1886 - A Tramp's Story Confronted

Tramps were very common in the Hamilton of 1886, particularly during the winter months.
On January 23, 1886, the Hamilton Spectator published the following encounter between a tramp and a savvy citizen :
“In the olden days, when rattlesnakes were pretty thick along the side of Hamilton mountain, there was an Indian who, when he wanted to go on a periodical spree and get comfortably full, would hunt around for a full-blown rattlesnake that felt a little fresh, and get upon unpleasantness with the snake until he was satisfactorily bitten. He would then go down to John street, show where he was bitten by the snake and get any amount of donation whiskey as a cure. He had repeated the game so often that the Good Samaritans went back on him; and the Indian was compelled to die from want of medicine.

“The Indian story is pretty stale now, but the reminiscence was revived yesterday by the scheme of a tramp. He was coming up James street and had a large bread poultice glued to his arm. A tear was in one eye, and a streak of red meandered down the side of his nose. He had been evidently reading the papers, and told a man he had been bitten by a mad dog and was trying to raise enough money enough to reach Paris to get cured. The citizen addressed read him down one column and up another, and then cross-fired him with his eagle eye from starboard to port.

“ ‘Are you sure you were bitten by a mad dog?’ said the citizen.

“ ‘Certain,’ responded the tramp as he pointed to the poultice.

“ ‘Then, I’m awfully sorry for the dog,’ said the Hamilton man. ‘Any hydrophobic canine that would bite you would be taken off with acute alcoholism before he could reach the nearest drug store. I’m powerfully sorry for the dog!’

“Then the citizen stepped off with the left foot, and the tramp’s new invention got a considerable setback”