the sign language. Another boy had been taught to throw his hand and
fingers so far "out of joint" that a real crippled-for-life paralytic
could not have improved upon the deceptive deformity. Both of these lads
used duckets, pencils, shoestrings and thimbles as an addition to their
mute appeals, although it is a well-known fact that no genuinely
afflicted paralytics or mutes, least of all boys, ever resort to begging
for their living.

In the evening after supper had been served and things had somewhat
quieted down in the rooms, almost dumfounded by surprise Jim watched
Snippy's jocker paint a strong solution of lye into the dreadful
sore--known in the hobo vernacular as a "jigger"--upon the road kid's
arm. The poor little lad shrieked with pain as the acid ate into his
quivering flesh, which deepened the wound still more and gave it a
"fresh" look, which greatly added to its horrid repulsiveness so as to
all the more arouse the pity of those from whom he would be forced to
beg on the coming morning.

[Illustration: After supper Jim watched a hobo paint acid into the
dreadful sore upon Snippy's arm and heard the little lad shriek with
pain when the fluid ate into his quivering flesh.]

Joe made careful inquiries of one of the friends he had made among the
road kids, and this boy told him that oftentimes these inhuman monsters
continued the lye treatment for such a length of time and so fearfully
corroded their helpless victim's limbs, that blood-poisoning set in and
made amputations necessary to save their lives. The deeply seared, white
scars which these "jiggers" leave during the balance of the road kids'
natural lives, prove to those who are versed in the ways of the road, in
which school of crime a criminal branded with these tell-tale scars