The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-10-27

POPULAR IDEAL OF A TRAMP.
itated panic The withholding of these
large sums of money from active circula-
tion, together with the shrinkage 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 nv
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 he in the distant future
1t is not my purpose to give 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-
sional" tramps is greatly exaggerated The
professional tramp is simply restless
vagabond who does not desire employment
or place in society, but who wanders from
place to place only to crafty love of
change and Il chance of adventure AS a
general thing even the professional tramp,
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 n fixed disease
which seems well nigh incurable
In my own experience on the police court
bench for several years 1 have met the
same member of the tramp fraternity at
several different times. l have seen hun
dreds of tramps of every type arraigned in
ut
gocdly number of the fraternity, but l
have not yet seen Il single tramp who bore
the slightest resemblance to the caricatures
IN certain illustrated comic papers. These
pictures protray him as a walking scare
crow, with ragged and tattercd garments,
his hair unkempt and his person clthy, and
his face fierce and malignant.
These pictures tend to make all trGmps
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 n lecturer and journalist of Washing
ton city, narrate with much bitterness his
arraignment as II criminal in police court
while he was trampng through New
York town looking for work. Mr. Beau
mont was afterward a candidate for con
gress in the same district in which he was
arrested, and, though defeated received
thousands of votes
There have been Il few cases where large
bodies of tranps 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.
ly committed by these travelling vagabontis
as astonishingly small in comparison with
the aggregate committed by general Grim.
inal classes.
In the spring, summer and early autumn
IL the world really does not owe the tramp
living, it in fact supports him with n
Iairiy liberal ration of food and castoff
ciotnihg. 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
sufhciency of state or municipal laws to
suppress the tramp nuisance All the
states have laws more or less severe for the
correction of vagrancy and the punishment
OF tramps, and the Iowa legislature in
May, 1890. passed a tramp law so severe in
It's provisions rs to excite much adverse
comment In The press because Of its appar-
emit inhumanity But, like some other
Iowa criminal statutes, it has only proved
effective in spots.
The Iowalaw Furnishes n convicted tramp
with imprisonment at hard labor in the
county Jail not exceeding ten days, or by
imprisonment in such Jail in solitary con
1inement not exceeding five days" The
law further makes the jaier liable to a
fine OF not less than twenty-five dollars nor
more than one hundred dollars if he per-
mitsa convicted tramp to have any tobac-