Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-26
IN STRIPED SUITS.
vAGRANTs IN THE wORKHOUSE.
a Star Reporter Gets Arrested as q
Tramp and Sent to the Farm.
HIS NOVEL ExPERIEScE-AS NIGHT IN THE STATION
HoUsE-THRoUGH THE POLICE coURr-scENEs
AND INCIDENTS IN THE woRKHoUsE-How THE
PRISONERS ARE CLOTHED AND TREATED.

The experiences of a ''vag" arrested in the
street and sent to the workhouse, was the sub
ject assigned to STAR reporter to write up.
As the statements of ex-members of the chain
gang could not be fully trusted because of
their tendency to exaggerate small grievances,
and as the descriptions given by officials were
apt to omit references to matters so trifiing
the staleness of the bread served, the thinness
of the soup. or the toughness of the beef, the
reporter decided to go through the experiences
of .'vag" himsef-to go by the usual route,
the police station, the police van, the Police
Court. the van again and the workhouse, to
don the striped suit and to live with the pris-
oners in the workhouse. This plan he carried
out, and the results are set forth in his own
words in the narrative that follows.
The bells of st. Aloysius had Just struck 9
o'clock on the night Of the 18th of this month
when the figure of a man cast its shadow across
the chain fence which surrounds the reserva-
ton lying Immediately north of Providence
hospital A moment later and the figure had
followed the shadow over the low-hanging
chain, across the moonlit patch of wintry
green sward, and sat down on one of the park
seats. That figure was mine, but the shadow
which it chased looked like shadow that
might have been borrowed from one of those
rare antiques which decorate the fields of wav
ing grain when predatory blackbirds display
most interest in the crop. II is true that there
Is always more or less of distortion eccen-
trlclty In the movements of a shadow, but In
this particular case the shadow did the sub
have
impossible. My principal garment was a coat;
or rather it had been coat in those joyous
days when my grandfather was
young man. 1t was not scant in
its material. It's long loose sleeves had tapped
dismally against my chilly hands as / walked
toward the park, and its vast expanse of tail
had hidden from mortal gaze fully three
fourths of the two legs which were stepping
out briskly in an endeavor to keep up a circu-
lation. The wind was trying to moderate my
temperature by whistling through the thin
and frequently-patehed trousers, whose lower
extremities barely reached my ankles. And
the wind was succeeding tolerably well. The
coat was unbuttoned at the neck-it would not
stay shut-and inside the great. greasy grimy
circle of collar the curious might have OBJ
served a dirty neck start up from a foundation
of unwashed flannel shirt. But little of my
face was visible. Around my head, and slant
ing so as to conceal my left eye and the greater
portion of that side of my face. was an oily rag
which did duty as a bandage. The other side
of my face and the adjacent territory was be-
grimed thoroughly, and to complete the dis
guise my shuffy head of hair was crowned with
what was probably the vilest specimen of hui
man headgear ever seen in the District of Co
lumbia. Look at me from wherever you
would; gaze on me in any light; try to
deceive yourself in every way possible as to
what might be, there was no doubt as to
what was; Every feature and every garment
was labeled