Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-10-20
LOlgers in the Park.

Under the trees In Madison Square at
eleven and one-half O'Clock last night
there were at least three hundred lodg-
ers. Only half dozen of them were
awake. The others were sleeping in
almost every conceivable posture. The
few who had early in the evening Sc
cured shares of the curved bench around
the fountain were the only ones able to
stretch out at full length. and these
rested their heads on their crossed
arms, or leaned upon an elbow, or were
fat on their backs. The flood of cleo
trio light from the high center pole
bathed in a blaze of light the tree tops,
that were like so MANY mounds of YER
dure. 1t tipped the edges of the layers
of leaves rs with shining silver, and
left the park beneath half in twilight
and half in dark. Waving lace-work
patterns were seen wherever the shad-
ows of the twigs and branches fell upon
the walks. The effect produced by the
electric light was such that every lodger
seemed well dressed. There was not
light enough to show a rent, stain, or
wrinkle in any of their garments. Even
their shirts shone white
But the dodgers looked uncomfort-
able. The high backs of the settees
and the iron arm-rests separating the
seats gave each man but eighteen square
inches Of bedstead. One young man
who was occupying part of the settee
close to Twenty-slxth street and near
Madison avenue, where George Francis
Train is to be found in the daytime,
was doubled up like half-closed peck
ct knife. Alodger exactly across the
way from the main entrance to the
Fifth Avenue Hotel kept almost drop
ping his head on the grass behind him
and catching it in the nick of time. The
exertion made him snore like the snarl-
ing of a tiger. Every here and there
gravitation brought two neighbors to-
gether with ones head on the other s
breast and his head on his companion 8
shoulder.
They are not all tramps," said the
policeman on Twenty-sixth street.
"Some OF them have homes, but prefer
to sleep out in the air. One young man
that l happen to know has nice home,
but he has some ailment of the lungs or
chest that he believes is relieved by
sleeping out of doors. Others would be
less comfortable in the hot and crowded
quarters where they live than they are
here. We find out about them when
we make raids and bundle them all off
TO the station. We cannot hold those
who have homes to 90 TO. The others,
forming the great majority, are simply
Migrants, who live by begging and steal
ing. though some of them tel me they
work once in a while, long enough to
get clothes and money for spree, and
then they tramp again. On some nights
every seat in every park is occupied
he park police do not stay on duty at
night, but we are supposed to keep the
tramps away. We let 'em alone though,
unless they get noisy. They fight once
in n while, but most of the trouble is
made by bands of young roughs who
roam through the parks from dark till
midnight. -
If decent man should fall asleep
in one of these parks would he be safe?"
"Well, he would, but his valuables
wouldn't. Sometimes gentleman
comes crawling through the park late
at night full of wine after \ dinner or a
party, and drops on n bench and falls
asleep. Then they 90 through him.
have known man to be robbed of his
watch, money, rings, coat, vest, hat and
shoes, and have TO make his way home
in that condition in the morning. Gen
orally, though, the tramps are not so
cruel. They often take gentleman S
silk hat and leave him their own in ex-
change"
But" said the policeman, 81 must
90 and drive those fellows away from
Delmonico's. The tramps 90 to Del
monico's when they get chilly, because
there's grating there and the heat OF
the kitchen comes up through it. There
was a nice young fellow there last
night. He had no coat, but his shirt
was clean and good. He said his father
turned him out of doors because he
played pool, and he pawned his coat for
the price of a NEAL
There were about 500 dodgers in
Union Square, and the FLASHING fountain,
the uncovered paths, and the sleepers,
under the wizard touch of the electric
light, made the scene remind one of the
fairy tale of those who slumbered in the
company of the Beauty in the Wood.
The Prince who broke the spell in
the City Hall Park half an hour later
was policeman with a club two feet
long. The reporter had been walking
on the plaza between the grass and the
City Hall, and had not noticed lodger.
The park was rs quiet as a grave
yard. But when this guardian, whose
voice was like the roar of fire trumpet,
banged his club and said: ''Out with
YOU. or I'll bag the lot of YOU" the
paths suddenly swarmed with sham
bling, stretching. yawning figures, some
Mt dog trot and some limping like
rhanmnfics ~ Y Sun