The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-05
------------ ----- ----------- ------------ THEORIES OF BEGGING.
And How Certain Tramps Carry Them
 Cl,,I-

And How Certain Tramps Carry Then, | Out.
 The tramps' methods of begging, as has been said, are largely regulated by
 circumstances and experience, but even
 the amateurs among them have theo-
 ries about the profession, and they are
 never more interesting than when sit ting around some hangout campfire, discussing their notions of different
 sorts of people. Indeed, the bulk of
 their time is passed in conference of
 this character Each man, like the
 passionate gambler, has system and
 he enjoys chewing the rag about its
 intricacies. The majority of the sys- tems are founded on the tramps knowl-
 edge of women. Taking the country
 at large, he sees more of women on
 his begging tours than of men, and it
 is only natural that his theoretical
 calculations should be busted mainly
 With women. Some tramDs believe l that they can tell to a nicety what a
 blonde woman will give in access of a brunette, Or vice versa, and the same
 of large woman, in contradistinction 1 to q small one. Much of their theo- 1 rizing in these matters Is as futile as is l the gambler'a estimate of his chances
 of luck, but certain it is that after Il \ long apprenticeship they become phe
 nomenally accurate in sizing up people, l and it is he who can correctly size
 up the greatest number of people
 at first glance and adapt himself to their neculiarities, that comes out win- ner in the struggle,
 Next in impcitance to the ability to
 apprise correctly the generous tenden- cies of his patrons, and to modulate This voice and to concoct stories accord ing to their tastes. comes the tramp,'
 clothes and the way he wears them. It probably seems to most persons that
 the tramp never changes his clothes.
 and that he always looks as ta.tered and torn as when they happen to see
 him, but the expert has almost as many changes as the actor. Some days he dresses very poorly; this is generally the case in winter and on other days
 he looks as neat and clean as the or
 dinary business man. It all depends
 on the weather and the beat he has
 chosen for the days work Every morn-
 ing before hestarts out on his tour, he takes look at the weather and decides
 upon his heat The beat selected, he puts on the "togs' which he thinks suit
 the weather, and away he goes for bet
 ter or for worse. In New York city
 there are probably hundred scientific beggars of this, oharActer and they live as well as does the man with a
 yearly income of $2.00G
 Sunday is the dismalest day in the week to the average tramp, the beggar who is content with three meals day and place to lie down at night. Rut few men who go on tramp for the first time expect that Sunday is going to be any different from any other day in the week. They usually reach the road on a week day after a debauch and they find that their soiled clothes and generally unkempt condition diff eretiate them in public thoroughfares very little from hundreds of working men No policeman worries them with suspicious glances, and in large cities they pass unchallenged even in the dead of night. Indeed, they receive so little notice that they wonder how they ever imagind that outcasts were such marked human beings
 Then comes their first Sunday. They get out of the hayloft, or wherever it may be that they lay down the night before, prepared to look for their break fast just as they did on the day before. and after brushing off their clothes and washing themselves at some pump or public faucet they start out. In small | town they feel that something sWrong | before they have gone block, and by | 3 o'clock in large towns they decide t0 | go without their breakfast if they have | not yet got 1t. A change has come over | the earth: they seem out of place even | to themselves, and they return through | back streets to their lodging-houses or | rt treats on the outskirts of the town, | regretting that they are travellers of .he road.
 A number of men in the world have | to thank this Sunday nausea that they | are to-day workers and not tramps. The | latter feel the effects of it to the end of | their days; and it is as unacceptable as | death, but like certain seafaring men l who never get entirely free of seasick- | ness and yet continue as sailors, so old | Vagabonds learn to expect end endure | the miserable sensations which they ex- perience on the first day of the week. These sensations are due to the remnant | of manhood which is to be found in nearly all tramDs. The bulk of them are for all practical purposes outcasts l but at breakfast time on Sunday morn ing they have emotions which on week days no one would give them credit for.
 It was my fate some years ago to be one of a collection of wanderers who 1, had to while away a Sunday in a dug out on bleak prairie in western Kan