The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-10
JARGoN OF ENGLISH TRAMPs.
It Dates From the Reformation and is
 a Picturesoue Language.

It Dates From the Reformation and is Picturesque Language. The English government is going to consider the vagrant. Vagrancy has engaged the attention of the authuori- ties ever since it started in the whole sale line with the reformation. In good Queen Bess' days vagrant was whipped for being one for the first time. he had a portion of his right ear |cut off if he repeated the performance, and If he was convicted third time he was sent on long journey from which there is no possibility of return. Milder statutes came with the Georges. Our present vagrant act was passed in 1924 and amended in 1898. The vagrant has mot been amended at all.
 Tramping runs in families. I have traced the history of tramp family back over one hundred years, and found that five generations of them had been born in the workhouse and |all had been lifelong vagabonds.
 The jargon of the genuine tramp is interesting. It dates from the days of the reformation when the abolition of the monasteries flung thousands of people on the roads, and they trampad from town to town with the gipsies and the Italian fair folk. They picked up Romany and Italian words which re- main to-day in "the can't language, which is that of thieves. tramps, beg |gars, strolling players and show folk.
 Some Of the jargon of vagabondage can be traced to other and even more interesting sources. Long before the days when it was known as pediers French in the country and St. Giles Greek in London it had adopted He- brew words from the Jew hawkers and fences; Flemish, Dutch and Spanish words brought to it by the disbanded soldiers who had fought in the Low Countries and in Spain, and Walla- |chian and Greek words brought to the high roads and fairs of England by the gipsies of eastern Europe and added to the common stock.
 The language of vagrancy is more picturesque than the vagrants, but there are plenty of interesting charac- ters among them, male and female. You are, it is true, not likely to learn AiA0Sil OA tiiSii uiiiSoso y Oo hllOW CiOus5lA of their jargon to claim comradeship Then you will find they are full of hu- |morous anecdote and cheery optimists withal.
 They are a conservative people, and it is interesting to note that many of the words which were tramps' lan- guage when Harman compiled his dic- tionary in 1860 are in the tramps' and thieves yernacular at this very second that ticks from the clock. The "boos- ing ken'' of the sixteenth century is the ''boosing ken" of the twentieth. The "beak,' a constable, has become the
 sbeak," a magistrate. Dudes" clothes, have become "duds," "cassam" is still cheese 'autem is still church, and mort" slightly altered, is woman, and an "autem mort" or church wo- man, wife.
 "Saltee" (soiD are still pence, andthe thief and the vagrant still reckon in Italian. Tray saltee'' is three pence, ''chinker saltee" is five pence, eight pence is 'otter saltee,' nine pence is ''nobba saltee,' and ten pence is ida cha saltee"-Italian. tre, cinque, otto, nove, dieci-sixpence is sometimes a 'tester," which was it's official name in the days of Henry VIII, and shilling is a "beong," Italian, blanco-white. ''Rone,'' which meant good or chief, is to-day rum In the language of the road in Elizabeth's time the queen was the Rome ville." In buskers' slang, the manager of a theater or a show is td-day 'the rum culI.'
 The tramps are an ancient fraternity. If they are forced off the road into la bor colonies, wonder if their venera- ble jargon will gradually pass away. I don't think so, because it is secret , language, and at no time will the tramp find secret language more useful than when he and his fellows are in difficult ties. I can imagine no difficulty great CT to the true born tramp than hard Work.--London Referee.