The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1881-08-18
Religious Tramps-Their Modes Of Ope.
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Religious Tramps-Their Modes Of Ope.
rating.
"That man is religious tramp" said
Manager Bunting of the Christian Home
TOR Incorporate Men. The man had
apparently just passed middle life. 'sHe
can sing finely, pray earnestly and ex-
hort eloquently.. I wish could talk as
well as he can"
"Why do you call him a religious
tramp?'
81 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 philanthropist. 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 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-
verted?'' o.
cit 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. l have taken men into
this Home, cast their ragged clothes into
the ash box, given them baths, new
suit at 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 Bakersfield
dens and imbibed poison to that extent
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 a rare exception,
however.
"What is the bright side of this re-
ligious tramp picture?'
"These men have one common place
of meeting. 1t is generally in the back
room of groggery of the lowest de-
scription. i recall one particular place
in Chatham Street where hundreds of
them congregate, because / have had
occasion to snatch men from its influ-
ence. 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 a 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 off from parental recog-
milton; in some instances they draw a
specified amount of money from home
at regular intervals. l 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
tons, and leading Christian lives.'
One of those men, who has been for
some time leading an honest life, has a
good situation in business house, and
looks on his past career as terrible
nightmare, was asked:
"What led you to put yourself under
Christian influence?'
"Religion was far from my thoughts
when l took the first step to sober up.
My sole object was to secure new suit
of clothes in place of the hand me-
downs l was then wearing"
"What do you mean by hand-me-
downs?'
"Hand. lime downs are obtained in this
way: A man in temporary interval Of
soberness secures 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 drug.
ged condition. He receives an old worn
suit in place of his new one, and not
more than dollar or two besides. Very
likely he fails to remember she place,
and the recovery of his good suit of
clothes, when he comes to his reason, is
a matter of impossibility. Well, l had
heard that ] could 60 to some evangel-
list, concoct good story about desire
for repentance, talk and pray, and I
would secure my new clothes and a
months board. I tried the plan. did
not want religion. did not believe that
l could be saved. In a few weeks l was
in my right mind. Good influences had
begun their work upon me. l was
ashamed of my deceit. l confessed my
purpose to defraud.: The kindness shown
me, the conviction that CAME to me that
l could reform, brought with it the de-
termination to do so, and l 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:
1--WE manage it in various ways. We
put up job on some minister or gener-
Gus Christian, and by the good talking
of some one of our number get a little
money or some good clothes. These we
turn into money. The religious women
are easier to beat than any other. We
win their sympathies by professions OF
religion, and most always get aid to
visit our homes in some far-off locality.
Then some Of our number work tempo
rarity. They spend their money in
treating, and thus one helps the other"
But these men deceive NO one, it is
said, although they think they are not
read through and through by those who
try to reform them. The Rev. DR..
Tying, before his departure for Europe,
was in the habit on winter mornings of
giving q hot breakfast to the outcast,
bringing them in from the highways.
One morning he fed several hundred to
good nourishing breakfast. Knowing
that all of them would readily assert that
they desired to give up drink, reform, and
become Christian men, he said to them:
/" There are many of you this morning
doubtless saying in your minds, What
a soft thing we have got on DR.. Tying.
We will all 60 up and beat him out of a
hot breakfast, and he is welcome to
keen his RELIGION Now am satisfied