The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1907-08-08
MORE WOMEN TRAMPS
HOMELESS FEMALES BECOMING
NUMEROUS IN CHICAGO.
Travel From Police Station to Police
Station Begging Food and Shelter
Many are Wanderers From
Choice.

Chicago.-Women tramps are be-
coming numerous in Chicago, Nearly
every night the desk sergeants in the
various police stations are called upon
by feminine wanderers for nights
lodging, and at some of the stations,
notably those on Harrison and Max
well streets, hardly night or day
passes without a visit from one or
more OF these homeless women.
The woman tramp seldom allows
herself to be seen on the streets dur
ing the day Unlike her brothers in
the calling, she is not permitted to
loaf around the cheap saloons between
begging excursions, and for that rea-
son not much is known about her.
Occasionally she is arrested on
charge Of intoxication or some minor
complaint and then, at her hearing
in the courts, the police learn that she
is a tramp and that she has no visible
means of support.
Some of the women who make a
business of tramping impose largely
on the Salvation army and the Vol
unteers of America. Denied the privi-
iege Of ioafHg about saloons, they go
to the various headquarters of the
Sal" and "Vols," as these organiza.
tlons are known to the underworld,
and there they make a pretense of
wanting to work. While the army
officers are seeking employment for
them they put In their time at light
work about the headquarters, and once
in while they confess that the germ
of religious enthusiasm has taken hold
of them. After this they attend the
street meetings, which gives them the
right to wear the army uniform. This.
they have learned from experience, is
a big asset when they resume their
private begging expeditions.
To nearly every police station in the
city there is attached character
known as the station tramp In some
instances she Is woman, and these
women tell so many and plausible
stories concerning their origin that
nobody knows where they come from
or what they do for a living when
they are not at the station In the
winter, especially, these women fire.
quent the police stations in the hope
of securing nights lodging or bite
to eat. Some of them have been de-
tected making the rounds of the sta
tions, stopping at one place one night
and moving on to another station the
next. AS there are more than 40 sta
tions In the city, 1t Is easily possible
for them to make the entire round
and then, by the time they appear at
the first one again, they will have
been forgotten.
No one is allowed to stay more than
one night in the stations, and none
is allowed even shat privilege If there
is any chance to get her over to the
municipal lodging house. Concerning
these women the night walters in the
restaurants along South Clark and
State streets know more than the
police. Rarely do they go through a
nights work without visit from one
OF these women, who, by the repeti-
ton of some pitiful story, usually is
repaid by a bite to eat
The Chicago police say that women
tramps frequent the small towns more
than the larger cities In the rural
communities their requests for food
and clothing meet with more ready
response than they do in the cities,
and for that reason they take to the
road. Their travelling they do on foot,
except In some instances where they
ride on passenger trains until the
conductor puts them off, or, in still
rarer cases, where they travel on
freight trains disguised as men. The
woman tramp, however, is not much
on travelling for any great distance.
Usually she confines her operations
to radius Of a few miles. In that
circle she usually is able to wean her
victims from enough money to carry
her to that husband in "a distant
town." who is unable to send for her
and where she would have been long
ago had not sickness and misfortune
| handicapped her so greatly,