The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1884-06-26
TEMPERANCE DEPARTMENT..
EDITED BY THE WOMEN's CHRISTIAN
TEMPERANCE UNION.
WHAT BECAME OF THE rnAMPs.


Very important business to be attended to.
The country is getting full of lazy tramps
who won It work, and can't get it suppose,
if they would. The work-house must be
enlarged right away, and already the taxes
are dreadful The above remarks were
made by a politician who was going to hear
an address by Mr.. Grandson, councilman
from the ninth ward of the city OF Haver-
land.
This city of forty-thousand people had a
Woman's Christian Association, Girls
Reformatory, Home for the Aged, relief
societies for the poor, a Woman's Temper
ance Union to look after the product OF
four hundred saloons, and yet the number
Of trampS increased.
Mr.. Grandson was the chief speaker at
| the meeting. He had long been DESTROYS
to represent the city in the legislature, and
| to do this he must keep himself before the
people, and upon some burning theme.
The tramp question had indeed become an
| important matter. Mr.. Grandson was a
pOmpous but suave man, who by a turn OF
the wheel of fortune had become reduced
| to poverty. His wife put on her accuS-
toned airs, and by dint of opportune calls
| upon her neighbors, fat meal time,) and
sending the children to friends for long
visits, her family managed to subsist. She
was an officer in as many benevolent Soc1e-
ties as possible, for she had high hopes for
| the future.
| Mr.. Grandson spoke well on the evening
above mentioned. The trampS were pun
ished severely for being without work, and
| their parents before them, for allowing
| them to become tramps. OF course COM
pulsory education and the compulsory
learning OF some trade were suggested as
remedies. Reading rooms were urged
os1rvx4 ,.4 sx, frr.f
from temptation. The Woman s Temper
ance Union had already begged books and
money, and given ten cent entertainments,
| till the people were tired of the very name
of reading room.'' Capitalists were urged
to provide workshops, but the principle of
representation governs saints and SIN
ners alike. Capital will not squander itself,
| with no return of income. A benevolent
society might buy land at the far west,
and loan money to build homes, but the
tramps would not CO. Finally an Agri-
cultural Reform Farm was attempted,
where drunkards should stay till they were
cured. and Migrants till they loved work :
but still the tramps increased in number.
Taxes were growing more burdensome.
The times were hard, and the worthy poor
we're without work. The cry OF economy
and retrenchment" was raised. The cry
usually reaches the public schools first.
Some persons seem to feel that what we
| need least is brains. Teachers, most of
/ them women, and therefore having no
votes in the coming election for legislators,
were at once cut down in salaries. Then
the high schools were dispensed with. In
vain did some protest that fifty per cent.
of those who attended were the children
of working men, who would otherwise
have no opportunity to reach high posi-
ti0ns in life; that the greatness and glory
of the republic depends largely upon edu.
cation. The Public Library was closed
the place where tired men had gathered to
read the papers, and forget for few
minutes the struggle for daily bread.
Next the churches were taxed. True,
they were built largely by the self sacrifice
of the few for the ennobling Of the many,
but the money was needed for jails and
warehouses;.
Mr.. Grandson, who had helped to bring
about all this economy, was rewarded by a
place in the legislature. His wife was
proud and satisfied, no not that exactly,
for when were politician or his wife ever
satisfied unless the presidential chair were
reached. And now what perplexed every
body was the fact that there were more
tramps than ever.
Mrs. Grandson received an early call
one morning. She was wanted at once at
the Jail. She had often been there in her
benevolent work, and yet she could not
divine the present urgent request. She
fastened down, and was brought face to
face with a strange scene Her two sons
wild boys they had been, but she loved
them-in drunken quarrel had killed a
man! Her boys, whom she had petted and
spoiled She was completely FRUSTRATED,
and the father was at once called. Then
anew truth forced itself upon him he saw
what made trampS and murdererS what
made taxes burdensome and people poor !;
the four hundred saloons of Haverland.
These two sons whom he idolized had been
ruined by the very haunts of sin which
the law caressed and protected. Both
Itsons paid the penalty of a broken law, a
law which allows ssHELPs TO MURDER
placed along every pathway and then hangs
/ those who commit murder. Mrs. Grandi-
son did as ether mothers have done lay
down in her grave, brOken-hearted in her
prime.
Not so her husband. All the forces of
his nature stirred within him. He showed
the people of Hayerland how they helped
to support men who were tearing down
the purity and honor of the community by
their business how mothers were crushed
and wives ruined by the dreadful traffic.
Stealing and m urder were prohibited why
and the women became doubly in earnest.
Politicians were proud to be on the right
side, when that seemed the winning side.
The police were glad to enforce the law
if they were sure of being sustained in,
and not lose their positions. The need of
daily bread makes man very careful about
his principles if he have any. AS usual
when good men and women are united in
doing thing, evil is overcome. Haver-
land closed its saloons OF course there
were some who would drink in cellars, and
| by way of back doors, and paid death his
bill when he came early, as he always did,
but the TRAMP Question . was settled.
These do not grow where there are no
saloons, nor remain when saloons are
closed. Hon. Mr.. Grandson did the best
work of his life in this act, and was re-
warded by higher political positions. !,
/ COMMISSIONERS OFFICE,
~ STAUNToN, VA, June 18th, 1884,
ChannlIu nf