Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1885-02-18
TRAMPs AND DEAD-BEATS
WICHITA, Feb.-l6, 1885.

WICHITA, rev. 2coO.
To the Editor of the Eagle:
In Sundays paper you have another pa
thetic appeal to the generosity of the people
of our city in behalf of the ''long-suffering,
starving tramp, who, ike the "poor we have
with US always" / DO not doubt Mr.. Edi-
tor that your efforts to excite the sympathy
of the benevolent people Of Wichita in aid
ofthat worse than worthless class Of men
as traInps are prompted by heart full of
the ''milk of human Kindness" but | am
afraid that sometimes the heart becomes so
full that the milk Stops over and Is wasted
If the history OF each one of these tramps,
who infest not alone Wichita, but every 9TH
er city, town and village throughout the
country, was written it would be shown
that nine out Of every ten of them are Grim
inals, vagabonds, paupers, not from neces-
sity, but from their own choice
II is the rarest thing to see one who is not
able-bodied, and there is not in America
an able-bodied man who if he be
industrious, and does not fritter away his
earnings for tobacco and whisky. the twin
evils which are productive OF crime and
pauperisrn, but would have enough to keep
him in luxury for the few months he might
be unable to get work. The system of in
discriminate alms-giving, which your gen.
! erous spirit, seeks to encourage amongst
the people, Is productive of harm, as well
as ofgood-
The man who through dissipation and
idleness is brought 10 want has no claim on
the charity of the public. But il, no matter
how pro1igate or worthless he may be, he
knows the generous public will feed and
clothc, and warm him, that he viii not be
allowed TO suffer what incentive Is there for
him TO DO better
Such men are lost to all sense Of shame,
and of manhood, and the only spur that can
drive them TO the doing of an honest days
work is the pricling Of biting hunger, and
they ought 20 be permitted to feel it. The
beggarly tramp, whose capacious nav was
filed with wholesome food from your gen
erous table, spent for whisky and tobacco
the twenty-five cents your ncighbor gave
him to pay for nights lodging.
Why is IT that of all the vast horde of
vagabond tramps throughout the land not
one in fifty is woman, She is the weaker
of the race, yet fewer beggars amongst
them. But if woman does solicit aims, il
is in nearly every instance true, she is driven
to it by the poverty brought on her and her
helpless children through the worthlessness
of a whisky-drinking, tobacco-eating hus-
band.
There is man in our city of whom it
is said that he buys fifty cents worth of floor
a week to make bread for himself, wife and
children, and kicks because -four is so dear,
and abuses his wife if she throws a crust out
of doors, while at the same time he squan-
ders two dollars week for WHISKY and |
tobacco with which to enlivcn and regale |
his own individual worthless carcass. He |
would be a tramp if his wife did not help to
support him.
a charitable benevolent spirit that re-
spoads readily 10 the cry of the weak and |
helpless distressed ones in our city, ought to
be cultivated at all times, and such senti-
ments should crystalize into material things
when a meritorious case pcesents itself, |
but the indiscriminate feelings of lazy bum
mers whom it is sought to give degree of
respe ctabiiity TO by calling them tramps, is
wrong. and has a tendency TO foster rather
than discourage the number OF, not only
itinerant but local dead beats, who live off
the labor OF others. Feed and clothe help
less women and children, Mr. Editor, but
when an able bodied man in America has
become SO worthless, so lost to all sense of
manhood, that he will willingly beg his
daily bread, better let him starve His DAYS
Of usefulness are gone. \ tramp is a result
what is the cause? Let every voter who
has his own and his children's interest at
heart, ponder well the question, and give
{ an honest answer at the next municipal
election, and in the year to come there will
pc fewer tramps made in Wichita.
kIGILANTE. |