The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-12-14
SOME TRAMPS DO DIE
RAILROAD FREIGHT TRAIN THE
CHIEF EXECUTOR.
Many hobos Killed Accidentally
Fifty Percent Of These Wanderers
With Their Boots on-The Barrel
House Victims Most PitifuI.

Where Is the tramp of yester year?
1t is nearing the time when an in
teresting possibility of the census
bureau might be tried out. What has
happened to the tramp crop which
was gathered in the great cities with
the approach OF warm weather and
scattered to the four winds, only to
return with the migration Of the birds?
How many of the population hit
ting the pike" are dead since the
season opened? How many were
found by the demands of the western
harvesters and thrashers? How many
are seeking out their old metropolitan
haunts, TO lie in a state of semi-hiber-
nation till spring?
In the observation of the police and
of the coroners' Offices throughout the
country, the tramp family as risk
runs chances that few occupations of
industry threaten to the toiler. 1t is
more dangerous to seek the byways
of the idler than to harness up to the
machinery of toll. Fifty percent of
these roadsters die accidental deaths
of one kind or another; 20 percent die
of exposure and privation; 10 percent
are found dead in barrel houses, an
other 10 percent die in almshouses,
while another 10 percent are unac-
counted for.
In accidental deaths the railroad
freight train ia of first magnitude.
More tramps die under the wheels or
in the shock OF collision, or from a
train jumping the rails at switch
than from any other one cause. There
is seldom a collision involving a
| through freight in general smashup
that does not number tramp victim.
| He is universal as a corpse. 1t is rare
that he is reported among the injured.
"The reason for this is that he near
| ly always has to take the dangerous
| position on a train" explained an old
railroad man. Nearly every tramp
that gees out of Chicago or comes into
it rides on we bumpers of a freight
train or on the trucks Of the pas
senger. In either position q wreck of
any magnitude means death to him.
| 1T is not necessary always to have
| the wreck, either. Sometimes there is
ice on the bumpers, and there are
times when the tramp on the truck
goes to sleep, us we have had reason
to suspect. A fall in either case
/ means death almost without ques.
ton. In times past trainmen who had
been worried by these insistent dead.
heads would throw them off a train
with little compunction. II is a dan.
gerous business. however. for cases
have been taken to the higher courts
and decisions rendered that train
must be stopped and the tramp put off
with all the consideration that would
be due a passenger"
Roads Expect His Death.
AS indicating just how common is
the tramp funeral In connection with
railroading the railroads all over the
country in their rules and regulations
deal with him as a possible corpse
on their hands. One of the great
roads out of Chicago has this to say
of the genus as it infests rolling stocl
and the company's right of way:
III any tramps are killed or injured
in stealing rides on trains or in walk
ing on the tracks turn them over t
the town authorities. We pay nearly
100000 a year as taxes, and are
just as much entitled to have protec
tion as are individuals, and to hav,
are injured through their own neg
ligence taken care of by the town o.
county. But IL the authorities will no
take care Of them don't let them Ii,
in the streets--take care of them un
til some proper arrangement for thei
care can be made"
, Even where tramp is killed on tn,
road between stations this compan!
instructs its men to pick up the body
regardless Of the superstitions abou
the coroner. and take the body to tn,
nearest station, only IL possible no
to take 1t out of the county.
Second to the accidental deaths ol
the rail are the accidents due to tn
burning of barns and outhouses il
: which tramps who smoke take shelter
In the course of year scores OF thes
} peripatetic ones go to sleep in the ha
of barn loft and their ashes are sort
: ed out in the morning. Nothing will
alarm farmer more than to discove
: that tramps have been sleeping in
distant barn or crib. He is not afrai
of possible thefts; his fear is OF tn
tramp's matches and the tramp's pipe
, In many sections of the country, toe
in the dry seasons, the campfire b
the roadway menaces the Who'll
drought-stricken territory.
Exposure kills more tramps tha
ordinarily Is suspected. Many of thes
! men are addicted to excessive use c
:. whisky or of alcohol in some othe
4 form. and for years the medical fra
/ ernity has recognized that the ma
3 who drinks to excess has few chance
!, against pneumonia when it has a
tackled him. The late DR.. N. S. Davis
nestor of physicians in Chicago, use
. to say that when a drunkard got pnel
/ 10 III lss ssl,t a,