The Dickinson press., 1890-07-19
THE TRAMP's PARADISE.
A Haven Of Rest Provided for the Road
Agents by q Jersey Farmer.

Agents by q 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 to New
Orleans and from ocean to ocean. On
the Beckenbach place is n big barn. In
this barn, in winter and in summer and
on any day in the year, whether it be
Christmas, New Year or the Fourth of
July, can be found women with chill
dren in their arms, q shiftless fisherman
with a ragged suit on him and a shil-
lelah In his hand, or some sturdy and
homeless German o%utcast, perhaps, with
a 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 a Saints Rest" for the
homeless wanderer a thousand miles
away seeking rest or idleness, OF, it may
be, a days work with "Pilgrim schoon
and scallop she'll"
If the stranger sits on the porch of
any n of the farm houses on the main
road leading to Morrisville he will be
greeted at any hour of the day with the
inquiry:
"Is this the way to Beckenbach's
barn?"
And you can tell with your eyes shut
that the inquirer, be he n man or a wo-
man, is seeking a temporary refuge IL
der the v Of Beckenbach's barn.
Now it will be a frowsy looking wom-
an, with draggled skirts, half a bonnet
and an old shawl, in one corner of which
is wrapped a baby not old enough to
walk or talk. If it is a 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 a nap,
with her head hanging over one shout
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 a great hulking Ger
man, with a military air, as if he had
fought with Won Moltke, OR in better
days taken a schooner with Bismarck.
This man wears high topped boots, with
great box like a sailors chest, which is
strapped III his shoulders, and the Teu-
tonic traveller with a big pipe in his
mouth pauses long enough to say, "Vere
vos dot Beckenbach's barn" There will
be a score or more along today, looking
like Falstaf's ragged regiment, all kings
and queensin shreds, tatters and patches.
And it is a substantive fact that u tramp
in Texas made an engagement in mid
winter with a fellow nomad at Ell Paso,
saying: "Yah, Jacob, I 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 wa
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-
bach's barn is a 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 cult
waited blackberry, cherries and currants
down to peach season, c%itrons, cante-
loupes and watermclons, and when Jack
Frost comes the colony of tramps thin
out and seek q softer climate and milder
skies.
There is a boss even among tramps.
Spanish Dick is boss Of the Beckenbach
barn. DR.. Dunbar Hylton says that
Spanish Dick is descended from a Spanish
hidalgo with a 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 a 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 a strawberry patch.
Cor. Philadelphia Times.