The Washington herald., 1911-09-24

mendicants, as there are families OF
preachers, lawyers, and doctors
Considerable imagination is shown by
members OF the tribe Imposture is their
only trade. They work at it with the
same zeal that an inventor experiments
with the laws of mechanics Moreover,
no one can call them up in the morning
or tell them when to go to bed. Noon is
the same to them as any other hour, and
the blowing OF the factory whistles makes
them laugh. The seasonal laborer. IL he
Is deficient In pride, or the drunkard
comes within their influence and is prob
ably lost. Clergymen, after reaching
middle age, have become beggars by rea-
son OF drink or drugs. Strong parents
strong in character and mind-have moral
weaklings for children, and thew often
beg. OF the 135 beggars observed by Mrs.
SolenberBer, were college men, 1O3 had
a. common school education, 6s were ma
tive Americans, 3S were sots, "a had been
In prison. and IS were tramps.
Boys born in the slums of intemperate
parents grow up in ignorance and with
out craftsmanship or principles. Num-
oers or them become tramps and then
beggars. Others become criminals Once
in q while there is a woman tramp. Now
and~then there is a large family of per-
amoulating vagrants. A blind father, a
crippled mother, and seven children, the
Oldest Of whom was feeble-minded, trav-
eled for long time between Illinois and
Pennsylvania. They cost the charity So
cities and people of Chicago more than
$4,000. The Russell Sage Foundation. in
its figures bearing on 22O tramps studied
at random, shows that 162 Of them were
Americans. College graduates, "degen-
crate workingmen.' soldiers, travelling
statesmen, and peddlers were found
among the number. man Of seventy
had been a wandering vagrant for thirty
five years. Several had never done a
days work in their lives. With many
men tramping gets to be a mania. They
must leave a city the very day they ar
rive The direction whittier they go is
unimportant. so long as they get started.
Day after day, for years at time, they
are ever in motion.
Some Tramps own Property.
Another class only tramps in warm
weather. Thousands Of men leave aims
houses when the birds appear In the
spring for the freedom and license Of the
road. drifting back again before winter
The periodic tramp. perhaps a workman
OF unusual skill, is to be seen on almost
every freight train. He may stay for a
month or a year in one place, but the
call OF the open comes and he vanishes
from sight. Some tramps own property
and some receive remittances from dis
graced relatives conditioned on their re-
naming away from home Man failing
to keep employment because of incapac-
ity. laziness, or intemperance, walk
down to the railroad track. hide them
selves in an empty box car, and are
swallowed up in trampdom. They learn
to break open boxes and crates of food
in transit and the railways must pay
the damage and hire special policemen
to guard their property.
So long as tramps can ride where they
will, with no more than a kick occasion
ally, so long as the laws of States. coun-
ties, and municipalities lack uniformity,
and so long as local judges turn va
grants loose for fear they will become a
charge on the taxpayers who have elect
cd them to Office. idle, vicious. and un-
fortunate men will continue to cross and
recross the country in two ragged and
disorderly armies.
Belgium and Switzerland have estab-
lished labor colonies, where trades are
taught and industry is compulsory. Rus
sell Sage's money may open the way for
something of the kind in America
Copyright. rslI. bg James B. MOuow.)