Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-10-18
TRAMPs IN GERMANY.
vagrant Wanderers Forced to Earn TIL
Food and shelter Ther Secnra

Vagrant Wanderers Forced to Earn the
Food and shelter They Secure.
The tramp habit acquired formidable
proportions in Germany soon after the
close of the war of 1S70-71. Two wears
later it was estimated that not less
than two hundred thousand men aud
boys were living as vagab bonds in the
German empire, begging from town to
town. demoralizing and in many in
stances terrorizing the rural communi-
ties. The support of this army of
tramps is computed to have cost the
people in aims and food SIS, GOO, 900 per
annum. Moreover, the money spent
brought no permanent relief, the va
grant horde growing larger and more
menacing day by day. 1t was against
this grievous and rapidly-increasing
evil that society combined and man.
aged in the course of years to develop
the thoroughly efficient system which
is now found in operation throughout
the whole of Germany except Bavaria
and Alsace-Lorraine
The first step taken was to organize
in towns and villages anti-beggary So
cieties, the members of which paid II
certain yearly fee to the society treas
ury, and agreed to give nothing to beg
gars who should apply at their doors.
A small metallic disk, bearing the
name of the society, is fastened at the
front door of each members house.
This tells the beggar that his appeal for
aims will be denied, and that he will
be referred to the office of the society,
where his case will be carefully inves-
tigated before relief is granted. The
society provides relief station, which
is placed near the principal entrance
to the town-in the case of large
city there may be several of these sta
tions its suburbs-where, by a few
hours work, the destitute wayfarer
may earn a ticket which will en-
title him to food and lodging at
the ''Herberge," or lodging-house.
This house is established and sup
ported by the municipal or communal
government from the public funds. It
is plain country clearinghouse,
where wholesome food and clean beds
can be obtained, but no liquor. It's
maintenance is the price which the
community pays for exemption from
the tramp nuisance.
After passing night and obtaining
meals at the herberge, the vagrant is
provided with a ticket inscribed with
his name, age, birthplace and the
route that he intends to take in search
of work. If he wanders far from that
route he is liable to arrest by the first
rural policeman whose precinct he en-
tiers, in which case his card is taken
away, and he is locked up for a sea-
son, to be dismissed with reprimand
and another card which will pass him
to the nearest herberge in the direc-
ton that he desires to follow. If he
arrives there not later than two O clock
in the afternoon he will receive his
dinner, his afternoon work, supper,
bed and the next morning his break
fast, together with a new card
that will pass him on to
the next herberge, allowing
time to seek for work along the way
and yet arrive at 2 o'clock Should he
reach the lodging house later than that
hour, he will, unless he can prove that
he was detained by accident or some
other good reason, get nothing, and
! must shift for himself during the
night In this way a man can walk
over almost the whole of Germany
without ever being destitute of food or
shelter and without ever having money
to buy dram of liquor. The statis-
tics of 1890 show that there were in
that year 1857 relief stations and S64
herberges in operation in Germany. at
which 1,662,606 breakfasts, 972, 400 din
ners, 1,S91.59 suppers and 1928. 600
lodgings were provided,
There is no doubt that this part of
the German machinery of organized
charity performs the work for which
it was devised. 1t relieves the towns
and villages from the drain and menace
of vagrant medicancy, keeps the vaga-
bond class under police surveillance:
forces them to earn their food
and lodging, or go without both; and
by keeping them constantly moving
from station to station, prevents aggre-
cation in gangs. The monotony and
enforced regularity of each forenoon's
walk soon render the life stale and
wearisome, and the tramp eagerly seeks
work as means of regaining his indie
pendence and escaping the constant
supervision to which his ticket exposes
him. Speaking of the effect of this sys-
tenn OF REFRESHING vagrancy, as he has
observed it in Frankfort and the vicin-
ity, Mr.. Mason, American consul-gen-
eral there, says that there is practical
ly no indiscriminate distribution of
aims, and few or no beggars or ped
oilers, except, some MANNED or deformed
persons who, under certain restrictions,
are permitted to sell matches on the
street. In that portion of Germany
there are apparently no tramps, either
in the urban or the rural districts, and
this Notwithstanding generally-de-
pressed condition of most industries
n. Y. Sun.