Litchfield enquirer., 1879-02-20

E pleasure. to assist. Are we not in danger o overlooking tseD1 by reason of our familiarit, with unworthy creatures who simulate thei 4 nzizfsrtuness rss y~ Fl Secondly. let US consider the tramp as on peculiarly tempted to commit crime That h. is So requires little argument to prove. w, have all been brought up on the old lines 'sF0r Sotan finds some mischief still for idl, hands to do"
 Since the time when Adam was placed in !. garden where the fruits of the earth sprang uE spontaneously, sin has ever crept in to occupy the unemployed time. The tramp gees fron house to hcuse he deals with servants and we men. he enters the kitchen, he sees the family silver, he has an opportunity to study safe modes of breaking into and escaping from the house His evil disposition prompts him, his opportunities are most favorable. Can you, my friends, afford to have him criminal in' stead of tramps To a moralist there is but C7e answer To an economist, is not the an- sWer as evident? -t
 f1 is the duty of the State and every good citizen who has the welfare of the State at ? hezn to prevent the commission of crime, among other reasons, because W costs So muclt sS dezes1 mad F1HSsisk t, So much to repair the waste of property stolen. burned, destroyed. One of the heaviest items of our State expen- dItare IS the expense of courts and jails. If we were compelled to support neither, how great would be the saving. .,...--... .
 Again. the time of 50 many people is requir- oi in the various offices connected with the sdnzinEaratson of justice, who, if there was no c<irzze could return to avocations in life which actually produce property. How great would be the saving from this source? Do not let ne be understood as asserting that every tramp is criminal or every criminal tramp, and if there was no such class that courts of justice need no longer be maintained, but sim ply as arguing from his temptationsthe known fact So many do become criminals, that as a matter of dollars and cents the saving would be enerncus in this direction if the tramp nuisance could be abated.
 Thirdly: The tramp considered as voter fs<ms to-day, and bids fair in the future to form one of the most difficult in connection with our effort al <self-goyernment. His sole object in fife is to live without labor, to be fed warned and clothed without self-exertIon. Their one article of faith is that the world owes them living without any return in la bor On their part doctrine which is the foand2tien stone on which the commune is boiit; doctrine which caused the railroad riots of two years ago; and doctrine which the hi&Ogy Of Rome and France teaches us, has in the past destroyed Republics. Let the tramp and those who, if not actually Ion the road" areF aetuated. by tramp pgIuciples as above defined. com5ine and they could at once make themselves felt in our politics.
 In eur own State, as evenly divided. as it is, politically, very small number might easily hold the balance of power. The minute that time arrives, interruptions men in one party or the other, for their own aggrandisement, will bargain with them for their votes, paying as the prIce, greater license to their vices. Once that price be paid, at each recurring election, their demands will increase until having ob- taiBed an unlimited issue ofirredeemable pa Der currency, they will go on from the enact- meut of agrarian laws to the commune. Do 1 ovesdrsw the picturef Ask of the noble blood that was shed in vain to give Rome free dom and establish Republic there. Ask the French patuet who gave his all to establish the frst Republic in France. The path of danger to a Republic lies SO plain before thoughtful man, that it should not need the terrible lessons of history to point it out, and yet, alasI all the blood that marks it, ilumed as it is, by the torch and the fire brand, re- sounding as it does, with the shrieks of agony and the gFoan of the dying. How many of us are there who heed it? Too selfish to fore go our own ambition; too little patriotic to sacrifice our own desires to our country's g0od we care not who exercise the, to us, sacred right of suffrage, so long as the vote is cas- for us and on our side. Tramps are men of no mean order of intellect. They live by their wits The poor always outnumber the rich; the idle, the thrifty the vicious, the vlr- t1Ou& In a nonarchical form of government this fact is of little consequence. for numbers do not count, but where the people govern themselves, where the majority make the laws oE make the men who make them, how, inevi- table the result, that tramps or what is just as bad, the ''trGRnp priHeipIes," !" will control our affairs, unless by wise precautions, while there is still virtue enough left in the people to do it, the evil be ayerted by preventing the increase of such dangerous class. " r-a
 How then shall this be done? shall offer bui few suggestions on this point, as my object has been rather to excite your attention to the subject. that you may be induced to act, ratI- CT than to promulgate any pet theories of my own To be apprised of a danger is to avert it. am not one of those who believe addi- tlonal legislation essential. We have power enough under our present statutes; what we nezzi Is the enforcement nf thnsn lawe tIAff Idle persons without visible meapsof support" '-all beggars who go from door to door; "all who travel from place to place without any lawful occasions" s'all persons sleeping in harns. Outhouses, and in the open air, who can give no good account of themselves D ''all persons camping in the highway" are liable ts arrest and confinement for sixty or one hundred and twenty days in the werkhouse. -a
 The first step then, think, in the reforma- ton of the tramp is to make a criminal of him, by arresting, ccnvicting and committing kiTn tO tlle workhouse. ~EE .tn <HF
 In Bridgeport we have no workhouse The jail and the poorhouse both partake of the character of a wOrkhouse in some respects, but are neither of them, properly warehouses. .
 Why, instead of your and my feeding, warming and clothing the tramps who daily cODe along, should we not have workhouSe, where, &s soon as they come into town, after having been formally introduced to His Hon. Ur, the Judge of the City Court. and by him welcomed to the hospitality of our city, these gentlemen of the road could be placed, and give plenty of work and where, when they had earned 1t. food and ledging would be prcvid- edS IL would save our money and the city would receive something for its hospitality from the labor performed A properly con- d0c1ad wOrkhouse ought easily to support it. self and he a source of revenue even. A workhO1se being provided and 8 tramp con- vSced. would next have various kinds. of wIk providec, some easy, some hard some light some more difficult splitting wood, breskiag stone, making baskets, turning han dieS. making shoes, tending cattle The more vxraety the better Let each tramp be allotted ssne particular wOrk, that is best suited to his &hSEty, 10 perform. Then let an absolute rule o& the establishment be impressed upon his Uina, viz= That his food, in quantity and quality, and his lodging in comfort, would de- pend upon the Fquantity and quality of the wOrk by him performed. 1t he woald not woud not work af all, am not exactly cer- tain whether I should let him starye or not We certainly have good authority for saying,
 Ia man will mol work, neither shall he eat, " Is pr2E5zlly matters would not reach such exIre1ziex Establish in your workhouse, gE24e2 the lOwest grade to have the poorest, cnG-scst food to eat. the coldest of cold water s0 d-ink- tke le2a comfortable quarters to oc- czpE- Info ths place all who could, but will sG wxk, and who working, through careless 1e@ and hack sf desire, performed but little sGvH< T0 xCte1rs k.
 The ser0nd grade to have better food to eat, se8 and em@ee tc xlrink, more comfortable ouar- oe-& Iz1o this place men who did work e1szgA oEing the day to pay for such com tzz2 Above this establish one or more Ez&xs 1z gxpexlence should dictate, increasing EER CuwkcrEG AF1r1fux facilities for read;n0