Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-14
TRAMPS ARE PLENTIFUL
This City a Gathering Place for the
Glass.
The Police VIII Take m Any Such
ard They VIII He Cared for
mt the Farm.

A large batch Of gentlemen Of the road
we're sentenced as Migrants in the Police
Court vest ,rday and today. All strangers
found about the streets in the future. who
have the appearance of being tramps, will
be required to give good accounts Of them
selves by the police, and when they fail to
do so they will have to make an explana-
ton in court. The number Of such persons
this season has been larger than heretofore.
and those known to the police as buns
have been exceedingly bold in their street.
begging operations. A number of persons
who have been held up by strangers Of
this class have also been insulted and
threatened, and those who did this and got
arrested were sent down. Many others have
been arrested because they stopped citizens
on the street and solicited assistance, and
they were either sent down or required to
leave the city. On Pennsylvania avenue,
9TH, 9th and F streets, as well as along 18th
street, the beggars have operated In large
numbers during the past two weeks, and
some of them extended their operations as
far west as Georgetown. They watch the
police as closely as the blue-cOated guard
fans watch them. and the latter have con-
siderable difficulty in arresting some of
them.
Their operations however. are not con-
nEed to the business streets and other
thoroughfares, for these men make regular
visits to houses to get their food. and in
many instances the female members of
families have been frightened by the fire.
quent appearance of the strangers. At
houses where the occupants are generous
enough to give food to one or two men
they find that this information is communi-
Gated to others. for the number of such
callers soon increases, and the housewife
finds 1t a difficult matter to get rid of them.
Many OF these men who are headed south
at this season have sad stories to tell.
Some of them pretend that they have been
injured In some way. and some uninjared
ones actually have their arms or head
bandaged. What Is known as the ''scalded
arm racket is played by many Of them
and this yarn is calculated to enlist the
matter of fact. what looks like an ugly
scald Is made by the use of an acid and is
painful only for few minutes.
While SO many of these men are i'm
posters, well known to the police because
of the annual or semi-annual visits on their
way north In the spring and south in the
fall or winter, there are some who are
honest men and mechanics out of work.
while looking for work. Many of them
naturally fall in with the tramps and
buns" and then the police judge them
by their company.
for such men, and they fare better here
than they do in almost any other city.
There are so many places open to them
that they flock here rather than avoid
lodging rooms, and at the municipal lodg
ing house they are bathed and fed for a
little work in the wood yard. Then at the
Central Union Mission there Is a comfort
able place where, for a little work, food
and lodging is furnished. These invita-
lions to tramps are responded to by hun
dreds, and sometimes there are as many
as three or four hundred strangers ac-
commOdatdd in a single night But these
places will not always accommodate the
applicants, and the overflow knights of the
road seek shelter in box cars, dry goods
boxes and doorwayS.
Last evening, for instance. the municipal
lodging house was filled before shutdown,
and the police stations had to accOmmo-
Gate the overflow. Many of them found
their way to the fourth precinct station
where from twenty to forty have been
sheltered every night for two weeks. Dur
ing last night fOrty-six guests were regis
tered, and Policeman Espey questioned
them Those who had been here two days
or more were locked up on charges of
vagrancy. and when the last one called the
record showed a total of thirty-three I'M
der charges. and thirteen in the dodgers
room.