tion where mother and father
stayed. My grandmother on my mother's side lived to be 114 years old,
so they have tole me.

"I ran away from home at the age of twelve years and went to
Charleston, South Carolina. I worked with a family there as waitin' boy
for one year. I then went to Savannah, Ga. I had no particular job and
I hoboed everywhere I went. I would wait all day by the side of the
railroad to catch a train at night. I rode freight trains and passenger
trains. I rode the blind baggage on passenger trains and the rods on
freight trains. The blind baggage is the car between the mail car and
the engine. The doors are on the side and none at the end. I hoboed on
to Miami over the Florida East Coast Railroad. I next went from Miami
to Memphis, Tenn. after staying there a few days and working with a
contractor, I again visited Charleston, S.C. I had been there only two
days when I met some Yankees from Minnesota. They prevailed on me to go
home with them, promising if I would do so they would teach me a trade.
I went with them. We all hoboed. We were halted at the Blue Ridge
mountains but we got by without going to jail. We then went to N.J.
From N.J. to Chicago, Ill., then into Milwaukee, Wis., then on into
Minneapolis, Minn. Many towns and cities I visited on this trip, I did
not know where I was. My Yankee companions looked out for me. They
taught me the trade of making chairs and other rustic furniture. They
taught me 164 ways of making different pieces of furniture. I spent 11
years in Minnesota but during that time I visited the South once every
three years, spending several days in the county of my birth. Mother
and father farmed all their lives and they often begged me to settle
down but the wanderlust had me and for 30 years I travelled from place
to place. Even while in Minnesota I did not stay in Minneapolis all the
time. I visited most every town in the state during the eleven years I
stayed there and made hobo trips into most of the adjoining states.

"The main Yankee who taught me the trade was Joe Burton. He and the
gang helped me to get food until I learned the trade well enough so I
could make a living working at it.

"I have made a lot of money making and selling rustic furniture, but
now I am getting old. I am not able to work as I used too. Not long ago
I made a trip from Raleigh to Charleston, S.C., but the trip was
different from the old days. I hitch-hiked the entire distance. I rode
with wh