Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-06-14
NATURE AND TRAMpS.
WHERE THE RICH AND THE POOR
ARE ON a COMMON PLANE.

The Wanderers Amid the Glories OF Hill
and Valley Who Love Nature and Know
It Not-The American Tramp and the
English "Cabby."
One of the greatest charms about Nature Is
that she never distinctly moralizes poor
sinner out at the elbows, perhaps from lack
of worldly wisdom, may wander along by.
ways and hedge rows quite secure in the con-
sciousness that no bush or tree is likely to
draw the trigger Of a moral gun and send q
cold bullet of orthodoxy into his one vulner-
able spot-the heel, he fondly ilnagines, of an
unsung Achilles No, Nature is too tender
hearted for that The sun smiles cheerfully
at him, the leaves rustic musically for him,
the great trees are as hospitable in offering
him seat at their roots as if he were the
king of Wall street, the inventor of electric
light or the author of 'sPassion Prisms for
Analyzng Impurity." Everything combines
to surround him with an atmosphere of
peace. He may forget his shabby attire and
disappointed hopes and serenely open his
heart to the benign influences which his alma
mater weaves about him. Her teachings are
too subtle for him to rebel against.
AN UNCONSCIOUS AFFECTION
Although tramp may not formulate his
thoughts, there is no doubt something of this
feeling is in his heart. The nomadic tribes
organized bands Of tramps who believe i'll the
heaven-father and the acknowledgements,
Bedouins, Indians and Tartars. are true, if
unconscious, lovers of nature. Their Ian
guage, picturesque and adorned with SMILES
and metaphors drawn from inexhaustible
treasures of winds and waves and mountains,
bespeaks poetic devotion to the harmonious
infections of their musical mother tongue
The most genuine poetry is still found in the
oral traditions and rude minstrel improvisa-
tions of wandering tribes, and the saddest
music, that most tinged with realization of
an undercurrent of remorseless fate, may be
heard i'll the wild strains of the peasants who
wander over the rugged mountains of Nor
way, or may be heard in the fireside songs of
the dwellers in Siberian tents.
There is somewhat amusing in the fact
that three-fourths of the tramps of the world
are unconscious of their own affection for
nature. Go into analytical rhapsodies over
natures loveliness to a gypsy and he will
quizzically look at you askance, to an Indian
and he will grunt all unmoved assent, to an
American tramp-he elevates his eyebrows
in disdain of sentimental weakness.
Yet they steep themselves i'll golden sun
light, lie contentedly in cool shade by trout
stream to watch the darting minnows in
dark brown pool, and become acquiescent
crucibles in which nature drops many
dainty seed of thought to germinate and
blossom finally into action, or to be eaten
away by the acrid bitterness of its surround
ings. They know not the cause of their own
contentment, but they feel that nature de-
mands nothing of them, not even work. She
offers boundless freedom, and in return,
while apparently giving nothing, they give
the unconscious devotion of a lifetime
There is a certain cheerfulness about the
genuine tramp that is attractive to the stu
dent of human life. This cheerfulness is not
SO much optimistic as philosophic 1t is not
a bland Inconsistencies of evil like that
shown by Lambs friend, George Dyer, who,
when Lamb asked what he thought of mur
derer who had destroyed two families, bro
ken prison by suicide and was then being
carried to a cross roads grave, merely replied
"Why, think, Mr.. Lamb, he must have
been rather an eccentric character But
rather the quiet, good humor of the sports.
man who, returning from the marshes, was
asked if he had shot anything NO" he
said, ''but have given the birds good sere-
nading."