New-York tribune., 1876-09-09
THE TRAMP.
FOREIGNERS AND NATIvEs-EFFFCT OF THE WAR
THE LEARNING OF A TRADE

FOREIGNERS AND NATIvEs-EFFFCT OF THE WAR
THE LEARNING OF A TRADE.
70 the Edttor OF The Tribune.
SIR: A moving cause for my writing at this
time on the subject of tamps may be that can look out
from my window on the ruins of half the business por
ton Of this pretty little village and inclined to ac-
cent the popular belief that the fire kndled in the
unOocuped barn where it started by the hands Of some
Of these worthless wanderers The Ygabond element In
the United States is primarily TO be divided into three
ciassesthe foreign born or imported the children OF IN
ported yagabOnds aud the American vagnbond proper
The latter except in the Southern States has been up to
the present the smallest OF the three but its sources
are now very much the same with the Others, and the
whole mass is made more dangerous by it, Before the
civil war trampng" element was in course OF deye
opnent In somo trades, rather among the haftraned
pretenders them, but had attained no very imp0r
tant proportions and under other circumstances might
not have done for another generation. At the out
break of the war the South fairly swarned with white
men of all grades whose inbred Of honest work
prepared them vagabOndage had not the army offered
them more attractive We shall know 10
how great an extent the "waste" of proved some
thing less than curse in this connection
In another it certainly did much to hasten what may
vet prove crisis II we define that sort of human pos
session which is called trade" tho trained ca
pacity do thing WE'LL" then hosts Of young
men, little better than boys at the outbreak OF the re-
bellion were prerented from acquiring trades by the
temporary employment they obtained as soldiers, ~ IN
sOme OF the nnurnerabe occupations growing out OF
the vast of and armed men, aud when ceased
finally herewith All that was needed 20 produce the
seemingly rapid increase which has surprised 80 many OF
late years simply some such hoibed forcing as re
fer to, aud amply providing for continued ana
vigorous growth. All who have given Thought 10 the
subject Of the extent 20 which al trades and
occupations drifting into the control OF large Dus
ness concerns and how entirely the system OF appren
ticeship has died out We know how difficult II has come
TO be for boy to acquire thorough fraining III
and mastery OF any recognized mechanical oe-
oupatOn, aud how much smaller young mans
chances are than they were, say 20 years ago.
10 become either landowner or employer. j DO
not believe there is really less need tor skilled
labor or that there will not be more IN the fute, but
the great process of revolution and reorganization when
the work the world Is undergoing las produced what
must be very peflOus conditions Neither should IL be
forgotten that the rank in life" just above the utter
yagabOnd Is Is not to be counted with hun as power
for HARM according the times drift aud the OppOr
tunity serves. lie will float about By himself so long as
he simply uDOrganlzed annoyance but 1t rs worthy
of special that he is rapidly passing beyond this
stage fact the tramps have become guild and IT s
BY no sure bow nearly they haYo apprOxlmated
rude and modified form Of sceret association. In tne
they will be prepared for c0Ebinaton and for leader
shin, and the latter viii be IN supcrabundaut supply
see hope OF attracting any active or positive aen-
OD TO the tramping interest Inueh earlier than they
such as the arsons. murders, raprR and nnumerable
petty arcenies constantly reported by the press are too
Isolated and the great popular tortoise docs not mind
tew GOALS on its exceedingly patient back
Z WILLIAM o. SToDDARr
Westfsoyk NJ " Aug 81 1876,