The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-08-25
GREAT AMERICAN TRAMP
Diagnosed by a Writer Who Lived
as One Of Them tor Eight
Months.
The Causes Of Trampism are
Drink and a Strong Aver
sion to Work.
A Lingo Peculiar to the Peripatetic
observation-disclosures of Transports
ton Most in Favor.

The diagnosis of the American tramp is a
DIT of information not easily come at, and
there is perhaps a certain negative satisfac-
ton for Americans in the fact that it is at
length furnished by an Englishman. This
is a writer in the Contemporary Review,
who declares he spent eight months in per-
sonal study OF the American tr%amp-lived
with him. slept with him. tramped with
him. went to prison with him. Whether
this course of study was taken By design or
enforced upon the student by untoward cir
cumstances he does not state. Nor. since
he tells his story in a lucid, straightforward
manner, does it matter a copper. His mama
is Josiah Flynt.
The American tramp, says this authority.
is American born in five cases out of eight.
irish and lrlsh-Americans are next in num-
Der. Germans next and English next. Al
most no Frenchmen or Italians are to be
found ION the road" BY tramp, it should
be said, is meant the chronic voluntary va
grant: he who neither works nor will toler-
ate the company of workers. These form a
secret craft or guild and their number in
the United States is estimated at GO,OOO.
This is, closely enough. one in a thousand,
or a thousand in a million-and it is quite
enough. There are a few women and girls
IN the lot and a good many boys from four
teen years upward. These latter are ap-
prentices. The causes of trampism are
drink and an innate aversion to work.
What Mr.. FIynt ingeniously calls "dia-
couraged criminals" persons who failed at
crime from lack of criminal wit, constitute
one-tenth of the number.
The German tramp is segregarious. The
lrishmen flock together, 30 do the Ameri-
cans, who, moreover, furnish the brains for
the craft for their peculiar and VARYING
needs. One of these is an argot or lingo, o
which these are some specimens: A tramp
calls himself a "hobo," bread ia punk
policemen are "~screws," to beg is to "bat-
ter for chewing" railway brakemen are
"~brakies," poor houses are ''pogies,' pris-
ons "pens," insane nsylums bug houses."
1t ID an esteemed mark of pr otciency,
especially among young tramps, to
have this lingo pat on the tongue. In the
same spirit, or, perhaps, to save trouble,
tfamps distinguish each other by self-sx-
planatory nlcknamss, as Chicago SLIM
Lengthy Tom" "St. Louis Shorty" Red
Head Jack" etc. There is no Long
Jones" Boy tramps are permitted BY the
craft to use these noms de tramp, with the
diminutive atlix 1.-The kid"
Iramps travel for the most part on the
railways. beating their way. Empty freight
OARS are the most affected by reason of their
Ioominess and comparative isolation. A
tramp in a hurry will risk the top of a pas-
seneer car, or i'll case of stress the ''trucksn
OF an express. The trucks are the frame
work about the wheels and only an exusrt
will attempt this perilous mode of travel.
E1perts have journeyed in this cramped Sc
ciusion hundreds of miles at a stretch.
Many nays lost their lives III the attemrt