The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1882-07-05
Tramps and Their Houses.

irregular ones, Win peculiar ana note
worthy features-are licensed taverns,
spirit-houses, or, as the phrase goes on
the road, "bingo kens" (from 1t. 6idnco,
white, the. color of gin). Most of these
licenses are very old indeed, and some
are the oldest in the kingdom. Every
one of these houses is known far and
wide. No tramp, let him come from
where he may, ever enters a town with
out very definite ideas as to the house
where he is to put up. He has learned
all about it-aye, hundred miles off !;
and he goes to it as readily, aud, when
inside, conforms as smoothly to all its
ways, as though he had been born with
in its precincts. The custom of such a
house is constant. The tramp stream
thither Is perennial, and maintains about
the same level season after season and
year after year. This kind of people,
indeed, will halt here, and nowhere else,
so long as the house continues to main
tain its reputation among them, and
they are much more profitable company
than n'most people would imagine. In a
great many instances the tramp house is
managed by the same family for age
after age. There is one-the Goat, or,
as tho genuine tramp prefers to term it,
the Welsh Buffalo-at W, which
has been held by the same people since
the days of the Long Parliament, So
records in the possession of the landfbra
show. They are Just the sort to conduct
such house successfully. In stature
the family has always been gigantic; a
little too stolid and surly, perhaps, but
in temper and tastes tramp all over.
For one thing, nobody ever heard of a
regular marriage taking place among
them. The eldest son takes over the
house during the sold mans" life. The
younger sons, as q rule, join the police
in their native town or elsewhere, but by
preference in London, Wherever they
settle, however-and the fact is worthy
of notice-they remain to the last in the
full confidence of the fraternity among
which they have been brought up.
1t is the landlords of these tramp
houses who keep up the vagabond
organization, and - who renew and
circulate its signs and passwords from
time to time. The vagabonds them
selves could not do it,and never think of
doing 1t. 1t is difficult to give an idea
of the beggar passwords and sign sys-
tenn; but we will do the best we can.
1t has no common center, and no uni
formity. There may be, and probably
there are, fifty different sets of them in
use in England. Each has its own do
main, and these domains intersect one
another in curious fashion. These
landlords form small circles among
themselves according to contiguity; and
dozen to twenty of these small circles
will form one great one. A great circle
of tramp neutrality-suspicious. it were
better to call it oval-may spread fifty
L. Ne AA A,rrk,x
and ten To fifteen miles on each side of
it. And so far the set of signs and pass
words in use therein is good for three
months, when they are regularly
changed. A free tramp pays. three
pence for the sign and password every
time they are renewed. All he has to
do on these occasions. is to 90 to any
landlord of the right sort, give in the
old sign and password in due form, and
pay his pence. And he has to pay again
every time he enters a new circle. Ex-
perience teaches him very well the pre-
else bonds of each. However, when he
manifests ignorance on this point he is
very soon set right by the landlord, and
must purchase the freedom of the new
circle in the usual way. He meets with
little difficulty here, provided the pence
are forthcoming. For the tramp land.
lord can tell in an instant, by the word
and sign given by the tramp, whether
the latter is one of the right sort or not
Password and sign, indeed, serve,
among other things, as means where.
by tramp landlords levy a tax upon
vagabonds all over the country.
The uses of this vagaboHd freema.
sonry are manifold. 1t teaches the vag.
abond whom he may safely consort and
traffic with everywhere. The man who
gives the right response to mystic word
and sign is Invariably the one in whom
confidence may be safely reposed. On
the roadside the exchange of these to.
kens is Immediately followed by a free
exchange of recent experiences, to the
benefit of both parties. Norris this all
The vagrant out of luck is entitled to all
the assistance his more fortunate broth.
ers can render, and invariably receives
it. A fortunate vagrant never objects
to picking up a brother in bad plight
and treating him to supper, bed and
breakfast, beside starting him on his nexi
days journey with few pence in his
pocket. The uuinitiated yagrant notices,
as he can not help noticing, the constant
use of these signs. and countersigns or
the road, and the effects that follow
them in numerous instances. He otter
sees fellow as badly off as himseli
picked up and made much of by per
feet stranger, and fer no reason on earth
that he can see, except that one ad
dresses another with an apparently un
! meaning catchword. He picks up tht
word and employs it on all occasions, ir
the hope that sometime or other it may
bring the like fortune to himself. Other
silly ones catch it from him, and use it
for no reason at all that they can give
as salutation. Thus spread over thu
country such phrases as; SHAVE yoU
seen Simsonp" 'Is Murphy rightp" al
your father workingP"-PaH Mall Ga
zette. ssF~ stF