Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1899-06-13
TEN CENTS A HUNDRED MILES,
What it Costs a Tramp to Travel by
Raiiroad-An Interstate Nuisance

W hat 1t Costs a Tramp to Travel by
Raiiroad-An Interstate Nuisance.
Josiah FIynt's article on THE Tramp
and the Railroads" in the Century en-
bodies his experience in investigating the
tramp nuisance on single road. He es-
Inmates that 10000 tramps ride free on
American railroad trains every night of
the year
Today it is the boast Of the hOboes that
they can travel in every state of the
Union for mill per mile, while in a
number of states they pay nothing at all.
On lines where brakemen demand money
Of them. 10 cents is usually sufficient to
settle for a journey of 100 miles, and 20
cents often secures q nights ride. They
have different methods of riding, among
which the favorite is to steal into an
empty box car on a freight train. At
night this is comparatively easy to do:
on many roads 1t Is possible to travel this
way, undlsturbed, till morning. If the
train has no ''empties,' they must ride
on top of the car between the bumpers
on one of the car ladders, or on the
roys. On the passenger train they ride
on top, on the blind baggage" and on
the trucks.
Taking this country by and large, it is
no exaggeration to say that every night in
the year 10000 free passengers of the
tramp genus travel on the different rail
roads II the ways mentioned, and that
10000 more are waiting at watering
tanks and in railroad yards for oppor-
tunities to get on the trains. I estimate
the professional tramp population at
about 10000. third of whom are gen
orally on the move.
In summer the entire tramp fraternity
may be said to be ''in transit The
average number of miles travelled daily
by each man at this season of the year
iS J-h St
lar rates, would cost, say 81. OF course
one should not ordinarily pay so much
TO ride IL a box car as IN passenger
coach, but the ordinary tramp is about
as comfortable in one as in the other,
and, on the dollar a-trip basis, he and his
5000 companions succeed in getting out
of the railroad companies 100000 worth
of free transportation every day that
they all travel Multiply this figure by
"a hundred. which is about the number
E~Of days in a year when all trampdom
idea of how much they gain.
Another serious loss TO the railroads is
| that involved in the disappearance of
| goods undergoing transportation, and IN
claims for personal injuries. Some
trampS steal, and some do not. but every
year considerable thefts are made from
freight cars, and tramps, or men posing
as such, are generally the guilty parties.
Professional thieves frequently become
tramps for q time, both to minimize their
guilt and to elude capture, and the proba-
bility is that the majority of the greater
thefts are committed by them. Tramps
proper are discouraged thieves, and |
have seldom known them to steal any
thing more valuable THAN fruit from
freight cars and metal from idle engines.
In a years time, however, including all
the thefts committed by both tramps
and professional thieves. a very appre-
cable loss results to the railroads, and
[ can recall out of my observation, rob
berries which have amounted to several
thousand dollars.