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Everett True meets Old Nobody (October 31, 1912)
(lemmy.world)
Printed 112 years ago today in The Seattle Star. Image cleaned up, especially on the letters, see the original.
Found on the Library of Congress site. Feel free to pick something from there and post it yourself!
I have some answers (but not the big one).
A "loafer" is an old timey word for tramp, from German/Dutch "landlaufer" meaning "land walker".
The rest is speculation, but I think this is a sort of anger at nobody returning his umbrella. Nobody does this, which is why this "person" is just a stick. Someone stole Ev's umbrella and didn't return it. But you can beat up nobody, so, here's a literal strawman to beat up.