The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-09-12

musicians and acrobats. These people
seldom stop more than . coaple d
nights in any one tramp-house. When
a working tramp finds employment he
hastens to secure better quarters; while
it is not to the interest OF the hawkcr,
bcggar or amusing vagab0nd to make
q heightened stay anywhere. Every
country town has an inn-generally the
oldest in the place-with q tramp side.
Quaint and struggling tenements are
these. manifesting everywhere super
abundance of material, q waste Of
space, and an awkwardness of plan
that would appal q modern builder.
Here the tramp has taproom set apart
for himself. It is usually low, dingy,
spacious apartment, crossed by enor-
nous beams, and looking like the
'twixt decks of q ship. There are
three or four heavy tables, half dozen
long forms and a number of rude cook
ing utensils; for the place is used as a
kitchen and dining-rOOm, as well as q
taproom. The tramp. it may be re-
marked, always does his own cooking,
SO there is huge fireplace extending
right across one end of the apartment,
and often fitted up in the old style with
fire-tlogs and pot-hooks. The kitchen
and the tramp dormitory above it are
always the Oldest portions of these old
houses. Many Of these still remain
just rs they were three hundred years
ago. The writer has examined various
specimens of them in Kent and Devon
shire, along the Welsh border, and
away in Cumberland and Westmore-
land, which certainly date from early
in the fifteenth century. In one hOary
old edifice there were inches in the
massive walls of the tramp apartments
containing images Of oak and stone
some wilfully shattered, and others
worn out of shape by the course Ot
time and rough usage; but all meant
to represent saints. They carry ones
fancy to the times when 'tramping''
had often high religious character.
have attempted to give some notion Of
the kitchen accommodation; as to that
of the dOrmitOries, reference may be
made to Shakespeare's carriers ("Hen-
ry w., Part Firstly
There are other country tramp houses
which are not licensed to sell drink, and
whose proprietors, therefore, have to
resort to devices of various sorts to
counterfeit the attractions which the
rival houses possess in their tap rooms.
In such house, not far from st. AL.
bans, the lodger pays threepence fol
his bed, and has his shirt washed into
the bargain. There are other houses
where the Inducements are still more
tempting, though not quite SO whole
some. Such houses, accommodating
fewer dodgers than the others, and hav-
ing a sort of private character, are pre-
ferred by vagabonds who have reason
for avoiding the publicity of a common
tap room. They are all dangerous
dens. have noticed, time after time,
that, on the pulling down of old prem
Uses here and there about the country,
and the digging up Of the foundations
preparatory to rebuilding, human skel-
etons have been turned up in various
stages of decay. Wherever it has been
possible have made inquiries concern
ing the history of such premises, to
find in many cases that they have been
low lOdging-hOuses within period
quite sufficient TO account for the re-
mains found among the ruins. A nota-
bic instance occurred at Liverpool sew
entccn or eighteen years ago. Such a
house, which had been shut up nearly
as many years in consequence of a pro-
tracted chancery suit, was pulled down.
to be rebuilt in better style; and in the
rooms there were found the remains
of no fewer than seven bOdies-two
being those of women, one that of a
boy, and the rest of full-grown men.
Two of the skulls bore marks of terri
be violence.