Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-01-06
On Sunday Morning.

and gave me a NEST satisfying meal. There
were no conversational Interruptions. i ate
my meal in silence, and the woman watch
ed me. The new species interested her.
Just as l was finishing she put some
sandwiches. cake,aEd pie into a newspaper.
l had made a good impression.
There, she said. as l was about to go.
You may need it
l held out my nickel and thanked her.
She blushed. and put her hands behind her
back.
Il don't keep hotel" she said rather
Indignantly.
But madam, / want to pay YOU. I'm
no beggar.
You wouldn't have got 1t If you had
been. Goodbye"
Each Has His System.
The tramps' methods of begging as has
been said are largely regula ted by circum-
stances and experience. but even the anna
teurs among them have theories about the
profession. and they are never more inter-
esting than when sitting around some
'hang-out' camp fire, discussing their no.
lions of the kind of ghost stories that go
best with different sorts of people Indeed
the bulk of their time is passed in confer
ences of this character. Each man, like
the passionate gambler, has system.
and he enjoys Chewing the rag about its
intricacies. The majority of the systems
are founded on the tramps knowledge of
women. Taking the country by and large
he sees more of women on his begging
tours than of men, and 1t is only natural
that his theoretical calculat ions should be
busted mainly with women. Some tramps
believe that they can tell to a nicely what
a blonde woman will give in excess of a
brunette. or vice versa, and the same of a
large woman In contradistinction to a small
one. Much of their theorizing in these
matters is as futile as is the gamblers esti-
mate of his chances of luck, but certain it
Is that after a long apprenticeship they be-
come phenomenally accurate In Sizing up
people; and 1t is he who can correctly "size
up the greatest number OF people at first
glance and adapt himself to their peculiari-
ties that comes out winner in the struggle
Next in Importance to the ability to ap-
praise correctly the generous tendencies of
his patrons. and to modulate his voice and
to concoct stories according to their tastes
comes the tramp's clothes and the way he
wears them. 1t probably seems to most
persons that the tramp never changes his
clothes and that he always looks as tat
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 ordinary business
man. 1t all depends on the weather and
the beat he has chosen for the days
work. Every morning before he starts out
on his tour he takes look at the weather
and decides upon his beat" The beat"
selected. he puts on the "togs'' which he
thinks suits the weather, and away he goes
there are probably a hundred scientific beg
gars of this chalacter,r and they live as
well as does the man with q yearly income
Of 1000. ~ -.
Sunday on the Road.
Sunday is the dismalest day in the week
to the average tramp. the beggar who is
content with his three meals a day and
place to lie down, in at night. But few
men who so on tramp for the first time ex-
pect that Sunday Is going to be any diff
ferent 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 general unkempt
condition diferentiate them in public thor
oughfares very little from hundreds of
workingmen. No POLICEMAN worries them
with suspicious gfances." and in large cities
they pass unchallensede even In the dead
of night. Indeed. they receive SO little
notice from any one that they wonder
how they had ever imagined that outcasts
were such marked human beings
Then comes their first Sunday. Thew
get up out of their hayloft, or wherever il
may be that they lay down the night be-
fore. prepared to look for their breakfast
Just as they did on the day before, and
after brushing off their clothes and wash
ing themselves at some pump or public