Love how you crafted this. And I too vacillate — sometimes I grab an extra bagel and coffee - and give them that. They definitely create an emotional tension.
Fascinating way to tell this story! The detail about him refitting his artificial legs in the back of the car before going home really captures the duality of his life. Its kind of wild how public sympathy can be both genuine and easily exploited, dunno if things havechanged much since 1922. The chauffeur angle makes it feel almost theatrical.
It did, doesn’t it? One of the things I do is a robust genealogical work up of everyone I wrote about as part of the research. I’m always amazed at how many “historic stories” turn out to be fake news - made up names and situations, or real names but facts that don’t line up with the truth. Which is fine, because t I always want to make sure the reader isn’t deceived. I actually have a whole series planned on fake news stories - and man, are some of them wild 😜
Trading in pity is a hard life. Yet, a man without two legs might have had few job options except to beg for pity. Did he receive a railroad pension or compensation for his work-related injury? So many veterans had lost limbs in WWI, and I remember photographs of them begging on sidewalks downtown.
There are various accounts of what happened that Horton lost his legs, the most often repeated one was the railroad accident, however, I wasn’t able to find any newspaper confirmation or legal records of the apparent incident. Even the timeline was wiggly, but no doubt, his options would have been limited.
Right? One of the reasons I picked this piece to research and retell is because of that tension I think most of us feel. It's one of those historical snapshots that is far enough away to allow us to think around an issue without all the strong emotions that crop up in real time. But still so very relevant. I mean, have you walked outside in the last four years yikes!
I visited the “tenderloin” area of San Francisco in 1997 before it achieved orbital velocity and even then it was 1,000 vagrants panhandling on the sidewalk. I engaged later with my immigrant limousine driver who was quite disgusted at the shiftlessness of it all. “This is America?” “They should be cut off and get a job.” My anger stems from the undeniable fact that this has been manufactured for political purpose; the funding only serving to metastasize the cancer.
Love how you crafted this. And I too vacillate — sometimes I grab an extra bagel and coffee - and give them that. They definitely create an emotional tension.
Scam artist or professional fundraiser? You be the judge.
Fascinating way to tell this story! The detail about him refitting his artificial legs in the back of the car before going home really captures the duality of his life. Its kind of wild how public sympathy can be both genuine and easily exploited, dunno if things havechanged much since 1922. The chauffeur angle makes it feel almost theatrical.
It did, doesn’t it? One of the things I do is a robust genealogical work up of everyone I wrote about as part of the research. I’m always amazed at how many “historic stories” turn out to be fake news - made up names and situations, or real names but facts that don’t line up with the truth. Which is fine, because t I always want to make sure the reader isn’t deceived. I actually have a whole series planned on fake news stories - and man, are some of them wild 😜
What a fascinating portrait of a character from another era. I can't wait to read the rest of his story.
Horton is a little different than the usual characters I write about, but he was such fun to explore!
Trading in pity is a hard life. Yet, a man without two legs might have had few job options except to beg for pity. Did he receive a railroad pension or compensation for his work-related injury? So many veterans had lost limbs in WWI, and I remember photographs of them begging on sidewalks downtown.
There are various accounts of what happened that Horton lost his legs, the most often repeated one was the railroad accident, however, I wasn’t able to find any newspaper confirmation or legal records of the apparent incident. Even the timeline was wiggly, but no doubt, his options would have been limited.
I vacillate between giving panhandlers $5 for beer and cigs or just driving by without the slightest guilt.
Right? One of the reasons I picked this piece to research and retell is because of that tension I think most of us feel. It's one of those historical snapshots that is far enough away to allow us to think around an issue without all the strong emotions that crop up in real time. But still so very relevant. I mean, have you walked outside in the last four years yikes!
I visited the “tenderloin” area of San Francisco in 1997 before it achieved orbital velocity and even then it was 1,000 vagrants panhandling on the sidewalk. I engaged later with my immigrant limousine driver who was quite disgusted at the shiftlessness of it all. “This is America?” “They should be cut off and get a job.” My anger stems from the undeniable fact that this has been manufactured for political purpose; the funding only serving to metastasize the cancer.