Well, I was going to tell you about getting to California. It was a
little rough, but it wouldn't hurt. One of these guys that stayed up in
there, he had a little old small book in his …and he had a whole bunch
of hatchecks in this thing that they used in the trains at that time to
stick in your hat and it points to where you're going to see, you get on
there and give them your ticket and he's got a certain point and a
certain color hatcheck and all for the town you're going to. Well, I
picked that up from one of these old guys and he said hell, he'd get on
there and buy a ticket from Tyronza to Marked Tree if he wanted to go to
Jonesboro and he'd get on there and he'd find out someone that's going
to Jonesboro and he'd look through his book and get a hatcheck like the
one that they was using for Jonesboro and stick it in his hat and ride
on free. So, I picked that idea up from him and I found out that these
Jews was going to the West Coast, so each time the conductor would come
through and say that hell, he couldn't separate those things, so he'd
give all these fourteen hatchecks to one guy and he'd distribute them
out…and they was strung
Page 50 out all up and down the
car and I stood up after we left Kansas City, I stood up there for one
or two days, I don't know and the train was running eight hours slow,
when I got off. I finally, well, I rode through two or three divisions
on hatchecks and they pulled a car I was in, I was in the tail end and
I'd swapped the hatcheck and I didn't want them picking up on me, so I'd
gone way down at the back end of the train and this chaircar train had
held them back, because they was having to stop and let people on andoff
and it was slowing the whole thing down. So, they put one of these
coaches off and put it on the Pullman and I was on that coach and that
knocked me out, I didn't have anyone to get hatchecks from. So, I made
me one out of a ticket…I plugged up the whole, I bit the corner off and
chewed it up and waded it in this other hole over here and then I cut
another one on this side and I knew that would carry me to the end of
the division. I knew what I needed, but I couldn't find one, so the
conductor come through. Well, I had a six-shooter, had it in my shirt,
or under my coat. And, there'd been a guy in the penitentiary escape, I
think it was in Utah and they was looking for him on all these trains
and well, anyway, the conductor come through and I had stuck this thing
way down in my cap there and he reached up to get it,
Page 51 and I thought, "Oh Lordy, he's gonna…" But, he couldn't see
it, that was all. He didn't recognize that I'd messed it up. Well, it
like to scared me out of my wits and I was going to put that gun on him
and make him stop the train and let me off, because I'd talked to
another guy on the train and he'd told me that if they caught me doing
that, they'd put me in the lock-up. But, when we got to I think it was
Alberguergue, I got that far. I got off at night and I know that there
was lights up on the train and I got off though, and expressed my
suitcase into Long Beach and I got on top on this passenger train…they
had electric lights up over that train then, or gas lights one, I don't
know which, but it wasawfully lit up and I sure was scared to get up
there. Anyway, we pulled out of there and this was just before
Thanksgiving and we got up in those mountains and that thing rocked
around in those mountains and I'd heard about these guys freezing to
death on those damn trips and so forth and I had on a, I think, two wool
shirts and a wool coat over that and I was well wrapped up with a fur
cap and so forth. But, I was getting pretty cold and had a big pair of
leather gloves and some cavass gloves inside of them but, anyway, I got
scared about that thing and I thought this ain't gonna do and I looked
down
Page 52 in there and they hadn't snapped this flap
that holds the door closed…it was sticking up. And I saw that thing
raised up so I come down between those cars and I was rocking around in
the mountains up there, I could have fell off there pretty easy. But, I
come down between those two cars and I swung around on the side and come
up through that flap and I snapped it down and turned around and looked
and there was the conductor looking at me. And, I didn't know it at the
time, but there was this damn coal smoke blowing back over that thing
and I was nearly black, my face and all. Well, he said, "Where you
going?" and I told him, "I caught on the side back there, I was late for
the train and I just now got in." I didn't know where I was so I
couldn't tell him where I was going, so I said I was going to this next
little town down there. I had a timetable and all but I didn't know how
far I'd come or anything…and anyway, I said, "How much is it?" He was
looking at me real hard. And he got a little book out and said "Four
Dollars." Well, I knew he was pulling my leg and I had a two dollar bill
in my pocket and I pulled it out and said that all I had was two dollars
and I just handed him that and turned around and went into the rest room
and that's when I found out that my face was coal black…but, I got to
California anyway and I didn't stay
Page 53 out there too
long, about three or four months.