The Republican., 1896-04-30
REAL TRAMPS, PARADISE.
CALIFORNIA; Kindly Treatment OF Hel
Thousands of Moneyless Tourists.

Thousands OF Moneyless Tourists.
California, as we have often said, is
the tramps paradise. The vagrants
of the union know this so well that un-
less the blessing of our climate be off
set with severe artificial disadvantages
the state will become each year the win
ter resort of the greater multitude of
travelling loafers. We are already
cursed with more of these pests than
the law officers of the interior seem
able to handle. Tramps' camps have
become a winter institution in south
ern California. These colonies of lazy
and worthless bummers are outftted
with tents. They beg and steal from
the surrounding inhabitants, who are
afraid of them, for arson, robbery and
murder are vengeful possibilities when
a tramp colony is refused what it asks.
So determined are the unpleasant
strangers to live without work that they
adopt a military organization and are
ready to give battle to the rural po-
lice. Near Riverside, the other day,
the officers who descended upon one of
the camps were routed, horse, foot and
dragoon, after a brisk engagement. In
earlier days, when mining and not ag-
riculture engaged the people, Cali
fornia would have disposed of shch
militant bummers with rope and pistol.
But farmers are of a peaceable SPIRIT.
and their occupation isolates tiIe1Ii.1
Nevertheless, if the officers fail to cope
with the tramps, it is probable that the
eXasperated ranchers will take the law
into their own hands. Honest and in
dustrious men will not continue in
definitely to be taxed and terrorized
by truculent and thievish vagabonds.
How comfortable the tramp's life is
made for him here, how easily he man.
ages to exist without toll, was interest
ingly revealed by the recently printed
narrative of a young man who, as a
"hobo," made the trip from San Diego
to San Francisco. His experience shows
that money is not necessary in Cali
fornia to a man who makes up his mind
to be a tourist. There is still an un-
limited supply of tender-hearted peo-
pie who would rather take the chance
of encouraging vagrancy than run the
risk of Withholding help from worthy
men seeking work-a character, al
ways assumed by the tramp, of course.
This amateur and a companion loitered
on their journey for over q month and
never went hungry. They We're taken
for the genuine article by the real
tramps they met, and also by the po-
liece of the towns and villages, thus
gaining perfect insight into the life.
In Delmar, for example, they We're
told that if they could induce the con-
stable to arrest them they could get
''foater"-that is to say, be housed
over night in the Jail and fioated on
ward in the morning, stayed by good
/ breakfast. Il am told" relates the
! young man, that in some of these
| places the tramps are sentenced to ten
days, but the constable let's him off |
gives his couple of dollars as an in
centive to leave, and charges the cour
| ty one dollar day for the ten days
BY stealing lides and beggix&-SSp
/ houses the pair made pleasant prog
ress. Not only subsistence, but social
attention, it seems, are the Agreeable
| portion of the moneyless tourist in
southern California. AS Witness:
AT Carlsbad we were i'll great luck
| My chum did some chores round
house and the lady took us both in
We got a wash. good meal, bed and
spent the evening playing the piano
and cards. Next morning the lady put
up big lunch for us, and jumped the
blind baggage car when the train came
along"
Sleeping in barns and haystacks by
night, begging for food during the day.
walking for pleasure, and taking the
cars for speed, the adventure proceeded
| joyously. Professional tramps were
encountered in large numbers. At
Goshen there was an encampment with |
a captain in command and a negro |
servant to do the cooking. The com
pany slept in tents, and regular details |
were sent out to forage. The com.
munity called itself the "Sons of Rest"
and had for its motto the sybaritic sen.
timent; Fools and Mules Work"
The amateurs found that they gen.
orally could get work when they asked
for it, but, like the regulars, they were
under no necessity to labor. Charity
abounded, and they pursued their way
without hardship. Since novices could
do so well, the lot of skilled loafer
must be pleasant, indeed. 1t is not
wonderful that the tramp looks down
with contempt on the workingman
who drudges for livelihood that is to
be had without eXertion.
We have no snow here, practically
no winter, and the tramp comes to US
in the assurance that there is p, pcpic |
awaiting him. He will come, assSSr-yI
his comrades with him, while the peo-
pie and the officers of the law remain |
as kind as the skies. That each town is |
anxious to pass the vagabonds on to the
next, and will even offer them re-
ward TO go, is natural enough under
present conditions, which are dis |
graceful to a civilized state. So long
as we have this want of concert, this |
| anarchy this army of frompc will in |