The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1906-10-27
DR.. RHODES AND THE TRAMP.

The tramp, be he the Weary Willie of the States
the yagabond Of England or the continent, has
the shambling walk Of the anthropoid ape In
other ways. too, Dr. Rhodes sees a strong rese,m-
blancc
4 have walked with tramps and talked with
tramps the world over said Dr. Rhodes and
everywhere they are the same degenerate type Be
sides III the shuffing gait the resemblance to the
ape is borne out in the mans face. There is not
sign Of intelligence there. Morally. physically
and mentally the tramp resembles the ape more
and each generation. We must discourage
the growth of this class of men"-The Catholic
Journal
All this is in line with present day tendencies
1t bears close relation to DR.. Nortons cult that
unfortunates should be destroyed with that of
those Protestant bishops and doctors of England
seventy-five years ago who endeavored because of
the poverty in the country, to have laws enacted
by Parliament that would stop the birth of infants
With that of the Protestant refomers of England
III the sixteenth century when Edward the Sixth
had laws passed to brand beggars with redho irons
and they branded. Prior to. the glorious
reformation" or, prefer to call it, plumber
never before witnessed
For an English doctor to make such assertions
in country where homeless men are bred by
thousands, where men and women 90 down into
their graves drunkards by thousands, is ridiculous
England is a land dotted with almshouses and
bread and water jails and has been since King
Henry Wills time, that glorious" retormer who
reformed the marriage law from one wife to
six, In the South of our own country where the
Catholic Journal is printed. the vena city gov
ernments eternally and vigilanty seeking for
men to them of vagrancy whereby they can
have municipal work done gratis, and sometimes
these arrested men, after being jailed without due
cause, they i'll Salt Lake City and every
other city of the United States are compelled, IN
the Southern States to toll for private bosses.
Men are hired IN Chicago to work on the levees
along the Mississippi, prevented from leaving,
fed rotten food and then turned adrift after
working three months without a dollar Only re-
Gently few men who tried to escape from a
laboring camp, near New Orleans, were followed bv
brutal overseers and bIoodhoUnds. were brought
back and lashed in the free Republic Of America
White men, too! Treatment too dastard, for
beast. In the city of Baltimore as recent as last
winter, white men shipped oyster boats,
and after working two months in cold and miserable
weather, from early morn to late at night, on
wretched food were turned adrift penriless In
the city Of Chicago only last winter, were sent
out to Wisconsin by wealthy ice companies, given
$3.50 TO cut ice ten hours . day, many of them
poorly clad, and compelled to pay $500 week
board for food. the cheapest and the drtiest that
could be given them! Among the iails and aims
houses of this vast country officials pocSeting
funds that were appropriated for food and doing
out a cheaper brand. Especially has this been the
case in the city of Philadelphia.
If DR.. Rhodes would delve beneath the surface
a little; if he would observe the Indifference of
wealthy tramps and parasites; if he would notice
industrial conditions, he might talk differently
Could DR.. Rhodes be enveoped with ignorance
could he be given a pick and shovel and told to
labor all day in the heat of the sun. from years
end to years end. he too. might be a wanderer
Tramps are repulsive by reason of their poor
and shabby clothes. yet an eternal God made them
the same God that created DR.. Rhodes Christ the
Great, the Celestial Emperor. the God-rnade man,
lived wandering. homeless life. Some of the
brightest, gentlest and charitable Of men wan
der as tramps Oliver Goldsmith lived as a tramp
before he became famous. Mr. Pulitzer proprietor
Of the New York World. once sat as a young immi-
grant in a New York city park half blind and
homeless. vertable tramp.
We know Of great" doctors and university pro
fessors who are nearer the app in actions. utter
lncas and writings than these homeless unettered
men whom the Savior of the world called the least
# His brethren! Mans inhumanity not only en-
yenders tramps but thieves and murderers. Does
sol the injustice Of kings breed anarchy? Who I
ire sowing seeds of false doctrines in this couu-
nv TODAY doctrines Of ANARCHY and hcentious free
lom, theT who have most TO fear from lawlessness