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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 1921)
G THE SUNDAY OltEGOXIAN, POKTLAM), AUGUST 21, 1921 far Afliii i m r - :.. ..w I h&ve slept la hay lofts without the . llKhtet feajr.n Willie hr xnore tbeorettc&l vlstrs wr asltaticff Xor equal ecnomio rifbta and freedom before aoclety and tbe law, Kath arine Jackson of Hudson, New York, and the world, went out and settled over nlsht tbe feminist problem, so far as It con cerned herself. Today she Is free and lni dependent, she wants for nothing, and ahe calls no man master. Katherine Jackson solved the woman's problem by literally taking to the road Just as any hobo would do. True, ahe led the vagabond's life according to a strictly feminine Interpretation; that is, she some times traveled de luxe' and often was known to leave one town dressed in greasy overalls and show up In the next wearing silk stockings and a nicely tailored coat-suit. But she was a hobo and always took a hobos chancea and shared the fcabo'a luck. This girlish vagabond Is known as "The Queen of the Hoboes," an appellation that was applied to her by membera of her own profession and which was used officially when she acted as the companion of Jeff Davis, the "King of the Hoboes," during the tatter's activities In behalf of the Vic tory loan. Why did she do ltT you wonder. Wander. lust is her answer. What she did and how he did It, is herewith told in her own lan guage. BY KATHERINE JACKSON. v t HT do they call me the queen l of the hoboes? That a not a " bard question to answer. In the first place, because I am a hobo; In the second place, because I am a woman and never did less or more than a true woman would. In all my x-perlences on the road. To the ex tent that every true woman Is a queen so am I a queen. Of course, I was forced to endure a few indignities, but most of these were In the big cities, where any woman, I. regret to say, is likely to be insulted when she is by herself. Bat in all my experiences with hoboes I have never known one to be any- thing but a good pal. I was never cheated and never insulted, even in the many cases where I was a lone girl among a number of men and they knew it. My first real experience in travel ing on my own hook was when I was 13 years old. I didn't realize it then but I am inclined to think now that tbe real reason I made that adventur ous trip was because I had the wanderlust. But at any rate, I had good reason for going. When I was a very little girl lived with my mother at Hudson, N. T. One day my father disappeared without any explanation and we heard nothing of him for five years. Then a letter came from a friend of ours saying that my father had been seen in a little town in Austria. then quietly made up my mind to go and get him, and without consulting my mother, started out. I had a little money of my own an I used this. How I ever got on board the steamef without being stopped is a mystery now. I sup pose the officials believed me whe I eaid I was IS. I was very large for my age and had no trouble in getting accommodations. When we arrived at Trieste I was etill far from ray destination, which was a little village called Kevasiglet In the Interior of Austria. In orde to make the Journey I was forced to sell some of my extra clothing, an when I arrived my father had disap peared again. Developed Hunger for Travel. There I was, 4000 miles away from home without friends and without money. But I took my courage in my hands and started back. I ac- complished the .trip with surprising sw?... ... . i ease. I worked in various capacities and traveled in all kinds of convey ances. But I finally got back to Hudson, safe and sound and not very much different except that I bad de veloped an incurable hunger for go ing places, seeing things and keep ing out in the open. At the time, though, I tried to per suade myself that I was going to stay at home and be like other girls, and was doing that very successfully until Tom left. Til have to explain here that Tom was the man I after ward married. We were very much in love and it wrung my heart to see him go. But he had accepted a posi tion in Atlanta, Ga., and had made all his plans. I walked down to the station with him; we kissed a tearful good-bye, and I vowed to wait until he could 'send for me. A good many months passed and I missed my Tom more and more every day. One day I de cided to go to Atlanta. I had no money, so there was nothing to do but take to the road. In my European trip I hadn't bad much experience with freight cars because I had paid my way along by working. But as it happened this time, I ran Into a knight of the road, almost as soon as I had left our lit tle village behind. He gave me some good advice. "Go down near the water tank and hide in the bushes, child," he said. When -the train stops for water you look for an open door. Don't jump aboard until you see the stoker lift ing the big hose 'pipe out of the en gine's tank. Then you'll know that the Job is finished and that they'll start again soon." I followed his advice and was soon speeding toward New York. Late that afternoon we passed over the draw bridge that spans the Harlem river and a mile farther on we stopped. I climbed out and trudged Into New Tork. I was in the big city several days and picked up a few odd Jobs. But I was soon ready to press on. Tom Had Left for the West. ' My success in "grabbing a rattler" at Hudson emboldened me to try my luck again in Jersey City. But the yards were too well guarded. I took to the road again, but when I got well outside the range of Hacken- sask meadows I located a car that was bound southward and climbed on. Every conceivable sort of adven ture happened to me between that point and my destination Atlanta. In Culpepper county, Virginia, which was my first stop after leaving Jer i sey, I got work on a farm. The farm J er's ion proposed marriage to me af S1 ter I had been there a week. I moved 1 on and thereafter during the trip wore overalls and passed as a boy. In North Carolina I Joined a gang of hoboes and shared their "slum" for two days and picked up many a trick of swinging into a car, lying across the rods and straddling the bumpers. I finally reached Atlanta. With beating heart I approached the ad dress Tom had sent me. But disap pointment was in store for me. The landlady told me he had left two weeks before for Denver to try to re build his failing health. Greatly pertrubed. I started out again, after a few days" rest. When I left home I was dressed in a substantial cloth suit and good, stout, low-heeled shoes. I carried a change of linen and underclothing in a small pack. In Virginia I ex changed my suit for overalls but in Atlanta, after working for a while in THE CYCLONE (Continued From Page S.) its walls covered with the cheapest of .paper a trailing vine pattern, with pink and blue flowers. Some how that had seemed to belong to Edna. The bedstead and the dresser were of the shiniest they had given up the wedding &f home to ,pay for that "suite." "It'll look scrumptious when she gets her little gim-cracks around," he told himself with a smile. As he moved toward the back door he spoke out loud: . "It's convenient and comfortable " he glanced around once more, "and she'll make it beautiful! And it's all paid for there ain't any mortgages, or debt, thank God!" His thanksgiving was so devout that he took off his cap and paused, a somber light in his steady eyes. "She shan't never work herself to death the way mother did," ho was thinking. "It's been hard all-fired hard for both of us, waiting so long five years! But I'm glad I stuck it out. Now we are beginning right, anyway." At this moment he was surer than ever of that. The-fixity of the frozen plains was in the sturdy form and strongly t.'ocked face of the man, as he jogged over the half-thawed road. Tet his thoughts were leaping forward tumultuously. Tomorrow Edna would step from the train to his arms! To morrow Edna would be his wife! To morrow she wesjild come to the house he had built for her! In. this hour. the past that had so long and pain 1 fully preparedor hindered the way Charming Katherine Jackson, Queen of the "Rattler Grabbers," Who Ran Away Because She Had the Wanderlust, Tells oi Her Thrills and Thirsts, and Why Men Are Not a Serious Risk After All. r W ith the aid of a sllsht Imagination, hobolns Is Just like motoring 'cross country In one's own private car. restaurants, I made enough to buy a really smart-looking suit, which I added to my bundle. In that way I was able to alternate as a boy and a girl. On the road I was a boy much of the time, but when I went into the towns I was a girl. After starting out I made a long Jump from Mariet ta, Ga., to Little Bock, Ark., without once seeing a railroad hand. From Little Rock to Wichita, Kan., how ever, my road was a rough one. I was twice thrown off trains. The greater part of that trip was made with the kindly aid of farmers who gave me lifts from time to time. At Wichita I .ran into a college boy who had been working in the wheat fields. With his assistance I made a rapid Jump ' straight into Denver only to land in the arms of a police man. I certainly pleaded hard with the cop and finally prevailed on him to let me loose. An hour later I was for tomorrow, counted for nothing. Tomorrow, for the first time, he would begin to live. It was 3 o'clock the next afternoon before Lon and his bride left the Prewitts, and started home, her trunk, sewing machine and big box in the wagon behind the seat. As the scat tering bouses of the village were left behind, Lon put his arm about Edna t-nd searched her eyes. "At last!" His voice shook with the marvel of it, "Oh. Edna!" "Yes. We are on the way home, at last," she whispered, her eyelids drooping, to hide tears of joy and of madness. In this moment the culmination of fo many postponements, of such scathing delays, they bad not many words to say. They rode on in silence, while flocks of silver-flecked clouds sent shadows chasing across the wide, naked prairie. To the westward a b'ack drift hung. on the horizon. Once Lcn remarked that it looked like rain. "If it waits till we get home we'll not care let it rain," Edna's laugh rippled with new happiness as be laughed with her. Suddenly she lifted t-er head from his shoulder to glance about and cry: "Why, Lon. I didn't know there was a railroad near here!" "There isn't." Then he, too, caught the roar and rumbling of a mighty train. He turned quickly. From the west a dense black cloud was sweep ing toward them with the speed and the scream of a demon train. "Yes, it's a cyclone," he answered Edna's gasping word, while he used Above Sketch of Misa Jack son by a hobo artist pal. Left "Always watt until the freight la ready to pull out before you Jump aboard." Right The view from the top of a freiffht la better than from a Pullman platform, provided your eye Is cinder proof. i , - - . .y..;-,.-,,....,. ,,. ;'V.f Mlas Jackson preferred an outside sleeper when weather was favorable. in another man's arms but it was the arms of my lover, Tom. this time We were married that tall. Right here I would like to say a word of defense of hoboes generally. Contrary to the general belief, he is not a man who is running away from work. He works all the time and at various odd Jobs, in order to pay his way as he goes. He performs these odd jobs conscientiously, too. ' In many cases he is a man of edu cation who has been disappointed in love or business or who is simply tired of staying in one place. In all cases be is a man who is unwilling to call any man master or to be slave to any thumbnail task. All in .all, I have traveled more than 24,000 miles on foot, by rail and in vehicles of many different kinds. My invariable dodge when I am seek ing work along the roadside is to tell the farmer or his wife or the C) BY Loth hands to hold his plunging team. He turned again toward the hurtling mass whose ravening breath , was al ready brushing their faces. "Get out and lie flat on the ground," he directed. Before she could obey the cloud veered and roared away to the northeast. "It's gone over," his voice was wavery. "Is it going- toward home?" she questioned anxiously. "In that direction," he admitted. "But a vagrant twister like that never toes any -harm. It'll hit the ground somewhere or peter out in thin air." Lon drove more rapidly after this. He pointed out the Prossers' house as they passed a dim light within. "I must go and see Molly soon," Edna said. "I feel as If I knew her already-and the baby, too." At last the team swung into a swifter trot of their own accord. "We are almost there," Baxter spoke tensely. He had felt all the time that he should not be sure this was his own Edna the woman of his hopes axd desire until he had crossed tbe threshold of their home, until he had beard her first words of understand ing and appreciation. Edna, looking ahead eagerly through veiling twilight, made out the bulk of the barn. Then Lon drew up the horses so sharply that she was al most pitched out of her seat. Drop ping the reins with an inarticulate sound that made. her heart stop beat ing, he leaped' from the wagon and run on ahead. After a confused, c . . o ' .'''"rV;. storekeeper or whoever it happens to be, that I am going to visit an aunt In the next town ahead. This is a little white lie. but it satisfies their curios ity. Country folk are not nearly as curious as those in the city, anyhow. And their food is so much better. Has Never Regrretted a Single Day. Incdentally I soon learned to love the tramp's dish which is an ag glomeration of everything you can find. I also learned to cook over brushwood fires. and to heat a tin can full of coffee with a couple of matches while riding in a freight car. And I have made many friends. I am known all over America now by the fraternity. I have never regretted a single day of my life on the road. Though I would hardly advise other girls to take it up. it is much easier on a Is I woman than a man. Everything ROSE L. frightened moment she climbed down and ran after him. She stumbled over a board; her feet tripped on scattered brick.- She stopped beside her husband, be fore a jumbled heap, above which a wavering broken column was sil houetted against the sky. "Oh, Lon,". she breathed, "the house where is it?" "There!" He thrust out a clenched fist, "There! The cyclone the cy clonethe house is gone! Our home 's gone!" The words were Jerked out mechanically from an upheaval too deep for expression. They stood together before, the ruins of their house, stunned, frozen by the catastrophe. At last Lon spoke again: "It is the hand o' God. The hand o' God has struck us, like it did my folks! Five years gone it's the end!" Despair, cold, blank despair had shut down upon, his soul. Edna did not speak. All the strain, all the dullness, all the suffering of tbe years seemed lumped upon her heart. In that moment the last trace cf sweet girlishness died in her face. But she was here, beside her man. His salvation was in her hands. The rich womanhood of the pioneer moth ers of our race blossomed into full ness. "No, Lon," she spoke quietly and she reached up and laid protecting arms about his stiffened shoulders. "No, dear, it is not the end. It is only the beginning the right beginning together." A sob tore up throuefe t- Bias's r Katherine Jackson, t There are tLmea when even a hobo fcaa to prepare a meal you Icnotr. Traveling freight disguised as a hoy. in her favor. It is easier to get the kind of work a hobo wants to do and people generally are more kindly dis posed toward a girl than a man, I think. Certainly they have been very kind to me and very considerate, too. In all my travels I have never had reason to fear anything and I slept in the same haystack with two strange men one night. I have known how to take care of myself, it Is true, but one would expect many more advances than I ever received. Perhaps I have been lucky, but all the men with whom I was ever thrown seemed to want to help me to the limit of their powers. Another thing before I forget it. When a hobo needs help he always applies to people in humble circumstances. They give him assistance much quicker than the rich ones. How old am I, you ask. Well, I am more than 20 and less than 25. That's close enough, isn't it? And I'm not what you would call bad looking, if I do say it myself. If you don't be lieve me, look at the pictures on this page.' ELLERBE tody. He dropped his head to her treast. He gave himself to the com fort of her touch, of her lips, as they murmured broken words of love as they kissed her tear-wet cheeks. "That's right," he whispered hoarsely. "That's right! I have been wrong all the time. Edna! Oh, Edna, can you ever forgive me?" Presently,' in the humility of one who has been chastened into recogni tion of his own finiteness, he went on: "Tomorrow I will go to the bank and ask for a loan enough to build another house." "No, you won't, Lon!" Edna slipped a hand into his and drew him away from the wreck, across the rough ground, until they reached a dimly outlined block at the rear. They paused before the blackness that marked an open door, and Edna fin ished: "We will not mortgage our place now, Lon. I've always wanted to live in this dugout, you know. And now I'm going to have my wish. We will just be contented here together until jou get another crop and can build HKain." Lon Baxter straightened up. The revulsion came: "And that will be this year!" hs cried, the strength and courage of youth and love which fate cannot conquer thrilling through the words. "Working together like we ought to have been doing all the time we'll beat this god-damned country yet! We'll build another house next fall, ure!" (Copyright, 1921, iy Ross U EUerbs.1
