The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1875-02-25
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= Bammers.

F$8 MN
: THERE is something harsh and hard
about the word which forms the caption
of this article, bat then bumnfers are
hari specimens of the hummer species.
Hos the name ever Originated is q mys-
terry, but~they to whom this vulgarism
Appiies are NC myths. There are thou
! sands o. them; everyone has seen them
ana knows they exist, but il is small
minority who know how they dc east
ne word hummer especially applies to
such who do not labor either on the Sab
bath or any other day, but loaf
around," living on the chasity of other
people ana once in a while mayhaps
earning quarter or half dollar, which,
. Immediately disappears over the bar OF
some favorite ginmill
Ihere are many people who do no.
work and yet live who cannot properly
be Chased as bummers For instance,
anyone who has business around the
J Court House AID City-Hsll must have
seen iounging around those buildings
day after day men who seem to do moth
Ing. else. No matter what time you go
under the arches of the Court House
There they are They can't work during
the day because they are always at the
same spot waiting, as ii would seem, for
some one who never comes, leaning up
agsinst the pillars with their hands iazily
tnrust IN their pantaloons pockets and no
animation observable except as to their
mouths, the presence of tobacco in which
is Enthusiastically set forth by frequent
expectofation on the flags at their feet.
Ana there are plenty of others who
nave no visible means of support lex
cept their legs. but who seem to get on
n ftal0 10,
ever are not bummersp When man
tells You that Joe so is an old bum, y
you settle Joe down in your mind as ire.
uievabiy lost. There is IN immense
amour OF meaning in these three words;
men are not born "old hnms;" Ii is a
social condition of degradation arrived
at by slow and easy stages. and too often
from one OF responsibility, trust and
honor. The boy plays 4" hockey" con-
tracts low associations, loses seif-re-
spect, breaks family ties, and grows UP
to lazy, lie less manhood, gradually but
surely dropping deeper into the mire, with
the assistance of cards and drinls, until
he finds himself good for nothing. He
has lost every redeemable ,rait; his word
is valueless; his services unreliable; his
constitution underm ned, and M one
places confidence in him. He becomes
TALL thicker on him than the rain. He
has DO friends--yes, one -drink-and
drinks he viii get somehow. His "re-
spectacle lodges" having long since
Jailed he becomes the willing slave of
anyon ne Tor whisky. He cleans out the
Hquor-store-for a drink; he ietches the
coal, aud sees that the floor Is prop-
erly saw-dusted-fw drink; he
cringes, favors and fatters-he does
anythlng-for drink fhe pct
ure. is not. overdrawn; there are
thousandsof bnmmers with a worse his
tory than this, aud it will be seen that
when man gets down so low that even
the drunken fre9uenters of bar.room
can commiserate him he becomes a
hummer indeed. Sometimes one of
these outcasts has had money, and spent
II, too; he was free with his purse and
treated anybody and everybody; he was
a deviiish fiue fellow" in fact, and one
OF the "biggest-hearted' and best
natured" men that ever was born. Such
an one has often drank himself down un-
I'll he Jecame parasite and hanger-on
IN the very gin-mill where he opened the
most wine. 1t has been known where
tue proprietor Of the store in such a case
would keep the wreck who had helped to
make him and allow him to sleep on the
premises, do odd Jobs, have a certain
smount of liquor perdiem, and the priv
Iege OF becoming acquainted with the
customers and ringing i'm on the
drinks at amy and all opportunities.
such cases are few indeed, but there are
some ia,this city, for The liquor-selleIs
are not by any means without feeling
Where the hummer generally sleeps,
however, is in the Iodging.roOm of the
station house. Regularly every night he
drops in there and gives his name to The
Sergeant, and vass regularly lie is routed
out every morning at seven. with an
unquenchable thirst for liquor, and with
only one obiect--that of getting enough
toeat and drink until station-house time
again. Every station-house is provided
with male and female lodging rooms,
the beds of which are the soft sides OF
pitchipine planks and the atmosphere of
which Is tainted with the exhalations of
fifty or sixty of the foulest possible
sbreaths. What with the heat from a
large iron stove and the stencil arising
fromthe flkhy creatures huddled up like
so many wild beasts, the interior OF a
lodging-house at ten or eleven O'clock at
night IS absolutely sickening. And yet
these hopelessly lost men and women
nave a sort OF reunion every night; reg
ular old buns whopatronize certain sta
tion-house meet other regular old buns,
and, erouehing together, recite their ex,
periences as 20 the 3" luck" they have
had that day, and conjecture as to what
will turn up on the next. And these
lodging rooms, the nightly receptacles
for the. senm of humanity, and perfect
breeding places for vermin, where the
walls and ceilings are daily white
washed, sMbere chloride of lime and car
5olic acidare freely sprinkled every morn.
ing, and the effects of which are surely
overcome by the stenchsat night, even
these places have not escaped certain
grim humor. for theysare known to the
class Who cnpgregate in them as velvet
rooms. -Br6oklya Eadie.