New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-10-20
VAGABONDS.
SOME PORTRAITS sKETCHED ON ENG
LISH HIGHWAYS.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAMP. BY J. H
Crawford. With Illustrations 12mo. PIP S2s.
Mr. Crawford's text is so well written that we
wish he had not discounted it by the introduce
ton Of Photographic illustrations. When he
describes gypsy mother teaching her son his
letters from q casual signboard, he gives
intimate sense OF reality; but photograph of
the actual scene. the opposite page. at once
suggests that the wanderers have not been sur
prised in their daily life, but have been DELHI
erately posed for the purpose of an author hunt
ing down copy" Be ii said TO Mr.. Crawfords
credit however that when his photographs are
ignored he makes interesting exposition OF
the ways of the English tramp, conveying
decidedly persuasive impression of that sorry
individuals hard but happy existence, his curl
GUS attitude of mingled resentment and pity
toward the folk who dwell comfortably in
houses his strange code of morals and manners,
that embraces the most contradictory IDEAS
The spelling lessons aforesaid provide an apt
Illustration The only letters available are those
on the signboards When the three ramps
chiefly dealt with in this book arrive beneath
q certain warning sign, "Trespassers VIII BE
Prosecuted" the nan Of family makes no bones
of tearing it down and building a fire with it.
first cutting the letters out and giving them to
his wife. They accumulate other signs. among
them one "as high as my head" according to
the lad for whom it is stolen and bearing this
notice: Caution. Some evil disposed person
has been mutilating the boards on the country
eide Reward Of E5 for detection Of culprit.
The boy goes on:
Father had heard somebody read it. and that
was the way he minded it; he wouldn't tell Tor
the dirty money.
meier tell on any one" said father.
And mother looked at me as though she was
80 foa Iar
The relations of the three Migrants are pc
cuIiar. In the early morning the father disap-
pears his wife and the boy trudging on to some
-seat~ in the woods. miles distant, where in the
evening the head OF the family may rejoin them
with food in the shape of a rabbit caught in the
fields or may leave them for another twenty
four hours 10 forage for themselves. The
woman has a kind OF doglike affection for her
lord stands in awe OF what she believes to be
his cleverness. and takes an occasional blow
with philosophic resignation. The pathos OF
her life is made most clearly visible when the
tramp takes her son from her side TO go afeld
with him. leaving the poor woman to weave
baskets in solitude. Young Dick trots off by
the side of his taciturn father, receiving in
etruction by the way as, for example, ''Ne'er
open a gate when there's another way" He is
initiated into the mysteries Of gypsy caste.
'Thou'rt going into company, Dick" says the
man, as they approach a camp. Ennis none
OF your loafers out O. work, your thinkers
making frying pans out o. meat tins. nor 'em
as come for weekend, do all the damage they
can, then clear out. Ems the old families Of
the place have been here who knows when
and have their estates. and stick to them Thy
mother has ne'er got on with 'em. That's Bess
Glenogle standing back, and old Bess by the
fire Their eyes will be on thee Dick" So
even the outcast draws the line with precision
between 'old families and upstarts," has his
pride Of rank and respect for ancestry.
Dicks mother dies oat Under the open sky
and his father relapses into something like re-
spectability. But the boy clngs to the road and
though he has his fomahce-which savors Of
fiction. despite Mr. Crawfords endeavor to make
It look like fact-he passes out Of the readers
ken as he enters it-a typical vagabond An in
teresting book it is, this Autobiography" with
a human quality in il that is the worse
for the authors constant appreciation of out
door life and his artless employment Of the
wildwood and the dusty roads a background
for his humble figures.