The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-05
TRAMP Is DISAPPEARING

inn usTY RHODES and Weary
DJD Willie are no more, except as
H. they exist In the comic sup
plement," declares the superintendent of a
Louisville Rescue mission. There are
trapms and buns today, but they are
not of the same type that roamed the
country five years ago." Five years Is
short time in which to accomplish even
minor social revolution. Had the reverend
gentlemen harked back some eight years
further to the days when armies of the
unemployed were on the march. he would,
argues the New York Evening Post, have
been able to point more striking con-
trast. But his observation fits in with
those of other qualified persons that there
has been in very recent years rather an
extraordinary shifting and overturning in
what Josiah Flynt calls the ''under
world"
The tramp and wanderer of today, OBJ
serves the authority just quoted, as a
general thing, comes from a good family,
and at one time probably held both good
business and social position. Ninety per
cent of the men that come into Hope Res
school. In fact, there are no tramps to-
day. Instead, there is great army of
men and boys who are drifting from one
city to another. But the tramp that used
to camp along the roadside is practically
a thing of the past.
On the other side, the police officials of
every city have been talking for years
OF the rise of the ''yegg' or criminal
tramp. The bank robber and burglar was
at one time highly skilled craftsman,
doing his work with finish that only
too often identified the artisan as a trade
mark would.
He lived, SO to speak, in a style befit-
ting his station and for that reason the
police were more likely to know him and
be able to locate him. But what can you
do" they now ask pathetically, when
the bank robber comes into town ragged
and on foot, with no tools but a cake of
soap and a vial of nitro -glycerine, does
his job and steals ride on a freight
train to get away? Nobody knew him
before or after; he has no recognizable
peculiarities Outwardly he is only a COM
mon tramp"
The droll tomato can tramp of the COM
ic papers was once reality, or at least as
much a reality as any of the other con-
ventional figures of our national humor.
Is it competition that has killed him?
Pressed relentlessly by the outright GRIM
inal and the fallen scion of good family,
has he gone the way of the small dealer
and the circuit rider?
Or has he simply dropped a few of his
odder traits and dropped to plain ragged
ness? Or is the "yegg." perhaps, only
the old tramp himself imbued with new
and criminal ambition. All these are pos
sitilities, but they are all hard to accept,
because If ever an institution was firmly
founded on the weaknesses of human ma
ture 1t was the fraternity of tramps. The
qualities that made men tramps are older
and more enduring than the pyramids.
The tramp wandered about the country,
not because he was possessed of an inner
tied "Wanderlust.' like the gypsy, nor
because he piled trade that necessitated
moving about like the tinker or ped
der nor because, like the tinerant printer
OF other days. he was intelllgently Gu
rious, and wanted to see the world and
earn living by the way.
His grievance against the world of cities
and shops was general. not particular. His
hand was against no mans, but, If any
mans hen roost happened to lie across
his path he would not actually push the
chickens away. He was as free from
malevolence as he was from steadfast-
ness.
1t is known that beggar can greatly
increase his receipts by employing
printed appeal instead of an oral whine.
Yet only the very elite Of their profess