| Show TRAVELED WITHOUT COIN of loy york sun little joe sepp a lively newsboy of 13 who eella the sun every sunday on the streets of reading 13 probably the most experienced boy traveler in the country in twelve months he traveled miles by rail across the continent and all through mexico and never paid a cent for all that riding although alone and was entirely dependant on bis own resources he covered the whole distance as he bays by bumming it always on through freight trains except on one occasion when he struck a lucky lift on a passenger coach lie has only oue hand and arm the left but his empty right sleeve baa been rather a help than a drawback to him for the watchful brakemen whom he encountered on his travels never had the heart to put him off the cars when they sized up his age and height and noticed that little sleeve dangling empty at his side little joes face and general appearance too are always prepossessing and his big brown eyes with long drooping lashes and his healthy jovial round cheeks win him friends at sight wherever he goes he is the brightest and regular wonder of pluck and self re liance little joe formbly lived in sedalia mo with his parents who originally came from this city when he was 10 years old he lost his right arm below the shoulder by fooling around a passenger eni en i gine with some other boys as boys will do two years ago the family removed to kansas city he grew restless at school and wanted to travel so in july of last year unknown to his father aad mother be left home and struck out for the great south west it was night when he crawled over the back gale and slipped off to the suburbs of the town where the big freight trains are side tracked lie got on one of the outward bound trains lying in the yard and hid himself in an immense boiler inside a boxcar on the atchison topeka aud santa fe road A brakeman discovered him the next day but instead of shoving him off the train gave him something Eom ething to eat then and each day afterward during the trip the train went straight through to santa fe new mexico a distance of miles joe immediately de ter mined to make himself useful and to earn enough money to keep him in food and clothing BO he did odd jobs here and there carried baggage to hotels from the trains and ran errands he knocked about in santa fe awhile and then visited fort stanton albuquerque las vegas san michael aud other towns in new mexico afterward he went to el paso chihuahua luis potosi and an juan del hio remaining at each city a few weeks and finally reached the city of mexico on december ast 1st by that time joe had picked up a very serviceable smattering of spanish he frequented the pas depots in the capital city and noticed that a great many american travelers got off the care every day A bright idea came to him he wondered if he make money by interpreting for these americans when they struck the town he went in to the passenger depot and offered hia services to the station master that official laughed when he saw the one armed boy nud scared him make the offer to serve as interpreter but finally engaged him then joe had all the work he could do and the american tourists whose satchels he carried and for whom he gave dai erections ions at the hotel in spanish paid him handsomely some days be netted as much as 89 and 10 joe however spent his money freely the mexican circus jaap aured his fancy and he attended the performances every night the best seat on the top row cost 81 while the cheapest seats were to be had for a quarter he greatly enjoyed the bullfights bull fights too and other vigorous outdoor exercise in the city and never ro issod any sporting event that was considered worth witnessing besides the buo of seeing these things joe found that wherever the biggest crowd was there the beet ebancu lor him to make money by interpreting he acquired a great fondness for mexican pancakes and peppered begins and highly flavored hodgepodge hodge podge which he habitually bought from mexican street peddlers he remained in the beautiful city until the latter part of march when with some regret he struck out to return to the states having a strong desire to see life in texan territory through the engle pass and made bis way at once to san antonia there after a time he boarded a fast freight oa the missouri kansas and lexas road and went flying northeasterly through texas and up through arkansas and kansas to topeka thence ho boarded another train and reached kansas city but as he himself went humming through it and stop having no use for that town then from kaneai city he went to joliet and saw a big penitentiary there then on to chicago then back to st louia to louisville then indian amolie and again to chicago oa the trip indianapolis to chicago he rodo on the platform next to the tank of the engine on a pas benger train it was a cold night in april and be pulled hh jacket over his ears the engineer saw him and was about to put him ait oit when he saw that joe had only one arm the circumstance touched the engineers heart and he helped the waif up on the engine As soon as the train made the first stop the engineer said to the conductor put that buy in a car and the conductor did so A mouth later joe turned up in pittsburg Pitta burg where he beard people talking about the great conemaugh dia ater pie hurried to johnstown and spent a week there looking at men digging up drowned bodies after that he went to then to and finally reached reading the latter part ot july relatives of his mother reside here at maple street so be bunted them up and went to live with them heie he is happy |
