The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1908-12-02

tramp and so on. It contains two
items about robberies In the suburbs
and says they were undoubtedly COM
mitted by tramps. Millions OF men
and women talk about tramps as glib
u as you please, and yet not one In a
thousand knows a tramp for what he
Is. The police don't. The judges don't.
stYou win find many book in which
the author says he went to sea because
It was In his blood. he was born q
wanderer-a nomad. No one ever crit-
cises him for It It's only when you
come to the nomad Of the land where
they cali him the tramp that can see
no good in him. The only real differ
ence IS that one wanders the sea and
the other the highways. They are rest.
less instead Of vicious spirits. I've
tramped this country from end to end
three different times, and yet Pm herv.
ous to go over the old roads again.
'sHow many drunken tramps did you
ever see? Pm not talking about the
corner buns, but about tramps. I'll
wager that you never saw three the
worse for liquor. Your professional IS
not drunkard. he has no more taste
Tor liquor than the average citizen and
far fewer opportunities to crafty it.
When you hear Of half dozen tramps
being gathered in on q raid It means
halt dozen men who have not left
the city for years-free lunch fends
and corner loafers.
As for lazy tramps never met one.
I've met them working by the month,
the week and the day, and I've met
them working for meal. They are al
ways willing to pay their way. They
expect to render quid pro quo. AS a
rule, when working for a hand-out
meal their labor is worth more than
the food.
"And about robberies In suburb or
country. Not one time in hundred is
It the tramp. It's the hoodlum. It's
the chaps who know where they can
sell their plunder. The tramp knows
Of mo one to buy, even II he should
accumulate plunder. They call the fel-
lows on the park benches tramps. They
call the sleepers In doorways tramps.
They are of their bases They are
city buns, pure and simple.
is Not Vicious.
"Why should tramp be more vi
cious than the average man? He isn't
There's nothing to make him vicious.
He is having fairly happy time of it
and is willing to live and let live. I
have arrived In village after village,
minding my own business and respect
full to all. and yet was set upon by the
town bully. If he got what he de-
served then l was arrested as vi
cious tramp. The buns and loafers are
in a class by themselves, and the
tramp wants nothing to do with them.
lone Of the funny things Of the road
IS tramp reform. It's been tried on me
a hundred times. Say knock at the
door Of a house in village and ask
for bite to eat. The woman or girl
goes away for instructions. and man
appears. 1t may be the minister or
one Of the deacons. 1 am invited in.
am requested to tell my story, be-
ginning back when ! was eight years
old-of smoking. drinking, chewing. ly-
ing. going to the circus and fifty other
things. am told that society is ready
to receive me. am to be aided to
climb ladder. Then am prayed with
and turned out into the night as hum
cry as a wolf. Why, that man fairly
encourages me to steal his own chick
ems. Not a nickel, not crust, but I
must subsist on reform.
II have never struck a village yet in
which there wasn't need Of moral re-
form, and yet they wait for me to come
along and then shove it under my nose.
I have no wife to beat, no children to
cuff. no desire to hang around sa-
looms. am innocent of theft, worked
for my last meal, and there are no
chicken feathers on my clothes. And
yet because I am a dilapidated gen
Geman I am supposed to be in dire