Elizabeth daily monitor. [volume] (Elizabeth, N.J.) 1868-1880, 1869-06-18
CIRCULATION UNRIVALLED
ELIZABETH.

TRAMPs. To those who are accus-
toned to earn their bread by the sweat
of their brows, the idea that there is q
small army of men who, without money
or friends or even labor, manage to
supply themselves with clothing and
food, and even to maintain themselves,
for at least portion of the year, in a
condition of saucy, although ragged
corpulency, seems preposterous and
utterly inconsistent with their practical
notions of the conditions of existence.
Yet that such an army exists, an ac-
uuaintance with the chief part of the
duties of our overseer of the poor abund-
antly prove. This army is constantly on
the march, and have, therefore, not ms :
aptly been denominated Cramps. y
These Tramps seem to possess many OF
the cratic and unstable Characteristic of
the Gypsies, and probably embrace that
portion of the people of this country
whose characters are compounded Of
such restless and unstable elements, us
to impel them to be constantly wander
ing from place to place until their tot
tering footsteps are arrested by time,
and they tramp to that undls-
covered country from whose bourne
even they can never RETURN
In the mild season of the year the APP
plications to the Overseer of the Poor
for food and lodgings, of these noma-
die individuals, frequently average
over thirty per day for weeks together
Their peculiarities and variety of char
acters are as numerous as themselves,
and affords, to one fond of the study
of human nature, fruitful and anus
ing contemplation. But, different as
their peculiarities may be in many
particulars, there is one characteristic
that is common to them all and that
is an unconquerable aversion to all
form of labor, and of the restraints of
society. To wander from place to place,
with few rags to cover their naked
ness, to beg, as they go, enough to keep
them from starvation, and to find In
winter, place to shelter them from
the cold and storms, seems to be the
whole aim of life with these singular be-
Jugs. Some of these birds of passage
take longer and more extended flights
than others, but few Of them, unless
death overtakes them, fail, III time, to
revisit the scenes of their hospitallties.
Some of them rove about within quite
circumscribed limits, ard revisit each
Of their stopping places every few weeks
always declaring, however, if ques-
toned in relation thereto, that they
had never set foot there before. Mr..
Peter Rittenhouse, to whom we are
chiefly indebted for our information
on this subject, is quite often applied
to for nights lodging by persons who
make their migrations with aregularity
only surpassed by that of the season
themselves. While the range of some
of them, however, only extend over
one or two or three States, others make
a tour which it takes years to accom-
plish, and grizzled, ragged, dirty but
exceedingly knowing old travellers
sometimes happen along at regular in
tervals of number of years, during
which time they have roamed over the
whole continent, and made the &C
quaintance of the municipal auth"ri,
ties of every city in the country.
These experienced old travellers are
generally tailors or printers, and man,
age very often, to live sumptuously by
appealing to the sympathies of the in
dustrious, stay-at home members of
those crafts. The professional tramp
is seldom victims or dishonest The
very animating principle of his ramb-
ling disposition is guarantee against
this-a love of liberty and unrestraint
that sacrifices in its attainment all
prospect of worldly gain. Their most
loved companions are the fields and
the forests, the birds and the purling
brooks, and they only seek the haunts
of man to satisfy the grosser wants
which these cannot supply. Very few
of them now apply for lodgings compar-
ed with the numbers who are driven in
by the inclemency of winter. They now
find luxurious lodgings in the corner of
fence on the edge of some fragrant
clover field, or on the leaves beneath the
green canopy of the forest, and beg
their meals from the kitchens of the
farm houses on their route.
Our attention only yesterday was di-
rected to Tramp real genus no
mo- He passed down Broad street,
dragging a skeleton vehicle OF two
wheels, on the axle of which lay board
the whole thing being surmounted
by black carpet-bag, rather the worse
for wear. What his object was in drag
ging this vehicle, no one can say, but