The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-01-10
THE TRAMP FRATERNITY.
A Graphic Picture of This Fruit of Mil
lionRireism,

nonRireiSm.
Passing through Madison Square one
evening | saw policeman clubbing a
man for the heinOu5 Offense of falling
asleep on one of the benches. When I
demonstrated with him he defended
himself by saying, eff we allow them
to sleep here there would be hundreds
here every night; respectable people
could not go through the park after
dark"
Are there so many tramps, theni'
He looked at me in surprise and
said: Enough to fill to Overfowing
every public park and square of the
city if we allowed them to come out.
! But We keep them in the dark corners
and alleys, by tie docks and unfre
| quented parts of the city"
| de, ;ided then that [ would find out
| something of this strange multitude
Shls army OF skUlking shadows whose
very existence seemed to be an imper
tince to the powers that be, their man
ner of life and the causes that had led
them to join this fraternity Of misery.
Nov what i5 tramp?
The Rev. Mr.. Kugler, of H0boken,
says: All we Owe tramp is a
funeral"
The Chicago Tribune remarked: !:
g The simplest plan probable, when we
are not members Of a humane society,
! is to put etr1chnine or arsenic III the
provision furnished to tramps This
| produces death IN a comparatively
short tine and is a warning to other
tranlps TO keep ou5 Of the neighbor-
hood"
a New York ne @spaper thus teraeiy
disposes of him: The best meal that
can be given to tramp is leaden
one, and it should be supplied in suffi
cient quantity to satisfy the most vora
ciOus aDpe5lte.
And finally a woman, Mrs Mary
Livermore, says: "Tramps have no
claims on human sympathy. When
they invade my hou>e and ask for
bread I bid them begone without cere
mOny. The hand Of society must be
against these vagranfs, they mu t die
! off, and the sooner they are dead and
buried the better for society"
A new and one Of the saddest fea
lures Of tramp life is the large and in
creasiug number of women trasnps
The policeman in charge of Parad ise
park states that between seventy and
seventy five women sleep nightly On
it's benches Anything more mex
pressibly degraded and repulsive than
these women tramps [ have never
seen And STILL" this policeman
added, these tramps were on e ell
hard working people At $50 p. M
l met my police guide at the music
stand in Battery park for the purpose
of making tour Of the park and inter
viewing It's lOdgers.
| We wended our way toward the old
fort, formerly inclOsed and used as a
part of Castle Garden Here from
every one of it's twenty or thirty port
holes projected two pairs of feet, be
| longing we found to it's two lOdgers,
who with a stone for a pillow and a
newspaper for q covering had settled
themselves for the night. Selecting
them by chance, I interviewed several
Of these tramps, and their stories, In
many cases cOrrOborated by the police,
proved my assertion that in most cases
q tramp is only a workingman unable
to find employment.
One was a waiter out Of work for
many months-a young man still in
his twenties. with a boyish, good
natured face. He said: II don't
think shall ever find a job again for
my clothes are too ragged and dirty.
No one would take me now. have
walked fourteen miles to day and have
eaten nothing. I went out into the
country to look for work in some of
the summer hotels, but look like a
tramp No one would hire me-"
Another was an old man sixty five
years old, a soldier in the civil war
who had walked long way to New
York to procure an order for admission
to soldiers home He had no money,
and had been kept many days while
| the interminable red tape" of a mill
tary bureau has been gone through
with. He had evidently seen better
days, and was in the last stages of con-
sumption; still he had been sleeping
for several nights upon the damp
ground of Battery park. He was an
American.
There were half dozen others whose
sad experiences had been similar in a
general way to these. The last one l
interviewed was an educated Swede,
who had been employed as book keeper
and clerk in the barge office, and also
as interpreter of the scandinavian Ian
guages in the immigration bureau. H3
also spoke fuently french, German
and Italian For his services, which
required lch varied requirements the
government paid him the munificent
sum Of sixty dollars per month. When
he fell sick five years ago, and became
by partial paralysis of the brain un-
able to work. he had no resources, and
after being discharged from the hos
pital drifted back to his old place of
employment-Castfe Garden-as a
tramp.
When I saw him he was not talka
tive. The little he said will give in
his own words:
"Do not believe anyone who tells
you that tramp is one from choice;
no one could choose this life; it is so
horrible, so horrible. The summer is
not so bad, but the long, cold rains of
fall. the fearful cold of winter" Here
a shudder ran through his frame
when I first came here I rebelled