The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-09-28
THE ARMY OF TRAMPS,
Some of their rPeeuliarities---vvhy they will
not Work.

Some of their PeeuIiafities---Nhy they will
not Work.
A New York paper, remarking that
30, 900 trhmps winter in that city, gives
some of their peculiarities. It says |:
The pea pickers of New Jersey and the
peach pluckers Of Delaware, of whom
about 1000 are tramps, mostly start
from this city, and form a distinct class.
They are an idle, vagabond race, given
to gaming and drinking, grossly ignor-
ant and immoral and dangerous, from
the fact that they travel in large gangs.
In New Jersey the pea pickers made
much trouble last season, in spite of the
severe trf up law of the State, and in
Delaware the peach pluckers banded to-
gether in companies of one hundred or
more, and on several occasions threat
ened vengeance upon small villages
which refused to supply their demands.
1t was only the fear of the military that
restrained them from daring acts of vio-
lence. Some of these men confine their
t. tamping to the pea or peach season, and
then return to this city, but the majority
are professional tramps who merely take
in New Jersey or Delaware for the sake
of change. Strange as it may seem there
are men who walk almost every year
from New York to the Delaware peach
region, and on arriving refuse to work
on any terms. Peach pluckers are in
veterate gamblers, and these sharpers
join them in the season to fleece them of
the pittance they earn. Should they fail
to make stake they arc expert enough
to steal one, and this done they are ready
for their victims.
Cranberry picking, which is swampy,
disagreeable work, passably well paid,
attracts what may be called the respect
able tramps, but is far below the no.
tice of thieves and beggars. "Pick
berries Me 1 guess not Do you
want a feller to go raftin' p said one
of these gentry to the writer. Even
light, honest work is too heavy for
them, while chopping wood is their
special abomination. Zone farmer got
the best of us, though, last year !' said
tue eame veteran who didn't like berry
picking. "There was four of us, and
we asked for grub. 'Yes, says the old
man, you kin have supper and bed and
breakfast if you'll help me ill with my
hay this afternoon Well, we told him
we was in hurry, and moved on. What
| do you think that old fellow done
Hanged if he didn't send boy Of his'n
on horseback five or six miles up the
road to warn the neighbors not to give
US anything cause we had refused to
work. When we got to house we was
refused even q drink of buttermilk, and
we never tumbled to what was up till
we met that imp of boy coming down
| hn ,s,,b il
minstrel. We didn't get any supper
that night, and the boys took the joke
pretty bad" In many sections the
farmers have provision Of wood OF
hand all summer expressly for the bene
ut of tramps. Those that will saw o.
chop and split wood are fed, but they
are about one in a hundred.
New York's distinctively local tramps
are the beer fiends, who may be seen il
all parts of the city in the dawn of tn,
morning decanting the dregs of lage
beer kegs into their tin measures. Thes,
measures are generally empty tomato
cans, sodden, from frequent libations O
stale and impure beer. These unfor
tunates crawl and stink through life hk,
the abject Outcasts they are, and dying
are thrown into paupers' graves. Hoy
they live. or where, nobody knows, ant
nobody seems to care. At the frs
break of dawn they crawl from thei
holes and begin their search for tn
nauseous beverage which seems to b,
their chief support. Now and then on
of them may be seen munching a crust
but as rule they eubsist upon the dreg
of beer. They travel in couples an,
! lNIx e1, l,o
can is filed. When the sun rises the,
stink back into their dens and are no
seen again until another day breaks
They are seldom knowR to beg or steal
nor are they frequent applicants 70
lodgings in the station houses.
Another cless OF beer fiends are Ital
ians, who gather the dregs of beer an
sell them to compatriots at from two t
three cents quart. Many of these ar
regularly employed by speculative fe
low countrymen, and the sale OF the dis
gushing compound has been a regula
business in parts of Baxter, CrosbJ
Mulberry and other streets. 1t is in
possible to give the exact number c
the beer fiends, but from six to seve
thousand is rather below than above th
mark. Unlike the other beer fiends, til
Italians are willing and anxious to worl
and seldom continue long in this bus
ness, becoming organ grinders, ragpicl
ers or laborers.
The first to seek winter quarters al
the begging tramps, whose summer lii
is mainly passed in the open air. TIL
thieving tramps, however, who are Dol
enough to take bigger risks, seldom ia
to find shelter in barn or clubhouse. ]
default of these there are always ha,
stacks under which they slumber
peacefully as though they knew not po
erty, hunger or care. Hence they r.
main on the road until after the India
summer-sometimes even until the fir
snow. Since tramping became so gel
eral few farmers fail to visit their barr
, and outhouses before going to bed, AL
it requires ingenuity on the pa t of IL
tramps to secure lodgings. Their gel
eral custom is to reconnoiter a barn b
fore dark, walk on a short distance an
/ then wait until the inspection is owe
Should the party comprise more tha
three members they separate and me,
in the morning. This seldom happen
however, except in New Jersey and Del
ware, and within few miles of Ne
York, for, as rule, professional tramr
travel in couples.