The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-10-05
Religious Tramps-Their Modes Of One.
rating.

for Intemperate Men. The man had
apparently Just passed middle life. "He
can sing finely, pray earnestly and ex-
hort eloquently. I wish could talk as
well as he can"
"Why do you call him religious
trampP"
al will explain. There are religious
tramps Just as well as there are tramps
who prey upon the general public and
who are honest enough to make no pre-
tense of religion. These religious
tramps are known to every evangelist,
clergyman and philauthropist. They
haunt gospel temperance meetings, make
religious professions in the meetings Of
the Women's Christian Unions, are
present at the mission rooms, aud when
one city fails to afford them further Pc
cuniary relief they start out in the track
of a temperance orator, or follow up
some revival movement, visiting all parts
of the country. God is not deceived.
We are not deceived. Many just such
men, however, have been saved, and
have led useful lives"
You do not mean to say that these
religious tramps are ever sincerely con-
vertedp"
"It is q fact. Because it is so these
men are asked to come under Christian
influence. To be sure many of them will
not reform. They love their miserable
drunken life. 1 have taken men into
this Home, cast their ragged clothes into
the ash box, given them baths, new
suit af clothes, and sobered them up.
Often they have secured good situations,
but, before giving two days application
to their duties, they have deliberately
gone back to Chatham and Baxter-street
~ a. NAaN
that my next knowledge of them is that
they are on Blackwell's Island shoveling
ashes. Men have been through all this
and reformed. 1t is rare exception,
however"
"What is the bright side of this re-
igious tramp picturePh
"These men have one common place
of meeting. 1t is generally in the back
room of q groggery of the lowest de-
scription. l recall one particular place
in Chatham Street where hundreds of
them congregate, because / have had
occasion to snatch men from its inf1u-
snce. In this place can be found men
who were born tramps. The surround
ings of their lives have been such that
they could not help following q vicious
course, almost from the cradle to the
present. Associated with them, linked
together by the common tie of misery,
are young men whose parents are hon.
orable, respectable and wealthy citi-
zens. Drink has led them into errors,
into the committal of crime. They have
gone down step by step in the social
scale, until to-day they subsist almost
entirely on liquid poisons, mere SEM
blances of humanity. Some of them
have been cast of from parental recog-
nition; in some instances they draw q
specified amount of money from home
at regular intervals. I have put just
| such men on their feet again, and for
years past have been blessed in know
| ing that they are enjoying the conf
dence of their families, filing good situ-
tons, and leading Christian lives"
One of those men, who has been for
some time leading an honest life, has q
good situation in a business house, and
looks on his past career as terrible
nightmare, was asked:
"What led you to put yourself under
| Christian inhuenceph
"Religion was far from my thoughts
when took the first step to sober up.
My sole object was to secure a new suit
of clothes in place of the 'hand-me-
downs was then wearing"
"What do you mean by hand-me-
! downsP"
"Hand-me-downs are obtained in this
| way: A man in a temporary interval of
soberness secures q new suit of clothes,
say worth about $50. As he has no
money to purchase more whiskey, he
enters a Baxter Street secondhand
clothing shop. Possibly he is in a drug
| ged condition. He receives an old worn
suit in place of his new one, and not
4 AZ ,lol1
likely he fails to remember the place,
and the recovery of his good suit Of
| clothes, when he comes to his reason, is
matter of impossibility. Well, 1 had
heard that ] could 90 to some evangel-
ist, concoct a good story about desire
for repentance, talk and pray, and
would secure my new clothes and a
months board. I tried the plan. 1 did
not want religion. did not believe that
I could be saved. In q few weeks was
in my right mind. Good Influences had
begun their work upon me. / was
ashamed of my deceit. 1 confessed my
purpose to defraud. The kindness shown
me, the conviction that came to me that
I could reform, brought with it the de-
termination to do so, and can only
look back at my past course with hor-
ror."
Another man, who had once been un-
der Christian teachings, but who refused
to be guided by them after he got away
from their influence, said, referring to
the means of living in tramp quarters
"We manage it in various ways. We
put up q job on some minister or gener-
Gus Christian, and by the good talking
of some one of our number get little
money or some good clothes. These we
| t,r,, ;,o%~ Tho rali.rions xuor,nau
are easier to beat than any other. We
win their sympathies by professions oi
religion, and most always get aid to
visit our homes in some far-off locality
Then some of our number work tempo,
rarily. They spend their money in
treating, and thus one helps the other y
But these men deceive no one, 1t l:
said, although they think they are moi
read through and through by those who
try 10 reform them. The Rev. DR.
Tying, before his departure for Europe
was in the habit on winter mornings o.
giving q hot breakfast to the outcast
bringing them in from the highways
One morning he fed several hundred tc
good nourishing breakfast. Knowing
that all of them would readily assert thal
they desired to give up drink reform, ,an6
become Christian men, he said to them
"There are many of you this morning
doubtless saying in your minds, Wha
soft thing we have got on DIR. Tying
We will all go up and beat him out of /
hot breakfast, and he is welcome II
keep his religion Now am satisfied
that if can only save one man out o
this large number present here thi
morning the object of this entertainment
has been secured. ."-Nel1 York Sun.
/
General Longstreet recently, in re
sponse to the question "Who was you
greatest soldierP" responded: ''In man,