Kansas University Weekly.
151
God Bless You.
When you've struggled hard and long And the battle has gone wrong And a world of cares oppress you, Like cool water from a spring, Like the balm the south-winds bring Are the simple words, "God bless you."
When you're going far away,
Far from all you love to stray,
And the parting-pangs distress you,
Like a sunbeam in the heart,
Though the choking tears may start,
Are the words, "Good-bye, God bless you."
When the bitter days are past,
When your joy is full at last,
And the winds of heaven caress you,
Then the heart will overflow
While the happy head bends low
And a true friend says, "God bless you."
Be his faith in James or Paul,
One God, many, or none at all,
Whose kind lips the words address you.
Nothing matters; when it needs,
Doubts, philosophies and creeds
Are forgotten in "God bless you."
WILLIAM HERBERT CARRUTH.
The "Out" of Tramp Life.
One evening early in the fall we were sitting on the front porch when an old man came up and asked for something to eat. He had bleary eyes, a very red face and looked as if had been drinking. We had just concluded our supper so we took him into the house and gave him
what remained of it. On closer observation I thought the man looked familiar. "It seems to me that I have seen you before," I said to him. At first he looked confused and then replied, "Well yes, seein' you recognize me, I might as well tell you. I went through this town last spring and I remember I had been fed here and you didn't keep no dog, so I just marked your gate post, remembered it was a green house near the mound and so here I am again."
"Tell us about yourself," we said. Then he related the following story: I have been tramping off and on for three years. My home is up in Nebraska. My daughter lives there. She is poor and has a large family so you see I'm not much in demand at her house. I go there when I 'aint got no place else to go. Last spring when I went through here I was on my way to Missouri to work on my brother-in-law's farm. Last winter I spent the whole winter trampin'. I had a crony out in Colorado workin' in a restaurant and he wrote to me tellin' me I could get a job out there. I didn't have anything to do at home, so I packed my few belongings in a red handerchief, strapped it on my back and started. I didn't have no money to ride in a Pullman so I just took a box car. I got along all right 'till one night I fell in with two other fellows. We were smokin' and set fire to some straw in the car and then we were boosted, and I walked on to Denver. There I met my crony. He asked there wern't no loose jobs in Colorado and he was going back to live off of his folks. After that I took up the life of a tramp for the whole winter. We fellows generally travelled in companies of four or five. We would follow the railroad, stealing a ride when we could. When we entered a town, we each picked out two houses on a street. After we had went our rounds, we gathered at the calaboose or some other warm place and ate our meal together. Sometimes when anyone of us got a good meal at a house, we would put a cross on the fence post so other tramps would go there." "Do you ever go hungry?" said my sister. "Seldom if ever," he