The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-03-09
Costs. Country S12,O0O,OO0
 Yearly to Maintain Them
ARE MIGRATING NORTH
Railroads Are the Worst Sufferers From the Tramp Evil and Are Leading in Movement To Do
 Away With Nuisance.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKlN.


 world is beginning. The opening of the weather brings thousands of these denlzens of the underworld from the south where the winters are mild, into the northern states, where financial conditions are usually more favorable from the hobo standpoint. Some time ago minister wrote a magazine ar | tlcle on the tramp problem. A man who had formerly been a hobo replied to 1t and stated that the minister did not know what he was talking about, since ne could not even make the olstlnctlon between hobo, tramp and a bum. There are no statistics as to the number of-each of these classes. but putting them all into one groua. 1t is estimated from figures at hand that there are about 50O00 of them in the united States. 1t has been esti- mated that the average tramp costs the community $4.5O per week. On this basis, leaving their depredations entirely out of consideration, their cost per year to the country would be about i $12,OOO,O00. Yet over S3 per cent of 1 them admit that they are able to work 1 or the remaining IT per cent more than one-half are afflicted with con taS1ous diseases. over 63 per cent of i them acknowledge that they are habit ual drunkards, and inquiry among sev- l eral thousand shows that only per ] cent of them are married.
 Those students of the tramp evil who have gone about among tramps for awhile for the purpose of learning the why's and wherefores of their exis- tence, have found that the reasons are many, One of them is a natural de- 1 sire to roam. Thousands of young | boys start out to beat their way. to ride brake beams from city to city, and | thus inch by inch, work their way up or down to the professional hobo sta tion of life. Prohigacy is another req son. The tramp does not know the value of money. One investigator found where tramp had spent $2S for drinks in single night. Another had gotten $60OO as back pay on his pen sion account, and within a sing e month had squandered the whole amount. In soldiers homes some of these old fellows, who followed the flag but who now follow the rail. are often to be found resting up for Il season and spending every cent of theIr pensions within a day or two of the time they get 1t. With them the nor row must take care of itself
 New York, of course, is the center of the tramp world. No other city in iG +I,- is New York. Mendicancy would pay better than hard work there, if only l the beggar were as saving as the work 1 CT. It is estimated that there are over 5000 professional beggars in the city. i Some of them are citizens of both the i upper and the lower world. Only ra- l gently woman was discovered who 1 begged by night in order that she ! could wear fine clothes by day. There are nearly 20,000 beds in the city that may be occupied for a few hours work ] or for nominal charge, or even without money and without price.
 Aside from the big cities the worst sufferers from the tramp evil are the l railroads. It has been estimated tn t ! their depredations on the railroads If 7, the United States amount to over S25- 100000 a year. The leading railroads l of the east now maintain police forces, since tire tramps have terrorized the ! train crews In 1906 the police sforce of the Pennsylvania railroad arrestea over 900 vagrants. But while the tramps do heavy damage to the rail- roads, the railroads in turn levy heavy tolls on them.
 During five recent years there were more trespassers killed by the rail- roads than passengers and trainmen combined. There were 23, 900 trespass- CTS killed as compared with less than l 2000 passengers and 16000 trainmen. There were about 26,000 trespassers | wounded. Of the class known as tres passers railroad men estimate that three-fourths were tramps. From this | it will be seen that every other tramp | hurt in an accident was killed. Thls | comes from the exposed places in which the poor patron of the ''sioe door Pullman" must ride. So fatel | to the tramp is the railroad, that many lines maintain private graveyards along the right of way. where the dead hobos are placed in unmarked graves. It is said that foreign countries are very much ahead of the United States | in the matter of handling the tramp evil, and that tramps are seldom seen on the right of way of railroads I Europe An effort, to which the rail- roads are a party, is now being made to prevent cities and towns from for | warding their vagrants on to the next place. The railroads say that if the municipalities along their lines would imprison the vagrants at hard labor | instead of sending them on to the l next place, much of the evil would be overcome.
 Los Angeles, Cal, and Yuma, Ar in recent crusade against tramps, found notices very helpful. They put nm nosters which read: "Hoboes, keep moving. Rent is high and food Is soarce Taxpayers will not support vou. Long sentences in the chaingang given here. Sixty to 90 days our spe- cialty."
 The most interesting writings on tramI life in America are from the pens oi Tack London and the late Josiah Flynt.
 Roth men wrote from inside knowledse Elvnt declared that the average hobo likes good literature, that Dickens ans rhackeray are favorites with those who freouent Cooper Union library in the win ter For many years Bryans FITS Rattler was a favorite piece Of literature with them. and was most frequently us cussed in their hang-out conferences some years ago two tramps were lnpris | oned in a Michigan town Tor Vagrancy
 ririne of confinement they decided to toss a coin to determine whether they snoule | write story or plan an escape. fieau' was to denote that they should wflte | story. Heads won The sherln lurnisiies the paper. They worked for weeks oi that story. One of them said tnat ii' | ,.,oozad his hrain until it was tired.