The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1888-01-28
ANCIENT TRAMPS.


"Iha poor We have always with you. !"
and are likely to have so long as wo-
mea earn 5 farthings an hour when
they can get work. so long as the reg
ulation price (before the sweater"
mas taken 1.-THE of iD is for army leg
gings Is dozen. for prisoners flannel
drawers Is Sd, for frillsd lawn tennis
aprons SID.
or course. besides the hardworkers.
there are the idlers, either through
laz ness or want of work. and there
are the wanderers the Jolly beggars"
of Burns, tramps. who never did a
stroke of work save on compulsion,
and never mean to. These have all
ways been in the land. often in num-
bers relatively far larger than now.
They have been treated with alternate
petting and coercion; in one town poor
people borrowing half-penny to give
to beggar; in the next the constable
clapping them in the stocks. and CIV
ing them a good whipping before letting
them go. The strangest thing is that
this whipping was generally followed
by dole, In many parish books,
about 800 years ago. we find such en-
tries as these:
'Payd for wippin tow pore folk.
i'd"
"Payd and given to pore man and
his wifi that was Wiped, lid"
This was double the usual tariff,
which is represented by. Gave the
tow when they went, i'd"
In Saxton times the beggar unless
he found refuge in one of them .thinly
scattered monasteries, was an evil case.
He belonged to the dangerous tribe of
"masterless'' men, people for whom
40 one was answerable; and those who
sheltered him were fain to do it by
stealth, for If man staid with you
more than couple of days, you were
accountable not only for anything he
might then do, but also for his antece-
dents. Mr.. Ribton Turner thinks race
has good deal to do with beggary.
When you take away mans means Of
life, he must either starve or rob or beg.
The old natives of Great Britain were
short, dark people-Basques, say some,
Esquimaux say others; the tall light
haired Gael beat them out from al
most everywhere except South Wales.
Then the Cymrt, another Celt-
lie people came across from the Clmbric
Chersonese Denmark( landed in
Aberdeen, spread over Scotland as
Picts. and, coming southwark, were
met by the tide of Saxon. or Gas the
new lights prefer to call iD English"
invasion. and turned aside into Wales.
What the round-skulled Gael has done
to the short. long-skulled people who
preceded him, the Saxon did to the
Gael. He took his titled land from
HMM those days it was not much,
nine-tenths of the island being forest
and marsh-and he gave him no
chance of settling near him. and bring
ing n some of the wild country. That
was not done till later, when the mon
asteries (true agricultural colonies) set
the example of making the desert
smile. The conquered had nothing to
do for it but to submit to slavery or to
''move on" If he moved on with a
lot of friends, he might settle down
somewhere in Wales. or on the Cor
nish moors, or in the wild district GALL
ed Cumbria (Cymrl's Land), from
Chester to the Solway. But there
would generally be somebody to turn
out; so, If he was alone or with few,
begging or robbing (the two were in
terchangeable) was his only resource.
Then the numbers of the wanderers
would always be recruited from those
who consented to remain in slavery.
To be a slave under the best of
masters must have been a trYz
ing chance; and few masters were
good, or mistresses either, in days
when lady thought nothing Of having
girl logged to death for dressing her
hair badly. Many, therefore, would
run away; become ''fymas," that is,
tramps. through whom the tramp ma
ture has been perpetuated. Whether or
not trace" was the cause, tramps were
very numerous in Saxon times; else,
why the stringent laws against themp
Then, as now, they had coaxing way
with them. To wheedle is from
''waedlian." to beg. In summer the
woods gave them shelter and food; in
winter they often starved. despite of
benevolence, like that which Bede
records Of King Oswald, who feasting
his Bishop at Easter, heard that crowd
OF poor were sitting round the door.
A silver dish had just been brought in,
full of rare meats. "Take it" said
Oswald, '.give the food 10 the poor, and
break up also the dish into little bits so
that each may have one"
In King Edgar's Canons drawn up
by Dunstan), the true rule for fasting is
laid down: when one fasts let the
dishes that would have been eaten be
all distributed to Gods poor" The
1.-THE, as yet only voluntary charge.
was divided into three parts-one for
the church fabric, another for the poor
and for strangers (of whom many were
wandering monks(. another for the
priest.
Another cause which swelled the
army OF tramps was that when, -ou~hisr
Geath-bed, master freed his slaves,
they became the "men' (erfs). of his
heir, instead of being able to go where
and live under whom they pleased.
Of course, If the heir. were hard man,
there would be stampede of his serfs,
whose position. little above that of
bondsmen, made the personal charac-
ter of their master all-important.
Alfred in his will, not only enfranchised ]
.ll his servants, but took care to secure
to them the liberty of choice:
II, in the name of the living God,
bid that no man hinder them, either by