The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1886-11-16
"Only q Tramp."
Only q tramp.

Only Il poor, SOrrOWlnS, uOWHlrou-
den human being, waiting to grow
wings and fly to home beyond the
skies.
Only a tramp! Only chap
weighing from l30 to 210 pounds,
down weight-ragged and greasy
old clothes-long hair and dirty
neck-heels out to the weather and
his pockets clear of cash. The
angels look down and pity him
not much.
Only tramp! Only a man whose
wife longer refused to bend her back
at the washboard to buy him whis-
XIV and tobacco, and whose children
have grown tired of begging his
bread and butter He has been
forced out on the wide, cold world
to get his own living, and every hu-
man heart must 60 out to him in
sympathy-in horn!
"Only a tramp was the verdict
as a stranger was found dead by the
roadside. No eye filed with tears
no heart sorrowed over his sad
fate. He was only tramp; the
great world would go on the same.
Perhaps some grief-stricken mother
awaited him in a faroff home, and
as night fell she clasped her hands
in sorrow and murmured: "Where,
oh! where is my Henri tonight
Just as like as not, but the verdict
of the coroner's jury was: "Shot
while stealing chickens, and that's
what's the matter with her Henri"
"Only tramp they said as
they found pieces of an old hat, one
boot heel and three shirt-buttons
along the railroad track. The birds
sang just the same as before-the
sun shone just as fair-the daisies
winked at the gurgling brook, and
the meadow lark scared still higher
and sent his voice almost to Heav-
ems gates. Men gathered around
the fragments and chewed plug to-
bacco and talked politics and tried
to get up fight between Jim Daily's
bob-t tailed pup and old Simons' rat
terrier.
"0nly a tramp" had suddenly
dropped out of this life, and who
should care? A thousand miles
away sweet-faced child might be
asking: "Will my papa come home
tonight" No, sissy, he won't
While the "sad remains" were being
viewed the old man turned up all
right in the nearest barn, and was
sent to the county Jail for three
He may come smother
night.
''Only tramp some one whis-
pered, as a group surrounded a dark
object lying in the snow on win
ter's night. That's all. The wind
blew requium over the housetops,
and the snow flakes whirled round
and round the aged head and nestled
among the grizzly locks. What
cared the world that a poor old
tramp had passed from earth away?
Would the bells jingle less merrily
on the morrow? Would one home
in the great city have one shadow
the more for his taking off? And
yet, in some vine-clad home beyond
the sea woman about 80 years of
age and wearing the newest things
in bangles may cease to caress her
poodle and cry out: "Oh. Josepheus,
my heart pines for thee. Come back
to your Hanner.w But he won't
not this week. The dark object on
the snow previously alluded to at
tempted to rise, fell down with
whoop, and the patrol wagon took
him down for a ninety-day sentence.
Hannah will have to wait until his
term expires.
"Only tramp is the unfeeling
exclamation as they pull 'em out of
dry goods boxes, from under horse
barns and from the middle of old
straw-stacks. "Only tramp is
the exclamation when they are
lynched for rape or murder, and sent
to jail for arson and robbery. 1t is
sad-yery sad. An association
should be formed to weep bitter
tears when one of them dies Of too
much dirty shirt, or falls like spar
row by the wayside with a broken
heart because some one asked him
why he didn't earn his living.