Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1890-07-10
T.iifaMfsS AND THEIR wAfS,


ImAME0 AMI kMNAR w $50
Careful and Practscal study Of the
Knights or the Romd.
The rector Of Rettendon has been dis
coursing for the entertainment Of audi
0nces at the Chelmsford Museum on the
subject Of Tramps,n to which he has
devoted careful study, not In books,
but In the highways and byways of his
neighborhood. Essex is not quite so
fruitful in samples OF the genus as Kent,
where Charles Dickens once met that
immortal tramp who could tell you the
workhouse where on Christmas Day you
might count on 1as jolly q blowout Of
beef and 'taters as ever passed your
breast bone. There are seasons when
the pedestrian tourist on the Kentish
highways may expect to be asked for
aims by nearly every other passenger
he meets, says the Loudon Daily NetDs,
but at most times of the year you may
wander far between the soft, undulating
country about Saffron Walden and the
commanding hills of Laindon and Dam
bury for with such landscape beauty
is Essex, in spite Of Ignorant detract-
ors, richly endowed without suffering
any very serious annoyance from the
too familiar plaintiye appeal of the pro-
| fessional beggar, who is always making
| for somewhere in quest OF the job that
he never finds. Nevertheless, Mr..
| Webster has found opportunities even
in this favored corner of our island of
observing closely the habits and Gus
toms of those whom he calls the
knights and ladies of the honorable
order of cadgers.
| A slight accident drew his attention
to this subject Coming to cross roads
on long walk one day, he was unde-
cided which turn to take, until a tramp
came along and was observed carefully
/ TO study moss-grown post and choose
his road. A subsequent examination of
the post revealed certain marks, which
were rude resembiances of Greek
letter, marked on posts and gates by
tramps for the guidance oftheir fellows.
/ These signs are made, it seems, with q
sharpened nail, specimens of which the
lecturer was able to produce. They
i served as chisel, tobacco-stopper, u
latch litter, and SO on. The largest
class of those knights of the road who
affect the Essex lanes and highways is,
we are assured, recruited from the ranks
of broken-down clergymen and school
masters. You can always tell them. A
rusty alpaca coat, cuffs very frayed,
old gloves-one kid, one cotton-form
the attire of the clergyman tramp, who
pulls off his hat in an obsequious man
ner, and always has very large family.
The equipment for a life on the road Is
generally an old tin cocoa box, lined
with pink paper, with small piece OF
looking glass in the lid, and filled with
needles shat won't prick" pencils and
ink shat won't mark" and other com.
modities of the sort wherewith Auto
lycus was wont to fill his pack, the
whole "rig-out" costing about half q
crown.
Various races have curious modes Of
| greeting. Englishmen still shake
hands, Indians rub noses, but when
two tramps meet they always sit down
and take off their boots. If two knights
"pal up" one takes the @patter," and
the other the cline, TOR "link." Or
} the way from place to place the various
signs good or bad, on posts and gates
are examined, and the two then know
L
what they will get here, and what the,
will get there. A carefully arranged
and expressive "sniveI" is regarded a
their most valuable requirement. The
religious SWIVEL" and the "lost-a-rela
tive SWIVEL" are also good. Tt is curl
GUS fact that the eight best-known signs
used by tramps are nearly all Greel
and mathematical symbols, one being
especially remarkable-the Greel
@theta." which, being the first letter
of "theos." is put on the gates of relig
ious peoples houses
Other signs mean, "Will buy if yol
, have got what they want, "a goot
aspoiIt, aPrison," @very dangerous,
and so forth. The slight acquaintanc,
, displayed with mathematics and tn,
! Greek alphabet confirms Mr.. Webster
belief that broken-down clergyman
and schoolmasters, helpless victim
, probably of the terrible drink craze
form considerable item in the rank
{ of the Essex knights of the Road !;
! but the ways and devices of the Esse.
Q cadgers and "Crusitors" still retain th
common features of English roguery AM
mendicancy as depicted in old Her
mans "Cayeat" and fraternity of Vag
q abonds," which saw the light in tn
days when Shakespeare was a school
Z boy, and the Bohemian snapper up Q
unconsidered trifes" has not. yet mad
E complaint that "gallows and knock ar
r toe powerful on our highways.
4
3 He Could Stick Type.
J, Erastus Wiman tells good story q
a an experience he had with the Penn
) sylvania Legislature some years ago.