The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-12-26
AMERICAS TRAMP EVIL
1T HAS REACHED A POINT WHERE
IT'S SUPPRESSION is NECESSARY.
A school Which Graduates Criminals
of All Grades, from Petty Thiev-
cry to Murder-The Remedy.


whose solution, in large measure, depends
the continued welfare of the Nation. AS
heritage from political and economic con-
ditiohs OF earlier years, there presents it
self the question of suppression of the
growth of idle vagabondage and of the
most decided determination of trampdom
While hardly. ranked among the vital
questions whose present determination Is
essential to social order, the question OF
how best to deal with the tramp evil is
one of decided Importance 10 the state and
to each and every citizen. Montesqu.eu
rightly maintained the doctrine that one
who failed to contribute to the public well
fare by his labor was as running sore
in the side of his fellow-citizens How
alarming, then, to the thoughtful observer
will be the noxious growth in the body OF
the American state of class whose num-
bers have been declared by those most re-
lied upon as authorities to have, since the
civil war, increased until the astounding
total of 10000 has been attained. Admit
ting that the continued existence of this
army, composed of men lacking, almost
without exception, the elements of sober
detrimental to the best interests of the
state, and, therefore, of each and every
citizen, it behooves the American people
to give to the question their studied at
tention, and to vigorously check the con-
slant movement Of so great a number of
men.
Few Americans would feel it necessary,
in order to bring before the mind a full
comprehension of the term tramp, to recur
to the definition of Webster, nor would all
conceive mental pictures of the humorous
portrayals of Puck and Judge The Amer
lean tramp is vivid reality. The long
lines of our railways, dotted with lonely
cottages, present specimens unknown TO
the pages OF these worthy papers, and
were the tramps who have just left the
bumpers of the freight train down in the
railroad yards to confess their records few
would be free to continue. The many dis
tinctiOns drawn by writer's on this subject
and the several attempts to discern the
existence Of classes and divisions In the
one great army of tramps have all failed
to confuse the public mind in its conception
of the character and attractiveness of the
tramp, using the term in its broad and
generic sense. Habits of vagabondage.
with their continuous shifting of response
blites, are scarcely adapted to implanting
others, and it is the knowledge of this
fact that causes the isolated home to be
filled with dread and alarm at the knock
of the tramp.
A SCHOOL OF CRIMINALITY.
While it is true that in times of great
industrial depression there are large num-
bers of deserving workmen who, lacking
other aids, are forced TO resort 10 tramp
ing while in quest of employment yet the
majority are inclined rather to search for
work in home neighborhoods, where their
worth and honest standing is known, or in
places from which assurances possessing
some degree of definiteness are held forth
The sober-minded workman knows that in
such times, when the stagnation of BUSH
ness interests is general the country over.
his opportunity is best where he is known
and where he has social ties and fixed con-
nections. One authority has said that the
real average tramp is not a poor. ill-used
mechanic out of employment, hut "a kind
of half-civilized wild of the woods,
with a sort of philosophy of his own akin
to that of the Ravachols and CaSerios
whose deeds on the wider stage of the
world have caused such CONSERVATION"
When one recalls the instincts of the wan
dering armies of the early barbarians. the
resemblance is manifest in the modern
army of vicious trampS.
The vagabond citizen is almost without
exception endowed with criminal instincts,
more or less developed. The habits of tramp
life are hardly conducive to state Of
lofty moral elevation, and the latent in
stincts are soon evinced. Crime is stamped
on the countenances of many-their bar
barian descent is obvious. The tramp's
criminals instincts, fostered by the priva-
tons, hardness and situations or extreme
distress with which he meets, soon master
his morals and he becomes the practical
criminal, easily moved to The commission
of minor offenses against the State and the
lives and property of his more Industrious
fellow-citizens, and in cases or fancied
emergency he hesitates not even at murder
itself.
Having none of those ties which hold and
bind the homemaker and the father. and
being in most cases OF dissipated habits,
ignorant and not unlearned in the dark
ways of crime, the tramp is quick, when
confronted with a situation of distress, 10
find a temporarysrelief from his privation
In the more or less studied appropriation
of the property of others, and especially
is this the case when the opportunity of
escape so freely presents itself.
The number of restless spirits who en-
gagged in tramping prior to the civil war
was but small, but that conflict took many
from the steady tread of labor and spread
what Bismarck has aptly termed the rail-
way fever" To this augmentation of the
tramp army must be added the numbers of
of the years following the war threw into
motion. Here, then, the army was re-
cruited-but fhe present size Is attributed
more directly to the growth of the Ameri-
can railway systems. and to the case with
which travel over long inhospitable sec
tions was made possible. The criminals OF
the cities soon in the line of the
railroad a field for plumber, from which
the frequent running of freight trains.
guarded by only few trainmen, loaded
with responsibility and the care of a long
train, and of necessity stopping at the juno
tions and water stations, rendered esca pc
after the commission of crime easy. The
railroads, great corporations founded in
the public interest, all unconsciously were
aiding In the preparation, and conveyance
TO places of safety Of the perpetrators, OF
every kind of crime which has nerited the
classification of the legal author. Every
signal station, telegraph Office and water
or fuel station had its opportunities. The
police of the cities soon learned to watch
the Yards of the railroads as means OF
escape most available to criminals. Crowded
between the car ends taking forcible
possession of whole trains the tramps in
large groups foraged their way across the
country. terrorizing the smaller towns
yiciously invading the rights of property
and person I'm rural communities and in
Testing the large cities with a lawless els-
half century show 10 have hesitated before
crime.
AN ALARMING SITUATION.
And such is the situation as we find it to-
day. hundred and fifty thousand men,
contributing hardly one dollar to the public
revenues, and but little TO the wealth
and material prosperity of the country
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