Story summary
The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot summary
- 8 min read
- 10 parts
- Audio soon
A cynical tramp with a dried rose in his pocket takes a dead weaver's child and starts a war on poisoned water.
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The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 6 h 40 min5 h 15 min fast, 7 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 94,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1915by Holman Day
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot in short
The Landloper follows Walker Farr, who starts as a cool cynic on a country road and ends as the quiet engine of a political revolt. Small meetings change him. A blacksmith in armor shows him sincerity, a discarded suit stirs his old ambition, and a drowned weaver's child breaks open his heart.
What The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot is about
A young man in a dusty frock coat walks into a New England mill city with a dried rose in his pocket. Weeks before, he was a tramp who claimed he would probably not go out of his way to do good. Now he hauls ice and carries a dead weaver's small daughter through the night. Who is he, and what has changed him?
The Landloper is a novel by Holman Day. It follows a wanderer who calls himself Walker Farr, a witty cynic with a ready smile and a fast fist. You get romance, humor, adventure and a sharp look at money and politics in a Yankee state.
Who it’s for. Readers who love lively Yankee dialogue, warm humor and wandering heroes with secrets will enjoy this novel. It also suits those who like ordinary people finding courage against money and power.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
A cynical wanderer meets a girl on the road
The book opens on a June morning. A young man who calls himself Walker Farr walks a dusty country road, bareheaded under the elms. He dresses like a vagrant, and a farmer who is also the town constable tries to arrest him.
Farr answers with a smile that is polite and insolent at once. He has begged no food and broken no law, and he says so. Round the next bend he finds a gray car with a flat tire. The soft young driver orders him to help, and Farr does the whole job, lifting the car on his shoulder. He refuses money.
One person in the car is Kate Kilgour, who says please and thank you when no one else bothers. Farr picks a rose from a roadside bush, and the flower becomes a token of a hope he will not admit to.
A man's deeds speak before his words do.
- 2Start free to read
A blacksmith in armor tests the idea of pure goodness
Farr passes an old house where a very old man is smashing an empty coffin with an ax.
- 3Start free to read
A borrowed suit of clothes wakes a sleeping soul
A jolly old judge named Peterson leaves a suit on a fence post with a card reading Help Yourself.
- 4Start free to read
A dead weaver leaves a child in a locked room
Farr drifts into the cotton-mill city of Marion.
- 5Start free to read
Three friends raise a child while sickness spreads
Rosemarie goes to live with Mother Maillet, a kind neighbor with a cat and a plant in the window.
- 6Start free to read
Grief carries Farr into City Hall and the colonel's office
Farr rides to the cemetery with the small coffin on his knees, and Etienne lays her toys on the grave.
- 7Start free to read
An iceman finds a lawyer and a girl in danger
Farr turns to Citizen Drew, an old carriage-top maker who knows every politician in the state.
- 8Start free to read
Service beats talk, and every character shows it
The story keeps asking what real goodness looks like.
- 9Start free to read
Debts and bargains bind people against their will
Money ties nearly every person in this book to someone else.
- 10Start free to read
A tale told in contrasts, tokens and tall talk
Holman Day tells the story with plenty of speech, and each voice is easy to tell apart.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Check yourself
What turns Farr's love for Rosemarie into a public cause?
Right. “The little girl does not live through the next day, and her death turns private love into a public cause.”Not quite. “The little girl does not live through the next day, and her death turns private love into a public cause.”
How does Farr propose to overcome the debt limit blocking public water ownership?
Right. “At a closed meeting he proposes a water district, which is not a city or a town and so is not held to the debt limit.”Not quite. “At a closed meeting he proposes a water district, which is not a city or a town and so is not held to the debt limit.”
What does the story present as the measure of real kindness?
Right. “Real kindness is measured by what it does.”Not quite. “Real kindness is measured by what it does.”
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Walker Farr A cynical, sharp-witted wanderer in a discarded frock coat who says he cares for no one, then cannot stop helping people.
- Kate Kilgour A frank young secretary who says please and thank you, wants honest love, and is pressed to marry for her mother's sake.
- Jared Chick A Quaker blacksmith in homemade armor who wants to spread peace and mercy, and learns to do good in small, practical ways.
- Etienne Provancher A French Canadian rack-tender who saves his pennies for sick children and finds unexpected courage in a great hall.
- Zelie Dionne A kind young mill inspector from Tadousac who becomes a play-mother to Rosemarie and a wise friend to Farr.
- Colonel Symonds Dodd The squat head of the Consolidated water company and the state machine, who loves his flowers and guards his power.
- Richard Dodd The colonel's nephew and a treasury clerk, deep in debt and desperate to marry Kate Kilgour.
- Archer Converse A upright, rich lawyer and war governor's son, who avoids politics until a stranger awakens his conscience.
How it ends (spoiler)
At the state convention a detective tries to ruin Farr by calling him a wanted murderer, but a post office inspector clears him, and Farr nominates Archer Converse, who wins by acclamation. Converse then recognizes Farr as Thornton Bristol, a lawyer who took the blame for his father's stolen trust funds and fled. Converse negotiates restitution. Kate repays Richard's stolen money through the colonel and is released from her promise. Thornton finds her at Mother Maillet's house, and they embrace.
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Questions about The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot
What is The Landloper about?
It follows a wandering man who calls himself Walker Farr as he turns from cynic to crusader. After meeting a girl he cannot forget, he takes in a dead weaver's child and fights the water company that poisons a mill city.
Who is Walker Farr in The Landloper?
Farr is a tall, brown-eyed vagrant in a discarded frock coat who says he cares for no one. His real name and past are kept as a mystery, and the story slowly shows what drives him.
Why does Jared Chick wear armor?
Jared, a Quaker blacksmith, believes the world must be startled before it will listen to a message of peace and mercy. His homemade armor is meant to show unselfishness, and it becomes both comic and moving.
Is The Landloper based on a true story?
No, it is a novel by Holman Day, though it draws on real concerns of its time such as typhoid from polluted river water, mill tenements, debt limits for cities and the grip of political machines.
What is the main message of The Landloper?
The book says that real goodness is not loud talk or grand missions but doing what you can with your hands, close to home, and that one person's kind act can start a larger change.
Cite this edition
Day, Holman. The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot.
Day, H. (2026). The landloper: The romance of a man on foot. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot (Original work published 1915)
Day, Holman. The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot.
@book{day2026landloper,
author = {Day, Holman},
title = {The Landloper: The Romance of a Man on Foot},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-landloper-the-romance-of-a-man-on-foot},
note = {First published 1915}
}
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