Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 November 1886 — Getting a Drink. [ARTICLE]

Getting a Drink.

“I was in Dakota myself,” remarked a passenger, “and I saw how easily some of these tramps make a living, for I suppose they call it a living when they get a drink of whisky and something to eat thrown in. The tramps were thick and had been for some time. They would hang around a small town and bother the people almost to death. It is really dangerous to have so many of these vagabonds about. But they won’t work, they tell me, and the result is that it is pretty difficult to get rid of them. “Up in a little town—the name I can’t recall—l happened to be waiting from one train until another. There was noth gto do, so I went into a saloon to get some beer. "While there drinking three of these tramps came in and odered three drinks of whisky. “ ‘Have you got any stuff?’ said the saloon-keeper. “ ‘Course,’ replied one of the thirsty trio, ‘we’s playing the “crow” act, we is.’ “ ‘Where?’ asked the man behind the bar. “The spokesman named the farm at which he was employed, showed an order, and the three men got their drinks and departed. When they went out 1 asked what was meant by the ‘crow act,’ when he told me that some of the farmers got the tramps to take the part of the scarecrow in the wheat fields and keep the birds away. The tramps took turns, he said, in standing up on a platform high above the wheat and occasionally thawing a rock at a flock of birds. As fhere was no work about it the tramps took it. It paid them very little, usually two or three drinks arid a bite to eat, but even this they considered living, as long as they did not have to work for it.” — St. Paul Globe.