Kansas Charley, after fleeing the Colt family in Randolph, Kansas was totally on his own. There were no interfering adults to tell him when to rise and get to work, or when to go to bed. Kansas Charley was his own boss at last, although often a hungry one. He learned considerable about surviving in a cold, uncaring world. He also learned how to hop a freight train without paying a fare as he worked his way across country.
Another Fresh Start Goes Sour
After several weeks of hopping trains and going without food, in the spring of 1889, Charley was picked up by a traveling salesman. The man took Charley to the town of Glenwood, Iowa where Charley landed another newspaper job with William Robinson. In an interview later, Mr. Robinson stated that Charlie's work in his print shop was "bright" and that he was "a smart compositor." So what went wrong this time? Robinson also said that at home Charlie became "uncooperative and, finally, duplicitous."
Sunday School and a New Suit
Mrs. Robinson saw in Charley a chance to do missionary work. She made him bathe often and bought him a new suit. She also made him promise that he would go to church and Sunday school regularly. Charley was with the Robinsons for two months. He went to church only twice in spite of his promise. Religious schooling and the social life, or lack of them, in such a small town bored him. But by now Charley had developed a new interest, one that he found exciting and could be had cheaply, reading Dime Novels. Probably this new interest was a way of escaping, at least mentally, from his old bedwetting problem.
On the Road Again
Perhaps with one or two of these cheap to be had printed pulp fiction books, called Dime Novels, in tow Kansas Charley again fled from adult authority. If he took some novels with him they were not all that Kansas Charley took. With him went the new suit of clothes and some of Mrs. Robinson's hard-earned egg money, stolen right from the lady's kitchen. How much of the turmoil over bedwetting played a part in Charlie's flight this time is uncertain.
Kansas Charley and the Tramping Life: Dime Novel Heroes Don't Wet Beds , continues with Kansas Charley Ships Ahoy: I Want to Be Like Jesse, Slim, and Dan.
Previous: Kansas Charley Moves On and On: Goodbye Charley Miller, Hello Kansas Charley.
