Richmond Press, Inc.                          Richmond, VA                          1938

The Hoboes' Dog

After the publication of the foregoing, Sam Glover gave me some additional information about the Hoboes' dog, Popcracker, the beloved.

He would run after and catch balls that were thrown into the air; and some evilly-disposed boys would throw up pebbles, which he would catch, as a result of which he lost most of his teeth.  And at Christmas, when a bunch of popcrackers would be lighted and thrown on the ground to explode in a fusillade, or rataplan of pops, he would rush in madly and fight the exploding fireworks-whence his name, Popcracker.

When dog-catching time came round, the Hoboes would go to adult friends and solicit contributions for a license medal.  Friends would, of course, contribute gladly; and as for those who might refuse, why, as President Monroe might have expressed it, that would be regarded as an unfriendly act.

As has been said, he slept in the street at the corner of Third and Main Streets.  But he took his dinner at Mr. Rehling's house, which was out on South Third Street, next to Dr. Trevillian's.  Mr. Rehling went to dinner at one o'clock (they called it dinner in those days, refined Richmond lips not being accustomed to that word of impure ancestry, lunch).  Popcracker knew when one o'clock came as well as anybody in town; no one had to tell him; he did not have to ask a friend to size up his ticker.  And he went to see Mr. Rehling, who took the greatest pleasure in giving him his dinner.

Now, on Sunday, Mr. Reyling did not take dinner until three o'clock.  But do you suppose that Popcracker ever made a mistake?  Never!  He knew when Sunday came, as well as he did when dinner-time came; and at three precisely, as Stonewall Jackson might have expressed it, he repaired to Mr. Rehling's.  (If we had as much sense as a dog, we would not be compelled to lug a four-pound watch around with us.)

Of course the Hoboes fed him, too, and gave him part of all such delicacies as lemon candy and cocoanut taffy, as they might buy from time to time.  But dinner with his kind friend, Mr. Rehling, was his mainstay.