Los Angeles herald., 1892-11-06

itated panic. The Withholding of these
large sums of money from active circula-
tion, together with the shrinbGge of the
paper currency in preparing for the re-
sumption of specie payment, caused the
value of all commodities and the price of
wages to decline, and not only were hun
dreds of banks compelled to suspend, but
many manufactures and Other business en-
terprises employing labor were forced to
close their doors. The result was to com
pei large numbers OF mechanics and all
classes of laborers of the east to turn their
faces to the new west. So in 1873, in my
opinion may date the genesis OF this dis
tinctive order of knights of the road of the
United States of America, and the exodus
seems to be in the distant future.
1t is not my purpose to give Il speculative
dissertation on the causes which have pro-
duced the tramp or propose any method
of remedy. That is the especial province
of the philosopher and statesman. In my
opinion the number of SO called "profes-
sionaP' tramps is greatly exaggerated. The
professional tramp is simply a restless
vagabond who does not desire employment
or a place in society, but who wanders from
place to place only to crafty love of
change and chance of adventure. AS a
general thing even the professional tramp,
when he began his first march in the path
of idleness, did not do SO from choice. The
seeds of vagabondage were sown gradually
by idle and vicious habits and associations,
and the elimination is a fixed disease
which seems we'll nigh incurable.
In my own experience on the police court
bench for several years l have met the
same member of the tramp fraternity at
several different times. have seen hun
dreds of tramps of every type arraigned in
court, and have been visited at home by a
goodly number of the fraternity, but
have not yet seen single tramp who bore
the slightest resemblance to the carcatures
in certain illustrated comic papers. These
pictures protray him as a walking scare
crow, with ragged and tattered garments,
his hair unkempt and his person filthy, and
his face fierce and malignant.
These pictures tend to make all tramps
outlaws in the minds of the people, and
probably cause the withholding of deserv-
ing charity to many unfortunate men who
are out of work. Not great while ago, in
this city, / heard Mr.. Ralph Beaumont,
now q lecturer and journalist of Washing
ton city, narrate with much bitterness his
arraignment as n criminal in police court
while he was tramping through a New
York town looking for work. Mr.. Beau
mont was afterward candidate for con-
gress in the same district in which he was
arrested, and, though defeated received
thousands of votes
There have been a few cases where large
bodies of tramps have gathered together
and have terrorized railroad men into haul
ing them from place to place, and such
gangs have occasionally made riotous dem
onstrations in small villages which have
alarmed the inhabitants. There have also
been other cases where individual tramps
have terrorized women into feeding them.
and have occasionally committed capital
crimes. But the number of crimes actual
1y committed by these travelling vagabonds
is astonishingly small in comparison with
the aggregate committed by general Grim
inal classes.
In the spring, summer and early autumn,
If the world really does not owe the tramp
q living, it in fact supports him with a
fairly liberal ration of food and castoff
clothing. But in the winter tramps swarm
into the towns and seek the warmth of the
police station and the county jail
Right here may be noted the utter in
sufnclency OF state or municipal laws to
suppress the tramp nuisance. All the
SIaUeS nave laws more or less severe for the
correction Of vagrancy and the epunishment
Of tramps, and the Iowa legislature in
May, 1890, passed a tramp law so severe in
its provisions as to excite much adverse
comment in the press because of it's appar
ent inhumanity. But, like some other
Iowa criminal statutes, it has only proved
effective in spots.
The Iowal law Furnishes a convicted tramp
with imprisonment at hard labor in the
county Jail not exceeding ten days, or by
imprisonment in such Jail in solitary con
fnement not exceeding five days" The
law further makes the jailer liable to 6
fine of not less than twenty-five dollars MOI
more than one hundred dollars if he per
mits convicted tramp to have any tobac
co, liquors, sporting or illustrated news
papers, cards or other articles of amuse
ment, or to be fed otherwise than as state,
in the commitment. If the tramp refuse
to work the sheriff is required to place hin
in solitary confinement on q diet of brea,
and water for period not exceeding tel
days.
This Iowa statute has proved wholly in
effective because there are few, if any
county iails in the staN which are fltte