The Forrest City times., 1890-12-13
--- THE TRAMPS OF OLD. Some of the Old Fash ioned q Sort that Arc
 Not Met With Nowadays.

There ;ised to be a typo of tramp
 that is rarely met with now. mean
 the shallow bloke,n commonly known
 as 'dry-land sailor" Not that dry
 land sailors are not to be found even now. but it Is rare indeed that one of
 the real old-fashioned sort is met with To 'ruu shallow" meant to go about
 the country half naked. A genuine
 shallow bloke" knew not the luxury of shirt; he scorned to encase his feet
 in boots. always preferring to pad the hoof.n i. e.. go barefooted. Ere queutly these shallow blokes' trav- eled in schools that is in companies
 of four, five aud six and wherever they
 went they made the streets hideous with their unearthly bowling of paut- cal ditties, in which the refrain, And
 the stormy winds did blow-ow-owr
 was always conspicuous.
 These men were anatomical curiosi- ties. One would be minus an arm. another would lack leg. third would exhibit withered limb done up iu
 tight baudages. Scarcely one of thom
 would be found physically perfect. They would stretch in q line across the street. the two extreme men pushing i their hats in tho face of every passer- l by. aud sundry curses, sometimes loud 1 as well as deep. followed the "uuchar-
 table pedestrian, while all tho bless
 iugs of heaven were invoked on tho head of the "kind gentleman" who | dropped copper in the obtrusiye
 chdpeau.
 These shallow blokes" were terror th, or.jip,rv frasnns Thov v~ors, noted as being the greatest black
 guards travelling. Their blasphemous talk was simply hidcous, and shocked even old and well-seasoned tramps. { Happily they are now nearly an ex- tinct race It is fact. though not generally known, that scores of the
 yagabonds mutilated themselves for the purpose of working upon the feel ings of charitable public. One of the most common methods of 'acquir- ing" withered limb was to bind it tightly with strips of linen and thus stop the circulation of the blood.
 loathsome looking wounds were man. ufactuted by inserting In these bau-
 dages au old copper coin. which grad ually ate into the flesh.
 X somewhat pleasant contrast to these itincranls were the ''lurkers. '"
 moro iutelligibly described as beg ging-letter gentlemen" class of men
 not unknown at the present day. They
 wonld carry neat little roll of pict-
 ures, two or threo gentlemen's combs
 iu . little sachel. or aut other light
 and fancy article, just to take the granny off in other words. for the
 sake of appearance.
 Their object was not to sell these
 articles, but 10 beg over them.n They usually had plausible story 10 tell of
 better days they could produce letters from this gentleman and from that
 clergyman They did not go in for
 coppers. but silver and gold. It Is no
 unusual thing for one of these 10 TO- ceiye from a sympathetic old geu,le-
 man or credulous old lady 'half a thick 'uu" or thick 'unn (half .
 sovereign or soyereign). Clothes they
 used to get in plenty and they were
 always we'll dressed, for which reason they were often dubbed flash blokes'
 in the common lodging house. Some
 of these men had really seen better days. have Snown broken-down
 university men, occasionally an officer
 of the army or navy--and these men
 made no end of mohcy by visiting old
 retired officers of the service - Gen
 tiemga's M,g1siiae.