The Lafayette gazette. [volume] (Lafayette, La.) 1893-1921, 1893-11-25
TRAMPs IN GERMANY.

vogFane 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 1901. Two years
later 1t was estimated that not less
than two hundred thousand men and
boys were living as vagabonds in the
German empire, begging from town to
town, demoralizing and in many in
stances terrorizing the rural conmuni-
ties. The support of this army of
tramps is computed to have cost the
people in aims and food SIS, OOO, 900 per
annuu1. Moreover, the money spent
brought no permanent relief, the va
grant horde growing larger and more
menacing day by day. 1t was against
evil that society combined and man.
aged in the course of years to develop
the thoroughly efficient system which
il 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 q
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 a relief station, which
is placed near the principal entrance
to the town-in the case of a large
city there may be several of these sta
tons its suburbs-where, by few
hours work, the destitute wayfarer
may earn a ticket which will en-
title him to food and lodging at
the "Herberge," or clearinghouse.
This house is established and sup
ported by the municipal or communal
government from the public funds. 1t
is plain country clearinghouse,
where wholesome food and clean beds
can be obtained, but no liquor. Its
maintenance is the price which the
community pays for exemption from
the tramp nuisance.
After passing a night and obtaining
meals at the herberge, the vagrant is
provided with 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 lis taken
away, and he is locked up for sea-
son, to be dismissed with a 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 new card
thai that Will pass } him s on to
time to seek for work along the way
and yet arrive at o'clock. Should he
reach the clearinghouse 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
mig ht. In this way 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 1854
herberges in operation in Germany, at
which 1,662, COG breakfasts, 972, 400 din
ners, 1891, 591 suppers and 2.22s, 900
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 fore Moons
walk soon render the life stale and
wearisome, and the tramp eagerly seeks
work as a means of reeaining 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
dlers, 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 a generally-de-
pressed condition of most industries
N. Y. Sun.
A Sortlld View OF IL.
Benevolent-Looxing Citizen-Young
man, do you realize the value of time.
Park Bench Lounger-Tm not realiz-
in anything on my time, bet your life!
Chicago Tribune.
A Saving Soul.
II wonder why Hawley the poet will