or food lood If It the tho backer has not riot been boen warned he lie usually usually usual usual- ly puts up the tho 25 or thereabouts necessary c essary essaiy Jr to outfit the prospector visions of or coming wealth held before his Ills eager caser I eyes yes tho thu while by hr tho ho miner an and 1 out the wanderer goes oeR a again aln There nr aro nr cn casts cases s 's on record where one ono man lma Im has thus boen heen flimflammed three times Lines hut hul twice is usually the tho limit Then somewhere In the interim be between he- he tween twe two days bays the tramp prospector disappears and that particular camp RC sees CS no more of him until memories of his dealings w th this particular man manhave manhave manhave have disappeared While the affair is im wearing oft off he lie is operating at ot some other tiler camp amp and amI so the story goes goe year after year oar until eventually in sonic some om of his wanderings tit the tho tramp prospector strikes a n good mine and andI can cami II live honestly or 0 until he lie meets with sonic some one who takes a reparation cut of him with a gun I |