Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1877-09-12

place of escape. A thousand dollars IN
iron ladders at proper intervals from each
story would have enabled every person in
the building to escape There ought to
be law in every state compelling manu-
facturers who mass large numbers of peo-
pie to 10 this, and make such provision,
and in q very liberal manner. Only q year
ago, the same tragedy occurred in tacto-
~ in Massachusetts, and in the city of New
York, there are thousand buildings liable
to 90 at any time. But it won't be done.
There will be great deal said, the Hale S
when they rebuild will probably put on
their building more ladders, but no one
else will, and in week or TWO there will
be another wholesale destruction of lives.
THE TRAMP QUESTION.
We have got to face another irruption of
tramps very soon. The cold season has
commenced in the northeas and the ad-
vance guard of the army has already
shown itself. The sturdy thieves are
getting more and more common in the
parks, and back areas that are accessible.
and Railways that are carelessly left open,
are being already robbed. There is an
alarming increase of sturdy, unshaven,
unshorn, unkempt men standing in the
streets looking with villainous eyes into
houses, to see whether robbery or beggary
will do best, and the police are becoming
more and more busy with Migrants. Those
who got far west duling the summer are
not here yet, but when they come we shall
have our hands full.
asked one of them which he preferred,
the city or the country. With charming
frankness he answered the country, of
course, when the weather il warm enough
to admit of sleeping in the open air, Or in
barns.
"You see," said the vagnbond, "in the
city the cops are always watchin of us,
dlu NOu CtlIl U uO uOlIlII WlpuOuG Utklu II
blasted risk. But in the country, bless
you, ther amt nothin' to stand in the
way Two of us watches till the men are
away in the fields and we know ther' ain
nobody in the house but women. Then
we goes up and asks for suthin' to eat,
witch we don't RELY want, for we kin kill
and roast us many chickens as we want
But while the women are givin' us suthin'
to eat, we sights about, and if Their is any
loose property layin' round we gobbles it.
! If the women make any fuss we show Il
pistol, and that ends it. We don't steal
enough to make it worth their while to
foller us very far, and besides they are
afraid, for we have dozen or two in u
neighborhood. d.
"Do the women never make resistance?'
Certainly they do. Every now and
then we strike one who has Il revolver AID
II big dog, and they make it warm for us.
have hole through my left leg, that IL
woman in Steuben County. New York
put there. And my pardner was nearly
finished by Il bulldog, and then the men
came up, and they beat us nearly to DEATH
But Their amt 10 biznis that you don,t
| nave To take chances IN
If you can get all you want to eat,
without invading houses, what do you
want to take those chances for?n
EAtin' amt all Their is OF life. Clothes
don't bother us much, but there is lkker
and tobacker. Them you hev to pay for,
in suthin' for you can't walk into sloon
and bluff 'em ont of them. No indeed
wish we Good. But them we must have,
and then we like to hev jamborees when
IL lot Of us git together, and then we hev
to take keer Of our wimmen, and one
woman will drink more and smoke more
than two men. They git crazy and are
very expensive. No. we hev to hev suth-
in besides our ealin'.',
IF you prefer the country when it is
warm, why don't you 60 south in the Win
ter?n
We tried that, but it won't work. We
kin git along with the weather, but YOU
see the country is so sparsely settled that it
takes too much walkin' to cit from house
to house. And then, they don't live well
enough. They cook terribly, and won't
live on hog and hominy and all sorts of
grease. | could have done it once, but
my stomarh amt what it used TO be.
am gittin' old and have to have things
better than used to. feel it all day if |
don't have coffee in the mornin', and
must have Il great many other things
which they amt used 70 in the south. And
besides all this, they are too handy with
their weapons down Their. In the north
when they git after us they arrest us, and
take us very carefully to u Jail, and they
brings us tracts, and treat us kindly, so rs
TO reform US, and the wimmen visit us, to
try the effect of kindness on us erin ones,
and they feed us mighty well, and alto
gether, it amt bad thing for rest. And
then we gifts out, and goes our way, re-
cooperaLed, and good for II great deal of
walkin. Now down south it amt that way
at all. If you 60 into a house and scare the
wimmen, the men amt far off, and they Git
on their horses and hunt us. And they don't
arrest us nuther. When they come up
with US, they are jest as likely as not to
put charge'of buck-shot through us, for
Their amt no inquiry about sich things.
Out of a party of fourteen of us that went
down into North Carolina, only five ever
got back north, And then l don t like
niggers, and you have to do great Geal
of stayin' with 'em. Niggers amt TO my
taste. never did like lem, and can't
overcome the prejuds, They are an in
feror race"
Don't you find it rather hard to find
comfortable places to sleep, in the city?n
"Sometmes. Now and then we git in
to the station-house, and there are always
empty boxes. and warm corners 1t amt
rs pleasant as the Windsor Hotel, but we
are satisfied"
Why don't you try work little
whle?n
The mans face took curious express
sion.
Work! We work. Why, we might
us well be labrin men to.once! None of
that for me. There is one city in the
west which got into last fall, where they
arrest us, and put us in Il stone-yard,
breakin' stone for the streets--Toledo.
They got me once, and kept me at it two
weeks. | wouldn't 60 within a hundred
miles of that city if knew it for for
tune. Think of workin' ten hours n day,
and feedin' us on bread and water! They |
don't know how to treat people ther'."
The vagabond went away, with an ex-
preston of sadness on his countenance.
The remembrance of his brief stay in
Toledo, where the city is wise enough to
make them earn the bread they eat, was