Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1896-09-08
TOO MANY TRAMPS.
City Overburdened With the
Floating Element.
BEGGING on THE STREET CORNERS.

tAstic People of Their Finances By
Lazy and interruptions Ind gvlduAis to the
Dstrimen t Of the Worthy.
Many an. honest man is roaming
the country penniiess and out Of
work. These men 20 from city to city
and pursue every honorable means to
secure employment. They are very
often unsuccessful. Consequently
they are either obliged to appeal to
their fellow creatures for assistance
or perish with hunger. 1t is far
from an easy task to obtain eatables
or money to buy them with. either.
But people are bored to such an ex-
tent bv the professional tramp and
strong arm" man that they put all
of them on au equal footing and
treat them alike. A knock at the
back door often meets with no re-
Spouse.
But Rock Island b been ha, Dor
ing more than her share OF the
Weary Willies" of late. They come
here by the box car loads. 1t seems
as though word has been sent along
the line that grating is easy in this
ncighborhood. In the warm weather
it was not 4 hard matter to dispense
with this class OF individuals. They
would get out Of town on the request
of an officer, ordinarily. Now since
the atmosphere has cooled off they
are harder to shake. They are like
the pestileut fly. Police headauar-
tiers accommodates large numbers of
them nightly. In the morning they
strut on. to canvass the town 10
search Of enough to exist On daring
the day. This program is Kept up
as long as possible. Then new ter
ritory is sought. 1t is like leaving
home for tramp to change his
headquarters to another city, espe-
cially in the cold weather. He
holds up the sunny sides Of buildings
in the obscure sections Of the city
and complains about how hard it Is
for an honest man to get .long in
this country of ours. He goe,
through the same program ever,
day. After shutdown he appears on
the prominent thoroughfarcs and
puts IN an hour or two begging
Enough money is secured to ..push
the pail" the following day. when a
delegation will ad ourn to the river
bank or in some alley and begin
operations.
Some Of Their Stories.
1t is interesting to hcar the variety
OF the hard luck stories they have
The professional tramp always six,.
up man pretty thoroughly before
making the touch" II he has the
appearance of laborer, the no work
story is told; if a business man he is
either disabled or striving to reach
the sick bed OF 4 dying wife, or child,
or mother, or father, or brother. And
so on.
An old man accom- panied by lit
tie boy whom he said va, his son went
into an uptown business house Il few
nights ago ard asked for ) cents. lie
had two and only asked for enough
to make up 4 nickel with which IL
wanted to buy loaf Of brcad for
| him sell and little one. whose face
bore an expression sad enough to
move any human heart There
were several men in the place. a
contribution of about : half dollar
was made and the old man went
away smiling with gratitude. With
the same swing Of the door which let
the pair out, entered man who re.
sided in the neighborhood. What
did that fellow want in hcre?" he
asked. Money for something t.
eat! Why, he ust told me tina, he
and his son hai had good supper,
and only wanted enough to get a
place to sleep. The old man said he
didn't care as for himself, but he
could not see the little boy sleep out
Neither could I; so gave him half
dollar. Shake. Iguess We were al
worked" The same man might have
been seen drunk in an alley back o.
Second avenue that night while the
boy was crushing the growler" for
him.
And that is the way it goes. Their
schemes aud stories are manv and
'at lsSaleu- IeoPIe VINO pass through
Spencer square after dark are con
fronted by many of them, some OF
them insulting people who refuse tc
! be touched" When the streets ar,
deserted the persistent "graf;er'
starts making his rounds of the
| business houses. In these he makes
his last and strongest talk. Then he
goes to the police station. box car or
barn TO rest his weary bones and
| study up new hard luck story
| for the morrow.
This cisss has made the road OF
the honest tramp rocky. The police
should adopt some means by which
To cxtcrninate the professional bum
The Lscis-.