, 1891-07-15
POVERTY IN PUBLIC PLACES.
There Is Room Even for the Tramp on n
Bridge Owned by the People.


POVERTY IN PUBLIC PLACES.
There Is Room Even for the Tramp on n
Bridge Owned by the People
The bridge footpath is free. For all
practical purposes it is an open street
ANY person fit to walk the thoroughfares
Of either city is permitted to use it.
Upon it prince and pauper reach a com
mon level. The millionaire, if he pre-
fers, can go over the river on his trotters,
just as the tramp, if he likes, can ride
across on shanks' mare. Official action
and legislation leading up to this result
has been based on experience, careful
consideration and an enlightened con-
ception of what is due from the COM
monwealth to its people. Concerning
the status of individuals the government
makes no distinction. The footpath Is
not less free than the air above it.
Everybody, it would seem, is not
happy. One complaining correspondent
asserts that the removal of tolls is a ca
lamitv. Before it was ordered the foot
path. he asserts, was used by the hard
working, honest poor, TO whom it was
indeed u blessing. Now, he frantically
exclaims, what will happen? Every seat
from morning till night, he predicts,
Twill be filled with the vermin infested
loafers of the City Hall park type"
What, in other words, he a%pprehends, IS
that the bridge will become the loung-
ing place of the social outcasts who rest
the miserable remnant of their manhood
in the municipal pleasure grounds. If
the correspondent had devoted even pass
ing attention to the announcement Of
the bridge authorities he would have
learned that ample provision is made TO
prevent a incursion of tramps.
Of course there is no individual so poor,
80 wretched, SO uncouth in appearance
or attire, so lost to all the joys and com
forts of life, so deeply sunk in the depths
of degradation that he will be prevented,
if he behaves himself, from walking over
the structure. We do not, in our city
tho~roughfares, inaugurate man hunts at
this stage of American civilization. The
unhappy wreck who drifts across the
vision of his more fortunate brethren
awakens not anger and passionate re-
sentiment, put compassion and regret.
Perhaps, with the latter sentiment, there
may sometimes be a mixture of disgust.
1t does not necessarily follow, however,
SO long as the peace is preserved and the
decencies Of public life are respected,
that even the tramp is to be violently
assailed.
The barbarous days of the whipping
post, the stocks and the pillory have
rolled away; a more enlightened spirit
has replaced the narrow rancor which
lighted the pyres of suspected witch
craft, and the gentle radiance descend
ing from the cross has frightened the
pathway of the race to new and better
things. Oh, nos; we do not, at the present
stage of the worlds development, cruelty
even the tramp. All that society under.
takes is to impose on him restrictions
against the annoyance of Ii bet.
ter conditioned majority and compel
him to obey the laws and ordinances
established by administrator of public
affairs. Touching the footway, tho
bridge managers decided at the outset
on a definite programme. The pro
menade differs from u street only in that
n few benches are provided to rest the
limbs of weary pedestrians. So far as it
does not interrupt traffic the walk may
be used as a breathing place by whomso-
ever may desire to avail themselves of
the opportunity.
The poor mother in the crowded tene-
ment, bearing her babe in her arms, may
&c up under the starlight and inhale the
God given breeZes that sweep dow the
waters without interruption or molesta-
ton. The stalwart policemen will see
to it that no tramp or trespasser occu-
pies a seat to her exclusion, and that no
intruder, well dressed or i'll appareled,
dares to annoy her. Instead, therefore,
of surrendering the structure to the de,
PRAYED and disorderly, the authorities
have simply devoted it to all the uses
for which, in the minds Of It's founders.
it originally was designed.
What shall. be done with the tramp is
a problem that bears no comprehensive
relation either to bridge management or
park administration At best, he is not
a pleasing object. Nevertheless, he is a
human being, endowed with the same
senses, equipped with the same faculties
and inclosed in the same general form as
his companions in this vale of tears. We
need not invite him to our breakfast
tables, sit with him at dinner or enter
tain him at o o'clock tea. Nor need he
necessarily be asked to ride in our car
riages, accept the hospitality of our
yachts or accompany us to the country
when summer heats drive us hence.
What at least we ought to do, unless
the divine admonition be ignored and the
humane lesson inculcated by the Master
thrown aside, is to tolerate his existence,
and sympathize, in our inner conscious
ness, with his misfortunes When the
theological disputants have finished their
controversies; when we ascertain pre-
cisely what particular policy is to save
mankind from the wrath to come; when
the Westminster confession is vindi-
Gated, and the revised version of the
Word finally approved, there will still
emain the lesson taught by the Saviour
of mankind that there is room in his
Fathers house even for the tramp
Brooklyn Eagle.
Capitallstic Strikers.