The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-24

Tagran &c Wv were re
the constitution took shape. That which had
been only occasional, however, became fixed
system when Henry VIII confiscated the
property of the religious orders. In the
United States the tramp is still an exception
in the family line; but in England children
are born to be tramps, children whose fathers
and mothers, great-grandparents and even
more remote ancestors were tramps Her
Oert Spencer attributes this sad state Of af-
fairs TO the early "poor laws" and uses it as
an awful warning against trying to do too
much for the poor"
HOW IT BEGAN
When industrial chaos struck the country
in 1874 and an army of the unemployed APP
peared, all who were able felt free to give;
but when the business of the country resumed
It's normal course, the tramp habit was too
firmly fixed in many thousands. They were
soon numerous enough to keep each other in
countenance. A rude organization grew up
among them. They hunted in couples and
then in gangs. Where beggary failed, petty
theft served; finally brutal crime became
common and then the people demanded pro
lection. Every state took its own course.
every county and almost every town or vii
lage added some methods of its own; so the
law on the subject is all in chaos Worse,
still, there yet fingers a sort of sentimental
objection against tramp laws" "vagrant
acts" and the like; so the tramps for the
most part continue to roam and combine.
Gases are known in every community where
men have voluntarily abandoned places
where they were earning fair wages and
''gone rambling"
Some Of the tramp combinations are very
curious Cases have occurred where all the
Migrants Of a large section have concen-
trated, by apparent concert, on a small vii
lage and literally taken possession of it. Ina
few instances they have seized railroad trains
and compelled the officials to let them ride.
In many places they have infested a secluded
region till it became dangerous. But they
are with rare exceptions towards Half a
dozen resOlute policemen or constables can
put half Il regiment of them to flight Per-
haps this is largely due to the fact that they
are wretchedly clothed and irregularly fed,
50 that their blood is slow toned" They are
very short lived, as a rule. Once in hospital
with any serious disease, they seldom recover.
A firm, set purpose in life is necessary to
brace the system against disease. They fall
from railroad trains and are crushed. They
get stupid from fatigue or liquor, lie down in
the snow and freeze. They fall or jump into
the water and are drowned. Corpses mysteri-
ously found in the woods, when no one has
been missed, show that murders are not in
frequent among them.
THE MYSTERY OF THEIR EXISTENCE.
The traveller on western prairie when
night comes on or dense cloud obscures the
SIN is often amazed to find the air suddenly
filed by millions Of insects, previously in
visible; they had been lying concealed in the
grass or the swamp growth along the bayous.
So in a time of public commotion, great
gangs Of tramps suddenly appear in the
streets from no one knows where. During
the riots of 1877 they literally swarmed in
every railroad town in Ohio; at Steuben-
vile careful observer computed that 300
crossed the river from West Virginia-"men
with moss on their backs sir, men with hair
on their teeth, sir, old 'grays' who hadn't
been out of the woods since Lee surrendered"
Such was his indignant statement to this
writer In peaceful times and warm weather
those fellows are lying In the woods, doing
behind logs or under haystacks, about old
barns or sheds and in abandoned dwellings
The riot, giving hint of pillage, brings them
out. They scent it with as keen an instinct
as the vulture scents carrion.
Winter kills uncounted millions Of noXious
insects-also many tramps. There are no
great riots in winter. No crops are left in
the fields and stealing In general is moro dith-
cult. Yet the tramp does not as a rule Ego
,1Ith to winter" Where does he goi All
who can establish any sort Of claim get into
hospitals, homes for the INDECENT and poor
houses; many more commit some petty Of
Tense, get arrested and spend the winter In