The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-07-24
THE TRAMP'S PARADISE.
A Haven of Rest Provided for the Road
Agents by a Jersey Farmer.

Agents by Jersey Farmer.
In Camden county, not far from De-
lair, at Morrisville, lives a plain old
German farmer, blessed with a big farm
and abundance of this worlds goods
His hospitality to the houseless and
homeless wanderers the world calls
tramps is known from Maine b New
Orleans and from ocean to ocean. On
the Beckenbach place is big barn. In
this barn, in winter and in summer and
on any day in the year, whether 1t be
Christmas, New Year or the Fourth Of
July, can be found women with chill
dren in their arms, a shiftless fisherman
with n ragged suit on him and a shil-
lelah in his hand, or some sturdy and
homeless German outcast, perhaps, with
trunk on his shoulder, trudging over
from the railway station to the Becken-
bach barn, which by some fine free
masonry among the tramps of America
Is known as Saints Rest" for the
homeless wanderer thousand miles
away seeking rest or idleness, or, it may
be, a days work with pilgrim schoon
and scallop she'll"
If the stranger sits on the porch of
any one of the farm houses on the main
road leading to Morrisville he will be
greeted at any hour of the day with the
inquiry:
SIS this the way to Beckenbach's
barn."
And you can tell with your eyes shut
that the inquirer, be he a man or wo-
man, is seeking temporary refuge un-
der the caves of Beckenbach's barn.
Now it will be a frowsy looking wom-
IN, with draggled skirts, half bonnet
and an old shawl, in one corner of which
is wrapped baby not old enough to
walk or talk. If it is warm day she
may sit down on the grass, after getting
her bearings and distances to the barn,
with her back up against a tree, and she
may pause long enough to take nap,
with her head hanging over one shoul-
der, while her prattling babe, unconscious
of its shabby surroundings, crawls
through the high grass and plucks with
tiny fingers, the daffy-down-dillies which
dot the greensward like day stars.
Next it may be great hullzing Ger
man, with military air, as if he had
fought with Won Moltke, or in better
days taken schooner" with Bismarck.
This man wears high topped boots, with
great box like a sailors chest, which is
strapped on his shoulders, and the Teu-
tonic traveller with big pipe in his
mouth pauses long enough to say, "Vere
vos dot Beckenbach's barn" There will
be score or more along today, looking
like Falstaff's ragged regiment, all kings
and queens in shreds, tatters and patches.
And it is substantive fact that tramp
in Texas made an engagement in mid
winter with fellow nomad at Ell Paso,
saying: "Yah. Jacob, meets you again
when dose peas all must be pick't down
| by dot Beckenbach barn in jersey" And
when the voice of the turtle dove was
heard in the land the two tramps met
at Beckenbach's barn after an honest
days toll in the generous Germans pea
patch at Morrisville.
Most of these picturesque tramps al
lege that they are seeking work. Some
of them are, and none of them goes away
empty handed from the honest Germans
plantation who is willing to do a fair
days work for good wages.
They begin by picking peas. Becken-
bachs barn is sort of agricultural ex-
change, where the Delair farmers come to
get field hands, male and female, for the
busy season. After the pea season is
over they struggle through the straw
berry furry only to tackle the tomato
vines, which yield the nomad workers a
financial harvest of no mean measure.
Then come the red raspberry, the culti-
waited blackberry, cherries and currants
| down to peach season, citrons, cante-
loupes and watermelons, and when Jack
Frost comes the colony of tramps thin
| out and seek softer climate and milder
skies.
There is boss even among tramps.
Spanish Dick is boss of the Beckenbach
barn. DR.. Dunbar Hylton says that
Spanish Dick is descended from Spanish
hidalgo with bar sinister. He speaks
six languages, and was once an impress
sario in Jenny Lind's time at Castle Gar
den, but has now descended to be boss
among the pea pickers on the old Ger
mans farm There are traces of dignity
and erudition in the way Hidalgo Dick
issues his orders in strawberry patch.
Cor. Philadelphia Times.