The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-08-23
The Tramp Nuisance.

~ W lLCuI CTlIlClSuSl
that will be made over the entire country2'
"
The Tramp Nuisance. a.
It is a terrible commentary upon the ~
Radical rule which this country has under N
gone for the last fourteen years, that now ~
in the closing quarter Of the nineteenth II
century the most prosperous communities Il
OF free America find themselves confronted a,
with state OF things only measurably T
less intolerable than followed the supres. ri
sion of the monasteries in England under n
Henry VIII, three centuries and half
ago. Sc
Throughout New England and the Mid ~
tle States the peaceful inhabitants &c Il
rural regions are everywhere the
their wits ends by mons'- .,r;vnn r.
insolent and aggressir .ous nIaoue Of |,
country is oveTrr- vagroncw The
YGHpN '0o" al with squads of able
W. "o' ..drels who if they can work
work, and who though they are
ashamed to beg infinitely prefer, to
steal. These worthless. ruthans have be-
come during the present summer a terror
to hundreds of secluded homes IN the
heart of the best organized and most law
abiding regions OF the Union. Whence they
come and whittier they go no man know
eth, and to the best of their ability they
keen out of all mems way. But they lie
jn;wait for children by the roadside and III
the woods, plumber them, abuse them,
and in not n few instances have perpetrat-
ed upon them the most dreadful crimes.
They Turk about the outskirts of villages
and about isolated FARMS and watching
their opportunity, descend upon unpro
tected women, exact tribute from them IN
food, clothes, money, insult, and If time
serves and their dispositions be dey!llsh
enough, assail and outrage them. The
evil has assumed such proportions that
there is scarcely state in the east 10
which it does not now imperatively call
for prompt and specific measures OF re-
pressiou. What is to be done about it?
Many causes have no doubt contributed
to bring this social pestilence upon us
The civil war, probably enough, has had
much to do with generating the class from
which these enemies of law and c!viliza
ton are spawned. In q striking report
published in Massachusetts, two or three
years after the close of the contest it wa
unanswerably shown that crimes akains
property and the person had begun to In
crease, and continued to increase with TIT
dsbanding of the volunteer forces callet
into the field, not only in the south, which
was given over under the reconstruction
demoralizing martial-law, but in tn
steadicst communities of the victorlou
north. The financial disorder and tn
commercial and industrial stagnation Q
the last two years have undoubtedly az
Crayated the evil But il is an evil which
when once seriously developed, tends
perpetuate and to extend itself unless it
both promptly and wisely dealt with, Th
nomadic instinct is not dead but onl
sleeps in the most highly civilized races
and the habit Of living lat free quarters
has a fascination for the least civillze
classes of civilized communities which ca
only be counteracted by n stern and ce1
tain administration Of public law Whi
shape shall that administration take in til
case2
The 10Th act of the 22d of Henry VII
recites in its preamble which Mr.. Proud
asks us to consider as the work of tn;
sovereign himself, a state of things pail
fully similar to that which now afficts Ne
England and New York, Whereas,
says this act, Tin all places throughol
this realm of England, vagabonds an
"bcggars have Of long time increased, an
do daily increase in great and cxcessi'
numbers by the occasion of idlenes
mother and root of all vices, wheret
hath insurged and sprung, and daily i
'surgeth and sprngeth. continual theft
murders and other heinous offenses ar
great enormities, to the high displeasu
"of God, the inquietatiOn and damage
the King people, and 20 the narvello
disturbance of the common veal of tn
realm" Putting aside His Majesty
quaint and emphatic English, this prear
BILE might very properly precede any e
actment of New England or of New Yo
law to-day against the same public d
grace and peril But it is hardly like
that New England and New York will
found prepared now TO adopt all the pro-
sions of the act which follows this prear
lle. 70 set 'impOteut persons found be
''ging without license in the stocks
THE space of three days and three nigh
''or, hit be not convenient so to puni
'thew, To strip them naked from the mi
die UPWARDS and whip them within t
town where they are found or will
''some other town as shall seem so ID, "
King Ilenry's plan. We fear it wou
hardly seen lOd' to our NO fern a
geu;ler mood We should probably he
tate even to proceed with King Hen
against persons whole and mighty in DO
and able to labor who may be taken
begging, or having no land nor maste
or using no lawful merchandry, craft
mystery whereby they might get tn
living For such person were appoint
by the Defender of the Faith to be I'll
to the lend Of cart, naked, aud be bea
with whips throughout the town till tn
bodies be bloody by reason Of such VII
ping" Aud yet it is not so very Il
since the Commonwealth of Massachuse
ordained discipline of this stern and sar
nary sort for the deliverance of the
Raw State from the plague of "vagr