St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-02
PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR
TIGR4NTS

We observe that in some of the larger
cities proposition to establish warehouses,
in which able bodied Migrants, paupers and
persons committed for minor offenses may
be probably employed, is receiving favor
able consideration. Every city is being con-
fronted with the question of what to do with
the three rapidly-growing classes of her popu
lation-tramps, Migrants and short-term
convicts. These three classes are grouped
for the purpose of legal treatment, but in
reality are distinct. The tramp should not
be confounded with the vagrant. The latter
is simply a shiftless person without visible
means of support. He is merely a victim of
circumstances beyond his control, and he
seldom makes an heroic effort to reach and
control them. He has been with US many
years. The tramp on the other hand is
creature sai ge,,eris There is method in his
shiftlessness, and he is the flower of system
attic vagabondage. He starts out in his
professional wanderngs upon the assump-
ton that the world owes him a living and
it is his business to collect it.
He displays some energy in his
pursuit and avocation. In the sum-
mer time he works the rural sections. Early
morning and twilight walks along the coun-
try road are attractive then, and he always
finds a convenient shade from the MONDAY
sun. The detached situation of the dwell
ings and the absence of their male occupants
enable him to make his collections easily,
and to take his meals with regularity and
l-n
satisfactory lodging houses on warm nights
The watering-place season of the tramp ends
with the approach of winter, and he turns
his course toward the cities. Here he gets
himself arrested on a charge of vagrancy and
| is provided with comfortable quarters fol
three months at public expense.
Then there is the third in the class, the
short-term convict guilty of some minor
offense. He is hardly ever hardened GRIM
inal, he is more hopeful case than the va
grant or tramp, there is chance for his
reformation, and as these circumstances
render it undesirable to shut him up with
grosser felons in the state prison there should
be some place provided where he would not
have such base criminal associations.
Another reason making it undesirable tc
ccnfine the short-term convict in the peni-
Tertiary, for that institution is gen.
orally overcrowded, and the labor sys,
TEN prevailing there is system Of
skilled labor for the success of which the en-
| ployment and training of long-term convictS
| is desirable.
Now the question what to do with these
three classes of useless members OF society
cannot be more satisfactorily answered than
by providing warehouses for them where
they can be probably employed. These
three varieties all merge into one class before
the official eye, because all are ''sent up'' for
brief term, say an average of three months.
The public must care for them, and theil
maintenance ought to be as light a public
burthen as is practicable. That is to say
they should be made to work for a living
Let the tramp and the vagrant once under
stand that they must work if arrested, ano
they will begin to ask themselves soberlJ
whether it is not better to work without being
| arrested.