Hutchinson, Kansas

In Hutchinson, Sandburg learned that people who lived near the tracks were less likely to help out errant travelers because they were approached so often.

In his autobiography, he remembered:

I walked eight or ten blocks and hit two houses. "Have you got any work I can do for breakfast?" They took one look at me and shut the door. At the third house a woman sent her daughter to get me a saw, showed me a woodpile and a sawbuck. For an hour I kept the saw going, piled the wood, and went to the house.The smiling mother and daughter led me to the family table, set fried ham and potatoes, apple sauce, bread and coffee, before me.

• Hutchinson, Kansas

  
  

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  In Hutchinson, Sandburg learned that people who lived near the tracks were less likely to help out errant travelers because they were approached so often.

  In his autobiography, he remembered:

  I walked eight or ten blocks and hit two houses. "Have you got any work I can do for breakfast?" They took one look at me and shut the door. At the third house a woman sent her daughter to get me a saw, showed me a woodpile and a sawbuck. For an hour I kept the saw going, piled the wood, and went to the house.The smiling mother and daughter led me to the family table, set fried ham and potatoes, apple sauce, bread and coffee, before me.