New-York tribune., 1873-05-14
prise come forward and ask to have their
money returned without being themselves re-
tired from the management
THE CHRONIC DEAD-HEAD.

Two months ago we published sketch OF
tho typical dead-head who travels about the
country begging free dinners and compi-
mentary railway passes on the strength OF
some wholly fictitious connection with
newspaper Like ,maDy of our professional
brethren we have suffered severely from the
discredit attaching to q supposed response
bility for such Objectionable persons, and we
have lost no convenient opportunity OF asSur-
ing the public that any man who asks Tor
free ride, or O free lunch, or free bed, or any
purchasable privilege, on the pretense tnat ne
is an editor, or reporter, or correspondent OIL
THE TRIBUNE, is an impostor. We wrote Oh
the chronic dead-head with feeling, for we
knew by long experience what nuisance ne
was. Mr.. Benjamin +. Camp, finding the cap
fit him, fastened to put it on, and exhibit
himself thus decorated to an amused world
In other words he complains before Wash
ington judge that he has been damaged in
character to the amount of $4,000 by the
publication of the following article in TIE
TRIBUNE of March IA:
OF FRAUDS AND PASSES.
We wonder how many times, in tho past thirty years,
have been called upon to expose that typical old
rascal who runs such merry around the coun-
try assuring mankind that he s OF the chief editors
or writer's correspondents OF TIE TRIBUNE, and on
the strength Of that fictitious dignity living at free quar-
ters in the best hotels riding without pay the rail-
roads, and pushing himself into all sorts Of places
where he has no right be- Now ana then perhaps ho
borrows money Of credulous landlords but ordi
nary thing his operations conducted on much
smaller scale. If there Is any boon especially dear
TO his heart free pass To In for nothing when
other people buy tickets is the summit OF his hap
piness. We hear Of him at all the theater box-oices
haunts OF the opera house and the concert
room. He has been known to beg for complimentary
admissions even TO the boats of the Union Ferry Com
pany. And strange to say, managers, collectors, con-
ductors and people Of that class who ought TO know
better generally trust him. Tme and again we have
warned them that never ask favors that our people
never travel without money TO pay their way and
especially that hate the name Of railway pass Ana
yet every few days the familiar form OF the Chronic
Dead stu confronts U.s. misrepresentng THE TRB-
USR with all his old eronery and all his old success
We forget what name he bore last MONTH or In Wnat
particular little swndling operation he was then en-
gagged but Just he turns upwe think 1t Is in wash
ingOn-under the appellation OF Benjamin r. camp ana
his pet project is the renewal OF annual pass over tho
Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad hr.
Camp seems to have held pass that road "on ac
count OF THE N y TRIBUNE" for the year 1872 and he as
serts that the connecting roads between Washington
and New York have shown him a similar favor. why
did not the kindly superintendent refer to US for MI
Camps credentiasi He does not belong TO TIE NEW
YORK TRIBUNE. He has connection with 1t. direct or
indirect lie employed by 1t, to the best oil
our belief in any capacity IL he pretends 10 nave, OF
TO have ever had any influence control over any de-
partment of it, we have only say to mankind IN gen
eral Don t believe him. II he asks for free board. or
free ride or ticket 10 the circus or the mnstre
'on account of THE NEW. YORK TRIBUNE I'VE particularly
request that may be suddenly sent to the rghabout
Mr. B. F. Camp is Chronic Dead-Head
Certainly nobody should know, better than
Mr.. Camp himself, whether he has confined
his operations to the single piece OF sharp
practice of which we accused HIM by name, or
has extended his gay career from the railroad
to the dinner table, as the typical dead-head
is represented doing in the first paragraph Of the
above cited article. Since he declares that we
point at him, when we describe persons who
are "in the habit of resorting to all sorts OF
"little and dishonest tricks and devices to
"obtain free board and lodging, free rides
"upon railroads, free admission to theaters,
operas, concerts, and ferry-boats OF the Union
Ferry Company" itdoes not become us to IN
terfere with his fancy. He claims the privilege
of convincing q jury that he is the sort OF
person to whom our general sketch would
be supposed to apply, and we certainly shall
not interpose any obstacle to the qualification
of so laudable an ambition. For Mr.. Camp is
q Chronic Dead-Head Long ago he bought a
few shares of TRIBUNE stock for investment,
as any other man might have done-and we
may add that Mr.. Greeley was very sorry that
he did so; but it is ten years since he parted
with the last of those shares, and of course
the possession of them never gave him any
manner of influence over the paper. Is 1t
possible that Mr.. Camp has been travelling
free all these ten years on the score of that
forgotten commercial Transaction We should
not wonder, for the typical dead-head is a
creature of amazing effrontery, and we do not
happen to think of anything just now which
Mr.. Camp would naturally be ashamed to ask
for.