The morning journal-courier., 1908-02-18
The Big One That Lives in and on New York
 State.
LIKE THE JAIL IN WINTER
The Habit of Vagrancy Usually Be- gins in Youth and Not Easily
 Overcome.

iciu at AiDdHyt Dy ArlnuF w. I0Wne, secretary of the State probation commission, regarding the extent of vagrancy and the habits of tramps in this State. Over 31,000 persons, main- ly Yagrants, were given free lodging in New York State. in town and city lockups, during 1906, and the number in 1907 will probably be fully as large. Seventy-five cities and towns thus provide for their wandering wis., itors. Half of these towns and cities also feed the wanderers free of charge.
 A large number of places give lodging also to boys, many of them as young as 10 or F years, thus en- couraging the wandering spirit that makes the later tramp. With only one slight exception. not a single town or city required any work at all from the lodgers in return for the lodging or the food provided, thus giving ab- soluteiy no incentive to the wanderer to work for his board or meals.
 The speaker urged that the system of allowing the police authorities to give these free lodgings. as well as the similar practice in some jails and almshouses, should be abolished as a most direct encouragement to va grancy, and that in their stead such free lodgings as are necessary should be furnished by the overseer of the poor, but only when repaid by some form of work, such as chopping wood or breaking stone.
 MT. Towne also brought out the fact that tramps like to go to jail in win ter. Instead of considering jail sen tence for that part of the year as a form of punishment, they welcome il as chance to keep warm and loai at the public expense. Forty-three per cent. of the commitment of tramps occur between November 1 and Feb ruary l. In short. the jail or the pen. itentiary becomes a sort of winter va. cation resort for tramps.
 Many chiefs of police. with whom Mir. Towne has communicated, said that tramps in winter would ask te be sent to jail, and that If this were not done, they would sometimes com. init offenses for the express pur 3os, of being arrested and sent there Many places in New York State art known by the tramps as having con, stables who will give a tramp tip o 50 cents, which the constable is en. abled to pay by reason of receiving { | fee for each arrest.
 i It is declared to be significant tha in the tramps' slang the word dunn was applied to both lodging g-house. and jails. With cold winter tn, number of vagrants in penitentiarie, and jails increases. In 1906 there wer, over 10000 tramps and vagrants il penitentiaries and jails, while in 1904 which was very cold winter, ther, were over 14,000. On the average about one-third of tho prisoners ar, tramps and vagrants. This means tha the public is annually paying severa hundred thousand dollars for tn, avowed purpose of punlshing men fo vagrancy. but in reality it amount only to furnishing free place O winter rest. Most of the chiefs of DO lice believe that jails and peniten tiaries do little good, If any, in thei treatment of tramps Another fact i that the sentences for this class O offenders are too short to accomplish any results. About s5 per cent. of tn sentences are from only one to 6 days,
 MT. Towne specially pointed ou that the most helpful way of combat ing the tramp nuisance Is 10 Jesse, the habit of stealing rides upo, freight cars. Mir. Towne has gathere, a mass of statistical material. neve before collected in New York State concerning the conditions now ore vailing, and from this material h showed conclusively that larg number of boys, especially those liv ing not far away from the railroa tracks, become addicted to stealin rides. For instance, Tn one truan school, l9 out of 2l inmates had stol on rides on freight cars before reach Ing the age of 15 years, and 14 q the boys had done so when only si to ten years Old.
 This habit of ride-stealing is recos nized by workers among boys as en couraging both crime and vagranc, On the New York Central railroad. o the division from New York to Alhan during three months of this last sum mer. there were 57s arrests for VA grancy and stealing rides, of whic over so per cent. were under 9 years of age. Some boys were a young as seven years. but the maiori ty ranged from IA to 17 vears
 While 1t is generally supposed ths the drink habit has been chiefly inf1u ential in making tramps. Mir Town took the position that the causes q Vagrancy are many and comnlex hi, that the seeds of the wander habit ar usually sown during hovhood bafor they become addicted to intemperanc, one of these boyhood causes. and th hardest to eradicate, is the train.rid ing habit. More detectives should h employed along the railroad tracks f demolish ride-stealine
 
 cy habit in boys as not serious. an as result much of fl goes unnur ished. Yet the heads of two of ,l largest juvenile asylums in New yor assert that the habit Is the Isrea. ! existing cause of juvenile crime an that after boys become addicted to Il, habit, its effects are extremely hsr , to eradicate.
 The Pinkerton detective agency r. ; ports an average of about 100 han robberfes committed hv crimin, ! trsmps. known as yegemen. each veg causing annual losses of over s10n coo. It is probable that of 1,soo ' , more postoff1ce robberies occurrir , annually in this country. fully e0 n, cent of them are executed by vegas l The Continental Fire lnsura7, ; compsny of New York. which h; . kept statistics of the causes of fir,