San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-03

dDle SpOI-IAle ueel, ile lOllulJ uHd5llies' VI ti
unsung Achilles No, Nature is too tender
hearted for that The sun smiles cheerfully
at him, the leaves rustic unsteady for him,
the great trees are as hospitable in offering
him a seat at their roots as If he were the
king of Wall street, the inventor of electric
| light or the author of Passion Prisms for
Analysing 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 a 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 in 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
tons of wandering tribes, and the saddest
music, that most tinged with realization of
an undercurrent of remorseless fate, may be
heard in the wild strains of the peasants who
wander over the rugged mountains of Nor
way, or may be heard in the freside 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 gypsy AID he will
quizzically look at you askance, to an Indian
and he will grunt an unmoved assent, to an
American tramp-he elevates his eyebrows
in disdain Of sentimental weakness
Yet they steep themselves in 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 terminate 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 lifetime
There is a certain cheerfulncsS 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 a muir.
derer who had destroyed two families, bro
ken prison by suicide and was then being
carried to 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."
THE BATTERED HAT IS LIFTED.
Cheerfulness is generally supplemented by
courtesy, and thisis true of the average tramp.
Throughout my rambles have never hest
tated to address any wayfarer, unless of
vicious look, and in nearly all cases the bat
tered hat has been politely lifted and often
curious bit Of information about scenery,
plants or flowers has been impaired. The
general rC..teneSS of tho average American
tramp is as far beyond that, for instance of
the English cabby or policeman as the grace
OF the free growing pine is beyond that Of
the clipped and stilted lockwood A proper
transmUtation Of forces might result in the
cabby's being stepped in genial sunlight as a
nOndcscript harmless element of our civiliza-
ton, while the American tramp might be
paid for his courtesy as O. useful citizen
abroad. Unless indeed to the latter change
of climate brought change of manners
aTtq * hat inf Of
days in the middle states when spring IN
locks tue flowers to paint the laughing soil"
has a genializing effect upon the army of
tramps who march along the byways of civil
iZatiOn. One who studies them will see that
undeseryed opprobrium has rested upon their
manners if not upon their morals Not all
are sapleSs branches on the tree of progress.
Many are Of your blood mental and physical,
my good Sir Eyeglass Philosopher, or you,
my Lady Handkerchief Holder. Some are
laborers out Of work, anxious to save the cost
of living at hOme-ungenteel diners out; some
possess an ease loving artistic temperament
without power Of expression in art forms;
some again are true philosophers, not differ
ing widely from that philosopher who Wanted
sleeping in tub, or from that one who de-
clared: If you would improve, be content to
be thought foolish and dull with regard to ex-
tcrnalS
All however are nodded more or less by
nature, and though none are the keen, steel
blades of humanity, some are tho blocks of
wood out Of which time and circumstances
may carve convenient handles And as to
contempt for them as a class why, mon
voisin, is there so much difference after all
between the good natured, quick witted, out
door vaurien and the indolent man of pleas
ure, who, half unconscious of the treasures
of art and nature about him, methodically