Nevada County picayune., 1888-04-25
Anti0uity of the Tramp.

family. There is. of course, cer- tain number of casual who are me chanics out of work. or laborers who ! having been promised employment in distant places. are proceeding thither on foot in order to save the railroad expenses there are sailors without a ship, who are tramping down to some seaport in hope of 1 finding some vessel. The historic tramp stand quite extinct and a. i part from these waifs and Strays he | is not out of work. he never did a ! stroke of work in his life. He has not fallen into poverty. he was born l tramp. and his fathers were tramps dent of the ''abbey-lubbers" or mcndicant wanderers, who before l the reformation wandered from mon- astery to monastery in quest of aims. The monks never refused them bed of straw and hearty supper in the "hospitium' of the convent, but next morning the prudent friars sat their ragged guests at work for few hours at tilling the fields or choping wood; they certainly did not lock them mp in cells. Nor did the new poor law in it's earlier years treat, or even appear to contemplate the treatment of tramp as though he were a felon. To every union work house casual yard was attached
 which was usually a kind of barn, with plenty of straw and blankets to cover the sleepers. When the tramp had the money to spare, say pence he went to tramps lodging house When he had none. or did not care to spend the few pence which he had begged during the day, he blithely accepted the hospital or the casual ward. where he would be sure to get comfortable shelter for the night and a good supper of bread and cheese or hot gruel If he arrived on Sat turdav night he was not discharged until Monday morning. but on Sun day he was we'll fed, and some unions even provided their Sabbath day casuals with meal of meat and po- tatoes. In very few unions was any labor exacted from male casuals on the morrow of their entertainment in none were female casuals expected to work. The result of his happy go-lucky system was that the tramp population found the casual ward a very cosev and almost festive abid- ing place, and the gradual disap- pearance of refugees for the destitute supported by private charity led to a still larger influx of casuals to the eleemosynary hotels provided by the guardians. Gradually these sapient bodies, especially in the metropolis, arrived at the conclusion that casual paupcrism might be stamped out if casual wards were made dismally comfortlcss asylums. Regulations were framed for forcing the recipient of orders of admission to walk long distances from the office of the re- | lieying officer to the ward where they were to sleep. Then the local | government board sanctioned the de- | ton of casuals for two or three days if they were recognized as having previously received food and shelter ; and finally came the system of those unwelc0me guests in solitary con fincment. It is very possible that the cell system has worked remarka- hle we'll, and has appreciably dimin- ished the number of casuals applying for relief. The only question to de- 1 tcrminc is as to whether it is an ac- cordance with the law to lock up in solitary cells men who have not com mitted any crime beyond that of be- ing destitute-London Daily Telc- graph.