The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1911-06-01
'TRAMPs QUIT CITY At
SUMMONS OF SPRING
START COUNTRYWARD IN
GREAT ANNUAL HEGIRA.
Hobo Exodus Worries Railroad Of
ficials and Constables the Nation
Over-Some of the Oddities Of
Tramp Life.

The great spring hegira is in full
swing. The American Brotherhood
of HObos is on the move. The lure
of the city has given place to the
call from the country and all over
this broad land the silent army is
following the railroad lines leading
to more favored localities where
the police cease from troubling and
the weary are at rest, except here
and there where the voice of the
housewife calleth to the wood pile
and the bulldog snaps his jaws. in
anticipation of a little white or dark
meat.
IT is a remarkable movement this
annual shifting of the boards of
the unemployed. Yet the newspap-
ers, when they refer to it all, give
it only passing mention, although
the army is numerically strong
enough to sack cities and overrun
provinces.
Tramp, tramp, tramp,
The boys are marching.
Eastward, westward, north and
south;
Dusty spends his spring care
free
Underneath some shaded trees
Even though the life he leads is
hand to mouth.
There is no set signal forthe de-
parture. No bugle sounds. There
isn't any band to play, no glitter
of military trappings in the sun
light, no rumbling of heavy artll-
lery, observes the Brooklyn Eagle.
No such thing as company forma-
tion or any pretense> at orderly adj
vance. Each knight of the great
highway is his own captain, acts
on his own initiative.
Tramp Lives on the Country.
The troop train is the slow-mov-
ing freight. The armament a to-
mato can, perchance, with two
holes for the string by which It
hangs suspended from the neck
No commissary department is at
tached to this army. 1t finds means
of subsistence as it goes along in
the country through which it pass
es. The housewives act as quarter
master sergeants and it is indeed
an untutored tramp who can mol
wheedle forth a rice pudding or
slab of pie.
How many are there in the army!
Nobody can tell with any degree
of accuracy. No systematic attempt
has ever been made to keep a CEN
sus of the wanderers, although
such plan has been advocated
Some say there are 100000 in this
country. but that is mere conjec-
ture. The nomads are always on the
move and that makes it extremely
difficult to keep tabs on them.
It has been proposed that a sort
of social police system be estab-
lished with bureaus in every large
city which should have as one OF
its chief purposes the proper iden-
tification of tramps, SO that thosce
who will not work may be set aside
from those who are worthy and
anxious to work and dealt with ac-
cordingly.
Now the tramp is dealt with only
in haphazard sort of way. To
establish such a national bureau
would take much money, however,
and the project has not appealed
sufficiently to anyone of large
means to, call forth funds enough
to start the thing.
Pleasant Side to Tramp Life.
Much romance has been woven
about his trampship. Most of it
has no foundation in fact. In the
first place. great many members
Of the hobo army are on the road
not from choice, but through force
of circumstances. Thousands of
them would work at anything had
they the chance. There are many
things besides a hatred Of work
which make the tramp. The con-
ditions of overcrowding in the big
city help. So does the modern
speeding cup process in shop and
factory. The whirring machine
breaks down the operator long be-
fore his time and throws him on
the street, broken and discouraged.
1t is then that he is swept into
the ranks of the unemployed and
drifts hither and thither with the
flotsam and jestam of humanity.
This man is looking for work
Then there is another type of
worthy tramp-th old craftman
for whom there is no longer any
use because he has been displaced
by modern machinery. He also seeks
honest labor. These men wander
to the hop fields and the apple
orchards, manly Of them, and earn
a living in that way. For them
the great hegira means that they
are seeking other fields where la
borers are few.
Simon Pure Hobo.
Then there is the Simon pure no.
DO. who wouldn't work no matter
how attractive his surroundings
were and who is afraid to look at
a cake Of soap in the face. OF this
fvnn there are also many. He is the