The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-05-03

ing Wood Yard nearly thirteen years,
and having in that time had some $4,000
men, dodgers al the station house, sent
over to me, profess to know the ins aud
outs of the subject. and l assert without
hesitation that these men, as rule, are
bona fide laboring men, under and wrong
ly estimated by the generality OF the COM
munity.
In only few cases did / have any trou-
BILE; in no instance anything serious:
When they came TO the yard / received
them cheerily, had pleasant word, and
possibly might say something to raise a
laugh. They felt good-natured, and
when put them TO work. as a general
thing went about il with will. The Sc
cret of handling men effectually Is to get
on the right side of them. Thus it was
that / had things run smoothly.
The i'll repute of the tramps among
people in a large degree Is due TO many
things laid to their charge by the news
papers, of which they are not guilty. Let
me cite two or three cases. Some years
ago two fellows were arrested in the
western part of the city with bag con-
tanning thirteen chickens The next
morning the papers came out with the
details, saying that the fellows were
tramps, the articles being set out in black
letter in the real sensational style, special
pains being apparently taken that the
word tramps should catch the eye Of the
readers.
On investigating the matter the next
day, the police identified the thieves as
residents of the suburbs. but OF the thou
sands who read the sensational article,
probably not one in ten, read the real
facts of the case, but believed the thieves
were tramps. No black letter was used
to call the readers attention to the real
truth of the matter so the poor tramps
bore the odium Of chicken thieving.
Another case. In the gray OF the morn
ing. a citizen of the North End went to
his barn to care for his horse. He was
waylaid as he was entering his barn and
severely beaten. That day the papers
came out with the fact, garnished with
black letters, one line very
conspicuous. Beaten by tramps." In
vestigation proved that the assault was
made by "A man residing in the neighbor-
hood, To crafty IA grudge. Not one in ten
who read the papers ever knew the truth.
One more: Some years ago, ties and
other distractions were put on the track
OF the Shore Line, near Bradford, Conn.
Again black letter came in play to
set forth the wckedness of dastardly
tramps who had sought to wreck train.
The country was secured for miles around
to find two fellows, seen to pass near the
place, few hours before the distractions
were discovered. The upshot OF the mat
ter was, that the Instructions were placed
on the road by an employe of the road in
charge of the small station close by. He
desired promotion, placed the obstruc-
tions there and discovered them. hoping his
vigilance would commend him to the
of the road. AS in the other
cases the tramps had to bear the stigma
Of crime.
might 20 on and relate scores of cases
similar to the above, all of which were
made to tell against the tramps. So
much scoundrelism has been charged by
the papers against the wanderers that
they have got a bad name unjustly For
this reason 1t Is almost impossible for
them to obtain work Let one apply and
he meets with rebuff, in many cases the
refusal being supplemented by curses
loud and deep. There were several points
intended 10 touch upon, but / have
already exceeded the space you can spare.
In closing permit me to say that my ex
perience and contact with these unfor-
tunates has made me their friend. l am
always with the under dog in fight.
WILLIAM FOSTER, JR
Norwood schooIhouse.
To the Editors Of the Netrs
NORWOOD, X. l.. April 30.-In your is
sue of Wednesday last was an article Oh
and / have been wondering
ever since as to the connection between
the title of said article and its subject
matter, but have not yet solved the diff
,ulty.
However, as there are several specious
agreements in the article in question,
.hink 1t is due to your readers that they
should see the other side of the picture.
The village Of Norwood consists of be-
,ween sixty and seventy houses scattered
,ver considerable area, and its scholas-
tic needs are supplied by neat district
Ichool (No. 1S), with desks for forty chill
lren. There are possibly sixty children
n the school district, but so far as can
earn the average attendance is twenty
light. 1t is thus hard to prove that the
lccomm odation is at present insufficient,
,ut, allowing that such is the case, it
would naturally occur to the ordinary
mind that remedy would be found by
nlarging the present school, which can
eadily be done by the expenditure Of
II 600, and thus save the present property
o the poor taxpayers. That, however,
would not suit the purposes of certain
ew shrewd individuals who have axes to
yrind, and hence the present excitement.
To effect their aim they are prepared to
'lunge young and struggling community
nto debt for number of years to come,
~ doing something which Is totally un-
necessary and uncalled for. Three exceed
ngly disorderly meetings of the tax
'ayerS have been held TO assent TO the
proposition to build, and tie vote was
asst on Friday last, 81 voting on each side,
casting vote in favor of the scheme was
hen given by the moderator (who is a
nan taxed for $500 real estate) and thus
he scheme looks like going through.
yheu 1t was moved to assess "A tax of
I .05 per 500 TO meet the initial expense,
/ began to wear somewhat different as
ect to the taxpayers present and a vote
o adjourn for two weeks was carried
nstead.
No doubt IL will he asked how they
ould get 81 to vote in favor of the scheme
the plan is not generally acceptable,
ut when you learn that the assessed val
ations in the tax book are little short of |
public scandal, and that almost every |
ne of the $50 far) winning parties are
under-taxed, il will not seem
uch very wonderful thing after all. |
hey naturally want to be taxed at once |
4 they must be) on the present low and |
nfair valuations, and before the assess
lents are revised on fair and equitable |
asis.
would like to know how they propose
o run the new schoolhouse, IL they get IL. |
asst year the total appropriation was
Bliss, and this year it will probably be |
o greater 1t would take the whole ap- |
ropriation TO pay for heat, light, clean
~, insurance and incidental expenses on
large school, and the amount left to pay |
Or teacher would be lamentably small. |