The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-07

| Tramps have never regarded the rail | roads of the east with any great ! amount of affection, but they are going | to like them less than ever after this. l Especially may they be expected to dis l like the Pennsylvania and Erie rail roads, which have just created for | themselves a reorganized police force whose one object in life it will be to harass railroad tramps and railroad thieves This is to be done in a new way. Instead of catching tramps after l they are on the trains it is the purpose of the new force to prevent the tramps 1 from ever getting within jumping dis \ tance of the "freights."
 ''Hoboes' have long cursed the New York Central as the hardest road ter beat tween Friscoe an York" but that enviable notoriety is now likely to be taken from the Central by the Penn sylvania railroad. As matter of fact, the Pennsylvania railroad has never been particularly hospitable to aramps, but because of its location and the ter
 ritory through which it passes, it has
 had a much harder situation to deal
 
 York Central. The same applies to the
 Erie railroad.
 Between Jersey City and Newark lies the very paradise of tramps. It is the
 little triangular bit of territory covered
 by no police force and under the juris-
 dlction-so it would seem--of no coun- ty. In this three mile area there an-
 nually congregate more tramps than even the city of New York holds Eve ry one of the men who goes there has covered some part of his journey to- ward this rendezvous by train, and nine-tenths of them intend to leave by the same means. This tramp paradise, which is known to the railroad police as No Mans Land" is, for most railroad tramps, simply a stopping place at which men who have become separated while en route may join their compan- ions before proceeding to beat their way across the Hudson into New York. Others will camp around the place for months at a time.
 People who know nothing about eith- CT railroads or tramps usually think that it ought to be exceedingly easy to keep tramps off trains. This theory is even held by some railroad officials whose rise has been more rapid than educational As a matter of fact, it is easier-far easier--to keep hungry fieas from jumping on a dog than it Is to keep a lazy tramp from Tipping" freight train.
 It is all very well to say that tramps don't travel by rail in England, and that the English railroads would not tolerate the nuisance for a day, but 1t should be remembered that there are very great differences between this country and England In England, for instance the laws of every country there are no states-are identical It is just as illegal to ride upon a train without a ticket in one part of Eng land as In another. It Is small coun- try, too, and the kings law holds like an iron band from one end of the land to the other Illegal travelling by rail means imprisonment, and English jails are not built or managed to afford home comforts to the inmates.
 In the United States it is all very different. Take the state of New ter sey, for instance. which, as No Mans Land and the two railroads under dis cussion are all contained in 1t, happens to be particularly opposite instance. | Tn New Jersey alone there are at least | three hundred different laws relating to | the tramp question. Some townships | ra ther encourage tramps. Others put | them in jail Another community | gives orders to it's constables to run all | ramps out of town on sight. The next village is quite likely to want to chase hem back again.
 Almost without exception, the smaller towns refuse to lock up the ramps captured while riding upon rains within the confines of the town ;hip. This is done for one of two req ;ons Either it Is argued that the vil- age taxpayers cannot afford to pay for he imprisonment and board of a lot if nonresident tramps, or 1t is alleged hat, as the railroads brought them here, it is it's duty to take them away gain This is rather rough on the ailroads, because 1t Is only at stopping ,Iaces that it is possible to thoroughly earch a freight train and dislodge ramps.
 
 objection to giving free jail accommo- ations to the railroads tramps When he railroad police hold field day, the ramps are likely to be brought in by undreds, and then chiefs of police and magistrates alike are apt to protest ga inst loading the expenses of their upon the taxpayers. In trsey City, in Newark, in Trenton, in lew Brunswick, in Paterson, Camden nd Philadelphia, there Is the same eneral objection to taking charge of be railroads ticketless passengers.
 The favorite method of disposing of | rrested tramps--for they have to be isposed of somefow-is to give them l certain number of hours to get out of 1wn In other words, the desire of the | magistrate is to force them to get out f the jurisdiction of his court and his axpayers' jail. The only way in which ne tramp can obey the order of the ourt is to flip another frieght train fact which the judge knew perfectly . ell when he suspended sentence over le man.
 It, therefore, becomes apparent that hat happens when railroad pulls a amp off one of it's trains at night and ands him over to a policeman is this: T The policeman takes the tramp z, round the corner and lets him go-or, :, The tramp is taken to court in the |