The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-03-24

Third, men of every class and grade In the social scale, that intoxicating liquor had reduced to a condition of penury- these men needed food and shelter, the grip of a friendly hand and encouragement to steady them for the long climb ahead of them.
 Heretofore at least 90 per cent of all our applicants were of the classes named-- not the professional hobo, the traveller the wandering Weary Willie of hobo song.
 The three classes named each wanted to work-to earn their daily bread. They did not want to be pauperized. The hobo never works if he can work anyone else
 It is the hobo class that makes the va- grancy problem increasingly greater and immensely more difficult.
 Recently in New York city the Salvation Army arranged to test this phase of the problem. It announced that free bed
 tickets would be given for a very limited
 time, at designated place. Two hundred and eighty strong, able bodied men strlg- gled with the weaker ones, each securing ticket on which were these words, Good for one bed then followed the ad- dress where the tickets would be hon ored, and then in clear type, Put this man a work Only seven of the 2S0 pre- scented those tickets, and yet that very night more than 1000 men stood in the bread line.
 We feel very strongly on this subject
 and we openly question the correctness of any theory that favors assisting those that are able to help themselves and yet
 unwilling to work for themselves. very large percentage of the hobo class lives
 in some part of the south each year in order to escape the rigorous climate of the north. They migrate just as wild geese do-always seeking pastures green The general publication of the 1910 cen- sus. showing that Birmingham had sprung | in one bound into the ranks-o of the great cities of America, was quickly noted by | the hobo class; hence the enormous in Aux of them here. The professional hobo
 has reduced to a science the art of beat 1 ing his way on railroad trains, and to- | day it is the novice that falls into the | clutches of the law for this offence. | Once in this city the rest is easy. By | their peculiar wireless system they know every house that is easy-every lodging | house where they know they will not be l turned down for shelter, and then they | begin a systematic search for the char | taby inclined. One begs for shoes, shoes. shoes. The one that is the best l persuader puts on the poorest clothes and | makes a piteous appeal for clothes. He l has a job and all he needs is a good front. Another solicits money to get home to see dear old mother. Then all meet at an ap- | pointed time, at an agreed rendezvous. and everything in excess of each suit is turned into cash at places where clothes are bought of this character. Again the money Is turned in at the bar or in the red light district, and at night the passer by is importuned for the price of q nights lodging.
 The vagrant hobo tolls not, neither does he spin" and yet he will be found
 when doing his turn in the red light dis trict arrayed in good clothing secured from the charitable people in this city. Why should I work? he asks. and a gen. erous. minimizing public aids him, feeds him, clothes him and when emboldencd by his success he turns house breaker, the public wonders why another man went wrong
 When the roses bloom again the hono will ride a north bound train out of this city. and on his travels will tell The brotherhood how easy it is to do Birminc- ham, and with the recurring fall he will drop off of an incoming freight, and do the public again. and scores of others of his kind will make this their winter cap- ital
 The Salvation Army has homes and re- lief agencies all through Canada and down to the gulf and from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and we have opportunities for studying the hobo clan that the indi- vidual cannot have. We hear his tale of how to ride the blind baggage" how 10 reach the best points in the south: here we listen to the details of his wanderinas
 in spring. fall and summer, for he is a travelling railroad guide compendium of railroad lore. <
 Where will he summer? Like the wild geese. he goes northward Some of the leaders will visit the Great Lakes; some will take in the Thousand Isles of the St.
 Lawrence and other like resorts where the wealthy congresate. He will be able
 to tell you of the proposed developments