ason, rounded us
up.

One or two made a break for it, and escaped, followed by a random shot.
After that, no one else cared to be chased after by a bullet.

They conducted us to what they had termed "the calaboose," a big,
ramshackle, one-roomed barn-like structure. Piled in so thick that we
almost had to stand up, there were so many of us--we were held there
till next morning.

But we were served, then, a good breakfast, at the town's expense. The
owner of the restaurant was a queer little, grey-faced, stringy fellow.
He fed us all the buckwheat cakes and sausages we could hold, and won
every hobo's heart, by giving all the coffee we could drink ... we held
our cups with our hands about them, grateful for the warmth.

"Say, you're all right, mister!" ventured a tramp to the proprietor, as
he walked by.

"Bet your God-damned life I'm all right!... because I ain't nothin' but
a bum myself ... yes, an' I'm not ashamed of it, neither ... before I
struck this burg an' started this "ham-and" and made it pay, I was on
the road same es all o' you!"

"Kin I have more pancakes, boss, an' another cup of coffee?"

"You sure can, bo!... es I was sayin', I'm a bum myself, an' proud of it
... and I think these here damn bulls (policemen ... who were sitting
nearby, waiting for us to finish) have mighty little to 'tend to,
roundin' up you boys, now the orange-pickin' season's over with, an'
puttin' you away like this ... why, if any one of them was half as
decent as one o' you bums--"

"Sh! fer Christ's sake!" I admonished, "they're hearing you."

"That's jest what I want 'em to do ... I don't owe nothin' to no man,
an' it's time someone told 'em somethin'."

* * * * *

Breakfast over, we were marched off to the courthouse. We were turned
loose together in a large room. We felt so good with the sausage, cakes
and coffee in our bellies, that we pushed each other about, sang,
jigged, whistled.

As we had walked in, I had asked, of the cop who walked by my side--who
seemed affable....

"Say, mister, after all what's the idea?"

"We had to make an example," he returned, frankly.

"I don't quite get you!"

"Last week a bunch of bums dropped off here at our town, and they
almost ran the diggings for about twenty-four hours ... insulted women
on the streets ... robbed ice-boxes ... even stole the clothes off the
lines."

"In other words, you mean that a bunch of drunken yeggs dropped in o