ADVENTURES OF A SCHOLAR - TRAMP. By Glen Mullen.
(Cape. 7s. 6d. net.)
Tim recognized method of travel in the United States amongst hobos is apparently to climb unseen on to the roof of a train and cling to a funnel there, while the cinders come flying back from the engine. Mr. Mullen has tried it and succeeded, not without adventures, in covering some seven thousand miles thereby. It requires iron nerves. Besides, there are always " dicks " on the look-out for offenders. And even the firemen are apt to be unsympathetic, as Mr. Mullen once found, when he just escaped a stream of hissing hot water directed on him from the engine. But such journeys by train were not Mr. Mullen's only adventures. For four months he travelled without a cent in his pocket, the companion of some of the most amazing " bums " that have ever been put into a book— including one who had a frieze of ballet-dancers tattooed across his chest, snakes and hearts and flags upon his arms, and the Rock of Ages down his back. Hobos are wily fellows ; and there is not much about the psychology of human nature that they do not know. Not the least interesting thing about them. however, is the vocabulary they have evolved: " frisk- ing his clothes " for lice-hunting, " suds " for beer, " tumb- hugs and a blanket " for tobacco and a cigarette-paper, and so on. Altogether there is hardly a dull page in Mr. Mullen's book, and he has mercifully spared his readers from intruding comments : there is sermon enough in the vivid facts of the plain unvarnished tale he has to tell. ,
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