Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-11-07

s Colony Of Migrants in Pennsylvania
--HOw They Get Their Liying--Their
kinyand Ouocn.

correspondence of the Philadelphia Times.
In a woodland on Darby road, in one
of the most picturesque sections of the
country in the vicinity of Philadelphia,
there is a curious little community or
settlement of tramps. During the day
they lounge around fires of brushwood
made in a little stony hollow, sometimes
singing, sometimes cooking,or mending,
or washing. sometimes drinking. Oc-
casionally some of them, spurred by
appetite, OF tired of idleness, go out in
to the fields and gather herbs of flowers
and bring them into the city to sell, and
with the money received, buy whisky,
upon which they all Get drunk, and
make the woods ring with songs and
boisterous laughter or savage cries.
The size of this motley gathering varies
with the time and the seasons. 1t hard
ly ever numbers less than twenty and
has reached to eighty. There are men,
women, old and young. Nearly all day
long, as [ have said, they linger around
the fires in the wood, and when the
weather is not unpleasantly cold they
also sleep out under the trees, but in
the winter, and when storms OF great
violence occur they take refuge in barns
in the neighborhood. Upon beautiful
wooded knoll they have set up a little
cabin made of logs and the banks of
trees. Inthe stony hollow in the side
of a hill, where they pass much of their
time, they have kettles and pans and
other household utensils, and a wooden
tripod upon which to hang a kettle over
a fire, and strung from tree to tree lines
upon which to hang their cloths to dry,
They fare we'll They beg from the
farmers In the neighborhood, who dare
not refuse them, and fear even to MUIR
muir at their demands Any offcnse to
them might result in the burning of the
barn or home of the helpless offender.
1t is no wonder that man should live
in dread with a gang of lawless vaga-
bonds about his door and no protection
near him for himself or his wife or
daughters This community seems to
be governed by a master" and
9 mistress . the latter an old, white
haired wretch who has been known in
the vicinity for years. They receive
the allegiance of all the others, and re-
fuse admittance into the circle to such
applicants as do not for any reason
please their fancy. Ofcourse their au-
thority is not always submitted to, but
to great extent they are the rulers Of
the colony. The society generally is
not inviting and Individually it lis repul-
sive. So many low-browed, scowllng,
savage human beings one seldom meets
with in the same day. If an honest
laborer looks contemptuously at them,
they scowl in return or mutter threat
eningly;i curious strangers goes too near
their residence they warn them off,
orif he laugh at their patched garments
Tapping in the breeze they curse him;
if he alludes to them as bummers ;"
they rise to their majesty and pour forth
their Indignation. Now, to break up
this settlement is question which has
agitated the minds of the farmers
round about for a long time Winter
does not distroy it. All last winter the
tralnps could be tracked by the foot
prints on the snow from the barn where
they slept to the hollow in the woods,
where they had gathered together an
immense mound OF leaves and withered
brush No one is willing to order them
off, 1t is not safe They have been
tolerated until patience has given way,
and how to get rid Of them is problem
which is yet to be solved