The Portland daily press., 1894-02-06
TALES OF THE TRAMP.
Glasses, Habits and Doings Of These
Travellers.
Statistics Mixed With Conclusions and
Observation-Disclosures of Professor Nc
Unemployed.

CoOk-No Reference TO Che temporarily
Unemployed.
Whether the word tramp" originated
In England or America is not known. 1t
is freely used in England in common con-
versation, but has no place in the statutes
Of Great Britain or Canada. 1t made its
appearance in the New Jersey statutes in
1876, and by 1892 1S other states had adopt
ed it. The tramp himself repudiates the
name and habitually substitutes for it the
word ''bum' and fastidiously divides his
guild into "train buns" who travel on
railroad trains; "pike bums,' who travel
on foot; ''shovel buns" who affect city
life, and religious bums," who frequent
the gospel missions. The train buns are
regarded as the aristocracy of the fraterDi
ty and rejoice in the additional appellation
of "hobos.''
The travels of a tramp take much
wider range than most people would sup
pose. Several of them have been found
who claim to have visited nesrly every
state and territory in the Union, and their
exact knowledge of the geography and of
the railroad lines bore out the assertion.
One reason of this is that the ranks of the
tramps are often recruited from the rail-
road brakemen, and this is proved by the
tender regard which the brakeman always
exhibits for the tramp in not only permit
ting him to stow himself away on the
trains, but frequently in feeding him also.
Massachusetts, which is the only state
that has undertaken to collect the statis-
tics of its tramps, entertains L 500 of them,
and if they are found in other states in the
same proportion to the population the num-
Der in the United States is 45,845, which
is u, 900 below the current guess estimates.
Among these is limited number of fe-
male tram.s. whom thei, brother tramps
call ''pettic3aG buns" "magpies" and
'bags.''
Careful Investigations lead to the con-
clusion that ~ per cent of the American
tramps have trades or professions, Al per
cent are unskilled laborers, SO per cent are
weavers, one in 20 of them is under 20
years old, three out of five under 35 years
old, rs out of 100 under 40 years old. Only
SIS per cent of them in the winter of the
grip claimed to be in i'll health, 83.5 per
cent claimed specifically to enjoy good
health In answer to the question, 'sWhy
did YOU take to the road?o S2.S per cent
complained of want of employment, some
were tstired of work, ," some wanted to
'ssee the country" some charged it to
drink, and per cent declared their lnten-
ton never to work again.
OF American tramps Sc per cent are OF
American nativity, and then follow Ire
land, England, Germany, Canada, Nor
way, Sweden and Scotland More than 80
per cent are unmarried, and less than 10
per cent are able to read and write. The
TACT is that in intelligence and education
he average tramp is not appreciably diff
erent from the general population. In the
winter SO per cent of them manage to get
sick and to live in hospitals. Others are
migratory and walk down south in Octo-
Der ard return north regularly in April, as
the railroad men can testify. OF those
questioned 20 per cent say they beg their
food, 9 per cent that they beg and work
and per cent that they beg and steal. 1t
is estimated that it costs 5000 year to
support a tramp and $40 100000 to sup
port all of the tramps in the country for
one year.
Only per cent of tramps confess that
they have been convicted of crime, though
80 per cent freely admit that they have
been convicted of drunkenness. They re-
gard things to wear and things to eat as
common property. But felony is confined
to the few. assault being the felony COM
monest among them. 1t is a rare thing
that they carry concealed weapons. Some
of them complain of the criminal tenden-
cies of others, whom they characterize as
''mean enough for anything" They claim
that it is the train buns that disgrace the
whole calling by their crimes.
a circular relative to tramps that was
mailed to IS chiefs of police elected some
interesting information about them and
about the way the tramp nuisance was OF
should be treated. Twenty replies said that
they furnished lodging to tramps without
any condition of cleanliness and % that no
conditions of work were prescribed. Six
teen said that the same tramps returned
frequently; B, occasionally; 10, that the
same tramps did not return. Twenty-sev-
en- said ttiat the applicants were always re-
ceived. 6 that they were liable to be arrest
ed ano 2 that they were imprisoned if they
returned too often. Twenty-Five put the
able bodied tramps at from 80 to 100 per
cent and only put it as low as so per
cent. Sixteen thought it advantageous to
lodge tramps, and IS were of the opposite
opinion. OF the IS who thought it advan-
tageous favored it on humanitarian
grounds, 2 because a small per cent were
deserving Oh grounds of public policy, 6
S~S
protection OF the person.
AS to the treatment of the evil, II of
these chiefs recommended compulsory
work, 3 confinement, z corporal punish
ment, the sho: gun. severer laws, 2 the
enforce. -. of existing laws l furnishing
emrioyl.- 3 believed in the workhouse,
l thought encouragement ought to be re-
fuseI. Net one advocated moral measures,
not apparently because they attached no
importance to moral measures, but because
they regarded thu tramp as impermeable
to them. On the other hand, moral meas
hres, when ti&sd, have generally been I'M
successful. Vagabondism grows out of
tdleness, intemperance and uncleanness,
and moral means are usually a pow
erful remedy for such habits. But forcible
restraint appears to be necessary in the
first instance. Yet as long as tramps are
left to roam at will, restrained only by an
occasional and spasmodic enforcement of
the vagrant laws, it would be an immense
advantage if soft hearted people would re-
frain from giving them money, for, al
most without exception, it goes for drink
or worse. The person who will give any
beggar coir just because it seems too hard