The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-26
TALKS ON LIVE TOPICS
QUEER ARIsToCRACY EXISTS AMONG
AMERICAN TRAMPs.
.Jumpers,, "Pike Bums," "shoveI
Bums,v "ReIigious Buns" and Other
Species OF the Genus Hobo.


almost altogether of recent years?' said
Sanford Gray. a st. Louis travelling man.
who was In Indianapolis during last week.
"IE journeying through the West and
South during the last four months in the
interest Of my firm. think I've seen more
tramps than had ever seen before in all
my life. After talking with several Of
these queer specimens of humanity. i be-
came quite interested in them, and easily
understand now why some students OF hui
man nature, such as Josiah Flynt and
Professor wycIir, OF Princeton College.
give so much of their time to rubbing ell
bows with the gentlemen of the dusty
roads The order of .jumpers'-that is,
train jumpers. you know-consider them
selves a little bit better than the country
tramps. whom they call the pike bums,' or
the city Migrants, whom they always refer
TO as the shovel buns and as for the
mission or religious buns these are held
IN utter contempt by your out-and-out hobo.
'T ran across a fellow in Memphis last
Saturday who gave me some information
concerning hoboes in general and himself in
particular that proved really astonishing.
and I think he was telling the truth, too.
He said that ne had, during the last four
years, been in every nook and corner on the
continent, and that although he was by
trade printer, he had not been compelled
TO work to any appreciable extent. He
talked Of work as IL II were something TO be
avoided like the smallpox. When he found
that was interested in him and his kind
i paid for his dinner, by the way, and lis
tened TO him talk while he was eating it,
he opened up his heart to me and conversed
in a way that showed he had received a
fair education. and that he was by no
means lacking in metal alertness He had
passed part Of one winter in an almshouse,
in order to get a new suit of clothes;' had
been nine days I'm Charity Hospital, Black
wells island, for a bruise got in jumping
a train; six weeks in Philadelphia hos
pital for secret disease-tramps have no
aversion for such disease when winter Is
coming on. he told me in passing, and sew
eral eminent medical specialists confirm his
story; a whole winter I'm a poorhouse hos
pitaI in New York State for toe lost in
\ jumping a train; five months in a Baltimore
hospital for an abscess on his neck, caused,
rs the doctors thought, by the Jar of riding
on trucks and he had also been to dis
ensaries now and then for medicine re-
ired by some trihing cold, though he
nerally carried stuff with him for this.
He said that over half the tramps he
liew have trades or professions. and could
garn a living working at them If they but
chose to do He was the one tramp I've
rome across who didn't seek TO thrust the
blame for so much vagabondage in America
upon Industrial conditions, but he owned
up frankly that in his own case, and in the
case of nearly every other tramp. intem-
perance was solely to blame. The life of
- ell gfg In al
lions of work and travel and debauchery.
The work is suspended as soon as the means
for the iast-named has been secured and
the SOLDERING up is commonly at public ex-
pense. Over half of the tramps in this
country are of American nativity and the
majority of them can read and. write. Now
that the winter is over. they are coming
back to the Northern and Eastern States
from the warm climate of the South and
California. My tramp friend in Memphis
declared that every winter saw an increase
an hoboes. He said, with a good show of
feeling. that he was thinking of striking
out for some other country, as the field was
becoming overcrowded in America. This
vast army OF vagabcnds. steadily growing
larger, is a mighty expense to taxpayers,
when you come to think of ii. I'm afraid
this tramp problem will become a mighty
serious one In the United States some day."
women are as a rule cooler than men
Turing fires" said a member of the In
dianapolis fire department the other day
in discussing large CONGREGATIONS. land
they usually display more courage when
their lives are threatened by the flames.
AT the very beginning of fire a woman
will lose her nerve completely. but she soon
xecovers IL. and after the first fright has
passed she often becomes courageous to a
point bordering upon foolhardiness until
the danger is over. when she will again
break down altogether. I recall case
when we were fighting a fire in a big room
ang block several years ago. The flames
were well under way by the time the de-
partyaent wagons arrived the scene,
but we were given 10 understand that all
OF the dodgers in the building had escaped
IN safety. We entered the burning struc-
ture and began making a hasty search of
all OF the rooms to make sure that nobody
had been left behind. You can imagine
my Amusement when came upon a woman
IN little Mushroom at one end of a long,
dark hall which filled with smoke
bending coolly over wash bowl as II
searching for something. asked her what
in the name of goodness she was doing
and sire answered me. just as II nothing
unusual had happened. that she had mis-
placed her ring-'the one with the ruby In
it. she explained very carefully-and she
thought that she must have left IL on the
washstand when she washed her hands
short time before the flames were dscov-
cred. She declared that she wouldn't leave
the building until she had found that ring
as she valued IL above everything else that
she possessed. What did do? Well,
just picked her UP bodily when / found
that there was no use arguing with her
AID carried her down the stairs. And
didn't get her out OF that building a mo-
rnent too soon. the flames burst forth
about two or three minutes later in a place
that would have entirely cut of our re-
treat.
MANY times. too. I've happened upon
women during big fires who would refuse
20 leave the burning houses until they
could assure themselves that their pet dogs
or cats were out OF all danger. I remem-
Der one instance when I had a lot OF
trouble dragging a woman out of a room
that was filed TO suffocation with dense.
black smoke. She said that she just knew
that her Bobby was In that room under