;GIFT OF Class- of 1900 THE ROAD THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO ATLANTA SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO THE ROAD BY JACK LONDON AUTHOR OF "THE CALL OF THE WILD," "WHITE FANG," ETC. ILLUSTRATED gcrfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1907 All rights reserved *<* COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE COMPANY. COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1907. Nortocott J. 8. Cushing Co. Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. " Speakin in general, I ave tried em all, The appy roads that take you o er the world. 1 Speakin in general, I ave found them good For such as cannot use one bed too long, But must get ence, the same as I ave done, An go observin matters till they die." Sestina of the Tramp-Royal. I 74259 JOSIAH FLYNT THE REAL THING, BLOWED IN THE GLASS CONTENTS PACK CONFESSION i HOLDING HER DOWN 24 PICTURES 53 "PINCHED" 74 THE PEN 98 HOBOES THAT PASS IN THE NlGHT 122 ROAD-KIDS AND GAY-CATS I S 2 Two THOUSAND STIFFS 175 BULLS 196 ILLUSTRATIONS " " The tall negro and I had the place of honor . Frontispiece FACING PAGE " The doors were slammed in my face "..... 3 " " I stood in the open door 4 " " A bone to the dog is not charity . 7 " " I knocked softly at the kitchen door . .10 " looked at when she into the . She me closely got me light". 17 as I was with full lunch" . "Just leaving, my arms of .21 On the Rods 24 " " It was the largest hand-out I ever saw 26 " " Evidently the guests hadn t liked cake either . 28 " A Set-down 30 " I have been hit by lanterns two or three times " ... 32 " I make a spring with my legs and muscle myself up with my arms" 35 11 1 look down and see them "....... 37 " I rise to " my feet and walk down the train half a dozen cars . 39 " I crawl on hands and knees across the rail on the opposite side " and gain my feet 42 " My fingers grip the handhold, and my feet land on the steps with sharp violence " 48 " I " was awakened by the sliding open of the door . -50 "A set-down with two maiden ladies, with them beside me at the table" 55 "I gathered in a newspaper from the doorway of some late-riser" 56 " I came to a lot of fellows who were in swimming off one of the piers" 58 xii ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE " " Even a set-down could not have lured me away . 74 " " I started down the road 76 " " We were led into the office of the Penitentiary . 85 " " Each story a row of cells 87 " " We filed into the barber shop 90 Our Bunks 94 The Prison-yard 99 " " Just inside the door were piled trays of bread . .100 "All the guard did was to unlock the door" . 106 " " I stooped to pick up my bundle . .112 I . "A few minutes later was on board a freight" .120 "Shacks" . * . 133 " " We entered them through hatchways in the top of the car . 135 " He pointed out of doors ". 136 " " Grabbed me by the heels and dragged me out . .138 " " I offered to shove coal to the end of his run . .140 . "It was the sheriff" . < . 142 " " I found the car with the leeward door open for ventilation . 144 " " A puff of wind caught us, and we shot away . .156 "There was I bare-headed in the street" ... .165 s " " Drunken men are the especial prey of the road-kids . .172 " " I was carrying two buckets . .186 " " I took my pick . 193 " One afternoon I arrived at the park " 206 " " I saw myself across in Blackwell s Island . 208 a bonfire" . "By 210 " I went down to the depot and caught the first blind out" . 218 THE ROAD THE ROAD CONFESSION THERE is a woman in the state of Nevada to whom I once lied continuously, consistently, and shame of I t lessly, for the matter of a couple hours. don want to apologize to her. Far be it from me. But I do want to explain. Unfortunately, I do not know her name, much less her present address. If her eyes should chance upon these lines, I hope she will write to me. It was in Reno, Nevada, in the summer of 1892. Also, it was fair-time, and the town was filled with petty crooks and tin-horns, to say nothing of a vast and hungry horde of hoboes. It was the hungry hoboes that made the town a town. "hungry" They " " battered the back doors of the homes of the citi zens until the back doors became unresponsive. hard for A town "scoffings," was what the hoboes called it at that time. I know that I missed many a meal, in spite of the fact that I could "throw my feet" with the next one when it came to "slamming 2 THE ROAD for or or a gate" a "poke-out" a "set-down," hitting for a on the street. I was so "light piece" Why, hard put in that town, one day, that I gave the por ter the slip and invaded the private car of some itin erant millionnaire. The train started as I made the platform, and I headed for the aforesaid millionnaire with the porter one jump behind and reaching for me. It was a dead heat, for I reached the millionnaire at the same instant that the porter reached me. I had no time for formalities. "Gimme a quarter to eat I on," I blurted out. And as live, that millionnaire dipped into his pocket and gave me . just . precisely ... a quarter. It is my conviction that he was so flabbergasted that he obeyed automatically, and it has been a matter of keen regret ever since, on my part, that I didn t ask him for a dollar. I know that I d have got it. I swung off the platform of that private car with the porter manoeuvring to in kick me the face. He , missed me. One is at a terrible disadvantage when trying to swing off the lowest step of a car and not break his neck on the right of way, with, at the same time, an irate Ethio pian on the platform above trying to land him in the face with a number eleven. But I got the quar ter ! I got it ! I UhllVE The doors were slammed in my face. CONFESSION 3 But to return to the woman to whom I so shame * lessly lied. It was in the evening of my last day in Reno. I had been out to the race- track watching the the ponies run, and had missed my dinner (i.e. mid day meal). I was hungry, and, furthermore, a com mittee of public safety had just been organized to rid the town of just such hungry mortals as I. Already a lot of my brother hoboes had been gathered in by John Law, and I could hear the sunny valleys of California calling to me over the cold crests of the Sierras. Two acts remained for me to perform be fore I shook the dust of Reno from my feet. One was to catch the blind baggage on the westbound overland that night. The other was first to get some thing to eat. Even youth will hesitate at an all-night ride, on an empty stomach, outside a train that is tearing the atmosphere through the snow-sheds, tun nels, and eternal snows of heaven-aspiring mountains. But that something to eat was a hard proposition. I was "turned down" at a dozen houses. Sometimes I received insulting remarks and was informed of the barred domicile that should be mine if I had my just deserts. The worst of it was that such as sertions were only too true. That was why I was pulling west that night. John Law was abroad in 4 THE ROAD the town, seeking eagerly for the hungry and homeless, for by such was his barred domicile tenanted. At other houses the doors were slammed in my face, cutting short my politely and humbly couched request for something to eat. At one house they did not open the door. I stood on the porch and knocked, and they looked out at me through the window. They even held one sturdy little boy aloft so that he could see over the shoulders of his elders the tramp who wasn t going to get anything to eat at their house. It began to look as if I should be compelled to go to the very poor for my food. The very poor con- . stitute the last sure recourse of the hungry tramp.