The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-01-30
STAkE-MEN.
The HObO's Contempt for what He
Terms " Gay-Cats."


Terms " Gay-Cats."
From the New York Evening Post.
A few months ago, as was starting out
on an investigation of the tramp situation
on one of our railroads, a friend said to
me: Il wish you would also get all the
information you can in regard to the fell
lows we railroaders call 'stake-men.' In
the Middle States l estimate that there are
at least 10000 brakemen who come under
this head, and many of them are known
to railroad officials and never employed
They only keep job until they have
stake-enough money to lie off for while
and they make no effort to find another
until their stake is gone. Between the
Mississippi and the Atlantic seaboard and
the Gulf and Maine, there are easily $1,000
of these iders battening on the commu-
nifty. Not all are railroaders some are
carpenters, machinists, masons. mill
hands and so on. They constitute not a
small part of Americas so-called army of
the unemployed, and 1 should like to know
what the tramp thinks of them"
These .'stake-men" were already famil-
lar to me, but under a different name. The
tramp calls them gay cats and it was as
such that l had learned to know them
while making my tramp studies. His
term for them comes from his disgust of
their faint-hearted ,vagabondage. They
only go on the road in summer or at
least this is their plan, and when their
money gives out and they have to beg TO
get back to where they started or wher-
ever it is that they want to go, they gen
orally prepare their appeals for assist
ance with requests for work. The hobo
hates this unprofessional method of salts
flying hunger; to be genuine member of
his fraternity one must know how to live
without work. and me 'stake-man" usu-
ally lacks the nerve to manage on this
basis. He has the hobos wanderlust and
love of liquor, but not the hobo's Bohe-
milan abandon. The latter calls him gay
cat" because he goes on the road thinking
it is all joy and merriment. In the hobo's
opinion, tramping, to be done well re-
quires a tiresome apprenticeship like every
other profession
The most convenient place to make the
acquaintance of the 'stake-man'' is al the
railway watering tank, the railway tres
passers depot" Here they gather TO
wait for freight trains, and to meet their
cronies, and they are easily distinguished
from the hoboes by the bungling way they
jump on to trains, and their faxed tough"
talk What they are after are quick re-
turns for nervous spurts of labor, and
then they start railroading again. Now,
It is the harvest in the West that attracts
and hundreds of them will beat their way
out there TO get the benefit of the tenn
porary high wages. and again 1t is a big
government job on some river. Winter is
their usual working season, although
wages are generally lowest al this time
of the year. Many, however are able TO
earn enough in the fall to keep them
through the winter. and then wait until
spring before looking for employment
again.
They are nearly all men with trades,
but they are as likely as not 10 take
work outside of their trades. ! have seen
electricians taking in" the harvest in
the West, and farm hands from Iowa en-
ployed on railroads in the East. The bulk
of them are comparatively young men.
They are generally dressed better than the
hoboes and are foolish enough to carry
watch chains and other decorations on
their travels They are consequently fire.
ouently being robbed by hoboes. A favo-
rite pastime for many tramps on our rail-
roads is "holding up these "tenderfeet."
Cases are known where they have been re-
lieved of all Of their clothing and money,
and have had to don the rags Of the
hoboes.
The tramps theory I'm regard to them
is that they are possessed of THE railroad
fever" An old roadster Of the West once
nut their case to me this way "They are
lust like the kids you see runnin' up an
down some road. They DONE know, any
more than the kids where they want TO
90. but they keep on ridn an ridin' just
The same. After awhile they get so that
they aiu't happy unless they're on some
freight train They are neither good
tramps nor good workmen; they're afraid
TO do nothin' but beg, an they're too lazy
to do nothiu but work. ! wish they were
all dead. They hurt our business more
than all the charity societies and police
forces in the world. They make people
think that tramps are really lookin' for
work, an you know well enough that we
amt. Why, they've spoiled this state
we're in. so that lots O times women have
the nerve now 10 ask me If I'm willin' to
work for a meal OF course, / tell 'em
that I'm just out of a hospital, an amt
able to work. but they'n get on to me