Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-10-19

pouring into our large cities, with the
idea of locating comfortable quar-
tiers for the winter. Already the
historic reading room at New York's
Cooper union is crowded with veteran
v~agabonds, snoozing over their unread
encyclopedias while the cheap lodg-
ing houses along the Bowery are
boarders. At the same time Boston,
Buffalo and Philadelphia all report a
large increase in street beggars.
BY late November the weather is so
cold that tramping on a widespread
scale is out of the question, even
when aided by frequent rides on
freight trains, so that for at least
three months In the year the wan
derer's wanderlust must be held in
check and he must live the fixed
existence of the ordinary citizen.
Some of them manage to spend this
certain ja{Is Which do 5st not require
much work on the part of the in
mates; others earn regular incomes
from street or office begging, while
still others loaf comfortably on 40
or 90 cents a day, saved up from
their summer earnings.
Hoboes who have enjoyed espe-
cially prosperous m in the
begging line usually go south in the
winter to rest up" New Orleans,
st. Augustine, Jacksonville, ITALIA
hassee and Atlanta are the favorite
resorts of these fatigued idlers-
especially New Orleans, where a
we'll trained beggar can nearly al
ways earn a dollar a day, if neces-
sary, and easily discover a congenial
dive In which to spend it This
wholesale migration to the south
starts about October 1 and lasts for
a month or more, during which time
the southern railroads are heavily
burdened with free passengers. One
sociologist, who has made a valuable
study of tramps by mingling among
them and temporarily adopting their
habits, says that on one trip which
20 tramps travelling on the same
train with him.
Except for the winter months, how
ever, the south as a whole is largely
free from these domadic parasites,
because it is now good " working ter
ritory". In other words, the hospi-
tally for which this section of the
country is famous evidently does
not extend to hoboes. The negroes,
who usually have full charge of the
southern kitchens, have a shrewd
IneJuOu OF ReILluS Tlu OIL uuWelcOHle
strangers. When such a one applies
for a meal at the kitchen door they
inform him that they are not per-
mitted to give away food without
permission from their mistress and
refer him to the front door. But
when the tramp applies at the front
door he is invariably informed that
the mistress is not at home. Big
cities, which are the chief manstay
of the ~vagabond brotherhood, are
also much farther apart in the south
than they are in the north. which
greatly adds to the difficulties of
tramping.
A Sterile Field
For practically the same reasons
New England, with the exception of
Boston, is carefully Stunned by hoboes
during the entire year. The average
southerner has a marked distaste for
tramps. but the New Highlander is
agrressively opposed to them. He not
only refuses to feed them upon his
well scrubbed doorstep, but he seizes
the first opportunity to place them
in jail where they are provided with
plenty of hard work. And as hard
work is the last thing that a hobo
is willing to do, the New England
states are not much bothered with
l~perlpatet1c gga
Undoubtedly, the greatest strong
is New York city, particularly IN
winter. but to a large extent
throughout the year. Here the pro-
fessional vagabond finds an album
dance of cheap lodgings, renting from
Is to 35 cents a night; and here
during the winter he may be practi-
cally certain of at least me meal
a day in the free bread lines and
SOUP kitchens, where it takes an ex-
pert eye to distinguish his species
in the groups of normal working
men, only temporarily out OF JOBS.
Here. moreover, the career of the
beggar offers the most brilliant OPP
~portunities.
When the New ork police made
one of their infrequent but spectacu-
lar raids upon street beggars recently,
the city's court were literally filled
with prosperous beggars whose weekly
income ranged from $40 to S75. One
who aroused great Indignation in the
breast of a good natured metropolis.
had been accustomed to drive to and
from his daily beat in his high-priced
limousine. Inasmuch as the attitude
of the New York police toward street
beggars, except for occasional bursts
of aggression, is a~pathetic, and as the
New York jails do not require hard
toll from small-time prisoners. the city
is likely to remain a permanent favor
tie with the hobo fraternity.
While Manhattan is the best place
for the hobo to make money, with
Newark. n. j., ranging a close Sec
ond. it is in Philadelphia and other
large cities of Pennsylvania that the
tramp is best fed. According to one
veteran tramp, there is scarcely q
town or hamlet in the Keystone state
which does not provide at least 6
comfortable living for vagabonds
The good-natured hausfraus of the
agricultural districts especially believe
that i'll luck will come to them if they
refuse a hungry man food, and Sc
, keen is their desire to avoid calamity
, that, in addition to the large dinner
set out for each tramp, they provide
him with q box of food to a k will
him upon his Journey"
/. Chicago is Unpopular
Chicago, while popular with tramps
especially as a winter abode, is con
sidered slightly dangerous, as the Chi
cage police are disconcertingly promp
in arresting suspicious-looking beggars
, and the Chicago jails are stern il
their treatment of Migrants. '1Thirt!
a days in Bridewell" is a sentence tina
no tramp is likely to risk twice. Be
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