Mississippi leader. (Jackson, Miss.) 1892-1895, 1895-04-16
DUDES AND TRAMPS.
Gam Jones Considers Their Char
acters Closely Identified.
he Styles One . wart on tho Nose OF So
cicty. the Other . Corn on Its
Toes-How to Get Rid
Of Them.
lCoPYRfGHr, 1851


The improbable classes of society
seem to be increasing. 1dleness and
begging used to be q calamity. 1t Is
now becoming that one is an honor and
the other profession. For the last
few years have been greatly inter
ested in the two classes, the dude and
the tramp. To the common eye the
farthest apart of all classes, but to me
closest together. In appearance they
differ widely, in character they come
close together.
The dude Is society's idler, his
whole mind and life is absorbed in
dress. He lounges in the easy chairs
of the social clubs, ornaments the par
lor and the ballroom, and lives Off his
kin. By society he is considered a re-
spected idler and decent drunkard and
gambler. He dresses in the latest
style, drinks only at the club and takes
the finest drinks. He CANDLES on the
most respectable plans, and pursues his
lecherous life is what some call the
tony places. His highest ambition Is to
have good time.
As see his real character, though he
walks in the highest circles Of society.
he is low, vicious character. He de-
mands his bread and clothing by his
sonship in the home. He begs his money
on the same ground, and with his
money and his clothing he buys his
high position in an empty and goddess
society. His real character Is that of a
loathsome sponger and sinful idler and
criminal gambler and debauchee. He
Is the white sepulcher, beautiful with
out, but within full of rottenness and
dead mems bones.
The tramp like the dude is man of
leisure and an idler by choice. He begs
at the homes of society as the dude
begs at his own home. The one stands
at the door, the other sits in the arm
chair in the family room. The tramp
begs his clothing from the homes of So
cietv like the dude begs his clothing
from his own home, the one taking
what is given without selection, the
other demanding a right to make the
most fastidious choices.
The tramp spends his leisure hours
with the idlers of the slums or reclines
in the sunshine by the roadside, the
dude spends his leisure with the idlers
of society and lounging in the velvet
chairs of the club rooms. The tramp
shoots craps, the dude plays progress
sive euchre. The tramp drinks the old
red liquor, the dude drinks fine wines.
The tramp breaks the Sabbath by loung-
ing with his vile companions in some
city slum, or playing craps with group
of his kind by the roadside; the dude
breaks the Sabbath by buggy driving
with the thoughtless and wicked, or
lounging with his kind in the club
rooms. The tramp has the odor of the
slums, the dude the odor of the richest
perfume. The tramp and the dude
meet together on the plain of the idler,
the beggar, the drunkard and the gam
bier.
The dude is a wart on the nose OF So
ciety, the tramp is a corn on its toes.
While the dude and the tramp in my
mind run SO close together In the
above, there are things in which they
are widely different. The tramp is
friendless in all circles, the dude is
toasted as society's favorite. The dude
is given palm as society's finest pro-
grcssive euchre player, the tramp is
given thirty days as the slums gam
bier. The dude as he lolls In the club
room and parlor is toasted as society's
honored gentleman Of leisure, and the
tramp as he rests upon the dry goods
box and the cold curbing Of the streets
Is arrested for vagrancy. The dude Is
welcome in every parlor, the tramp is
driven from every door. The dude is
regarded as society's highest specimen,
the tramp as the lowest stratum.
How shall we get rid of the dude and
the tramp, these useless suckers on
our body? The'dude question might be
easily settled. The tramp question is
more difficult one. If every father and
mother, however rich they may be,
would take tho reins in their own
hands, as God has commanded, and see
to 1t, first Of all, that their boy gets a
first-class qualification for some busi-
ness of life, and then see to it that he
enters that position and earns his own
bread, there would be fewer skeletons
in the closets of the palaces.
Our rich homes that have prospered
in business have kept their money from
the great benevolencese Of the world and
have bought q through ticket to hell for
the boys, by society's air line with par
lor and buffet cars attached. The men
who have charge of the great businesses
of this world to-day are the men who
were raised to work. The men who
have charge Of the prison cells and
the stripes are the men who were
raised to idleness. Honest sweat is the
medicine that will cure society of the
social excrescences called the dude.
This honest toll must be provided, while
the parents of our boys and society
must be revolutionized on the question
of the honorableness of honest toll and
the utter disgrace Of idleness.
As for the tramp, every community
should have workhouse with com
Portable bedding and plain nourishina
food and frst-class oversecr and q
variety of employmcnts, and every mar
found idle or begging should be ar
rested and turned into this workhouso
The idlers should be arrested on the
streets, in the clubrooms in rags or II
broadcloth, barefooted or in patent
feathers. Gamblers should be ARRESTED
at the progressive euchre table, in th'
parlors of the rich and at the club
rooms. inst like the negro is ARRESTED
for shooting craps The high-tonet
drunknrd and the low-toned drunkars
shculd be toned together and made Il