Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-12-04
FROM THE GOLDEN BOOKS.
Alfred Barron's Notes on Tramps and
Other Travellers.

generally dare to go on foot, Tor tney
fear the loss of social consideration.
Indeed. our gentility is but little more
than a question as to the ways in
which a man performs his getting
about man was respectable to
that old British woman because ne
kept a gig. The time was when a
stranger travelling on foot could not
readily find entertainment among the
generous planters of the south.
I did not take to my feet be-
cause my neighbors belonged to the
infantry. I was living among the
chivalry when / dismounted and be-
took myself to walking in the dry hot
sands. Then walking is SO much
practiced by a set of unfortunates,
who give no 1uster to the act, that
man needs to be rich in himself, and
earnest, too, before he will dare as
sert the liberty of his legs.
| find wrecks upon most OF the
principal roads. Travelling singly,
sometimes in couplets, at other times
in triplets-a man and woman, a
woman and two men-this social
Almost every nation; most of them
speak their words with a brogue. TO
one who can find the nerve necessary
to study the picturesque sides of deg
radiation, these people offer much that
interests. One naturally inquiries IL
they ever had a chance in life, or If
they have missed it. For the most
part they seem as if they had been
overtaken and throttled by their own
PASSIONS it is probable that they new
er had a fair start in that race. When
[ see one of these men, footsore and
weary departing in a dissipated, hob
bling gait, always hope, notwith-
standing the curious benevolence
may feel for him, that his cold
flood-wood floats back and forth be-
tween the great cities like broken
things among the whirls and eddies OF
an estuary. These tramps are from
victuals may so nourish him that he
will be able to go long way.
Outcasts as they are, it is inter
esting to note their human ways and
their conformity to the general drift
of society. Then, too, the walkers
always lie abed Sundays, just like
honest people Walking is their
business, and on that day they stop
work. They always give some at
tention to their toilet, stopping to re-
move some of the chaff and straw
which sticks to their hair and boards.
Striking cuts of the mustache are
often affected, and suggest that the
man has worn glossy hats and gay
neckties, and flaming vests, and has
shone in city places.
Their great thanlxfulness is not al
ways correctly shown-a little alb
ject, rather, but still it is valuable,
as showing their former adherence
at least to the principlerwhi
trust will yet prevail-that love and
kindly magnetism are fair equivalents
LOT DF0du ana meat.
1t is hard to stand before these sin
SCARED souls and not feel some Of
that interest which attaches to all
things human. They then make a
feeble reaching forth to get your
recognition, and to find in you some
kind of social warmth. Here is a
man who looks up with such mendi-
cant entreaty, and from so great a
depth, as from the bottom Of pit,
that I think it would take fathoms of
rope to bring him to daylight. But
there are those who do not call for
recognition; their eyes smite you with
such force that you almost want to
retaliate with stick.
are travelling either to Tyre or Sidon.
Guided by the telegraph poles, these
walkers hobble along the great high
ways which connect the large towns
They leave the filth of one city and
make painful pilgrimages to find the
QlIG VI CuOIIlCI. IL is oil easy Ill1IlSo
to walk toward the city. I encounter
many people who are going to the
towns to spend their leisure, and they
appear to think they are doing a great
thing. If I inquire my way to the
pond, or to the sea. or to place-no
place, men give little starts of sur
prise, as if I were out of the regular
lines of travel in more ways than
one, and they are not satisfied until
they have subjected me to inquisition.
The city itself is swelling with the
idea that it is worth more than the
country. But I don't think
it is good to go the same way with
tramps-"a man would better go the
back way and walk in the back neigh
bOrhOOds. Foot Notes.