The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-07-04
TRAMPS In CAUCUS
HAVE CONVENTION III TOPEKA,
ALMA, WICHITA AND WINFIELD.

Knights Of the Road on Tour to the West
Maybe Attempting to Escape the
Wrath of tho Farmers With q Big
Wheat Crop and No Harvest Hands-
His Peculiar Peculiarities In Make Up
and Lsnguage-Meet Ut Alma for SON.
dav. Wichita and Topeka for Elections
aud Winfield for Thanksgiving.
Tramps are peculiar animals. The pc
cuiiar feature Of their peculiarly is that
they do not feel a. home unless they are
homeless, pennileS and friendless
No amount OF money lasts one Of them
moro than night or two, and no amount
Of II could induce them to settle down
to any sort OF work except tramping.
with all il conconitant "orneriness."
They won't buy anything to eat OF wear
when they have money-they'd rather
steal these things outright or through
the manipulation OF a smooth story than
to come by them honestly. and as for
what money they manage to "swag" that
goes for booze" always. Wet or dry.
cold or hot, nowhere at any time does a
Weary Raggles'' consider his swag le-
Ultimately spent for any Of the vulgar
necessities Of life such as food or cloth
ing. When he gets hat he has found
a Id" when he steals an overcoat he has
''swiped Benny" when he begs a pair
OF pants he has pulled some strides"
He has language and q brogue pecul-
arly his own and it is all Dutch to q
white man. His swaggish nomenclature
is applied to the minutest of affairs and
objects. Himself and brothers do not es-
cape. It's "Chic White" for Chicago
Whitley, Denver Ike" tx. c Slim"
Cheyenne Pete" st. Joe Shorty" These
are their police names, and It is al you
knyw Of them. It's everybody for him
seir. with them but they are organized
after a fashion.
They keep nearer tab on each other
than the closest friends. They register
in and out Of a town always by leaving
their monitor" on a water tank or some
designated spot Of which they are al. In
formed
For instance. IL Chicago Whitley comes
simply takes a piece of chalk and writes
on the tank in the Santa Fe yards ''6-11-
C-H-I-W" and makes a straight line
s. THAT in chalk is his monitor
and means that on June 20 Chicago
Whitley was here and went south They
all do the same, and when one OF them Is
caught in some crime and sen: to the
penitentiary word is passed along that
Denver Slim" has been 'hnp.cideWra
Denver Slim" has been "pinched" and
is doing time"
They have no official papers or organs
but they are always informed as to each
others whereabouts, and call conven-
tons and inaugurase movements, just as
the Pops, Woman Suffragists and all
other lists" and ites." Their meeting
places in Kansas are Alma, Topeka.
Wichita and Winfield.
Alma is a general Saturday and Sum-
day resort, and most OF the time from
fifty to hundred tramps are in the vi
cinity of Alma for the German picnics
and other gatherings there. It rs a gen.
eral Sunday retreat.
Topeka and Wichita they make always
at election time. Winfield is thanksgiv-
ing Home. Down in the Winfield bottoms
for a week about Thanksgiving time
there are hundreds Of them. Just now
all trampdom is tramping west. There
are 5000 Of them in Kansas west Of the
city OF Hutchinson. They are going west
Just why. no one knows II may be that
the stout demand for harvest hands. the
worlds Of work, etc. makes il more I'M
welcome and even dangerous for the
murky. begrimed and worthless knight
Of the road. II he stays in Kansas now
with all this wheat going to waste he is
liable 10 the contents Of shotgun where
he asks for punk" which - the tramp