The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1878-10-31
The Pauper Tribe.

The difference between poverty and
pauperism, though wide as the world is
too often overlooked. The best of men
may become poor; may honorably reach
the point OF actual desttution indeed
it has not untrequently happened that
the worlds best benetactors have expe
rienced extreme poverty sometimes by
resolutely pursuing the course which
has ultimately brought them to the high
est financial and industrial as well as
moral success, No combination of cir
cumstances, however, no matter how dis
astrous could make such men paupers
The pauper is made Of very different
material he is what he is too often by
preference, very often by Inheritance
Last year DR.. Hoyt, Secretary of the
New York State Board OF Charities, Wis
tied sixty four poorhouses, containing
$4,000 public paupers. Less than one
fourth were OF American parentage In
fifty five cases investigated the pauperism
extended to the second generation on the
fathers side. and in ninety two cases to
the third generation on the mothers
side. Three hundred and ninety seven
had pauper fathers; one thousand three
hundred and sixty one had pauper moth
ers and so on. Their psuperism was
hereditary The closerelasion of Grimm
city with inherited pauperism-the more
forcetul members of such families pre-
ferring to seize what they want rather
than beg tor its shown in the history
OF the well known "Jukes" family, which.
in one hundred and fifty years, furnished
this State with eight hundred and thirty
criminals of baser types besides many
lmbecIles, lunatIcs, and other undesirable
characters
Professor Brewer, who has given much
CT, A, Nrl,..
is confident that wherever the genesis of
paupers Is thus looked into there will be
found abundant evidence OF a pauper
trlbe well established among US, and per
petuating its.instlncts in It's descendants
For this class no mawkish sentimentality
will answer; they need strict Justice -
The class as class must be rooted out
by resointe treatment. The chain of
criminal entallmeut must somehow be
broken in them or they will breed NOR
al pestilence. Against such outlaws, "for
whom, as contemporary has said,
Childhood has no sanctity, hospitality
no safeguard, and property no rights"
only vigorous measures will suffice There
IS enough OF honest poverty. through
flood and fire and sickness, to furnish
occupation to the charitable without the
burden OF voluntary pauperlsm. the eff
feet of which is too often to steel the
hearts OF the sympathetic against all pow
erty and distress. The honest seeker tor
employment Is COMPOUNDED with the pro
fesslonal tramps, OF whom the most
charitable OF communities are becoming
heartily sick. In justice to the deserv.
ing poor-and there is always a large
class which, through no fault Of their own,
may become poor the pauper tribe
should at least receive no encourage
ment.
For many years in this country the
single TACT that person was in need of
food or clothing or shelter was held to be
valid reason tor giving what was asked
The country became in consequence a
perfect paradise for the pauper tribe
They Jared so well that multitudes
brought by adverse circumstances to pow
erty were tempted over the line into pau
perism and many others fingered on the
verge, passing their time between unwill
ing labor. pauperism and petty criminal
ity. Out of these has grown a class of
criminal vagrants, now by Tar the worst
disturbers OF the public peace and the
public moral health.
Indeed, the Indian problem, bad as it
is, is trifie compared with that arising
from the existence of the pauper tribe
The Indian is on the frontier; the vicious
tramp is everyw here. And it is safe to
say that, year by year, the life and prop
erty destroyed by the tramp tribe ex
ceeds that due to Indian depredations
If we are justified in spending millions in
Indian wars, in placing upon reservations
and trying to clvIlize The one class of
savages, much more justiiable must be
the taking of measures, national in scope
and magnitude, to control and reclaim if
possible the other. Nothing short of
this, we fear, will ever rid us of the pest
- Scientific American