Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 October 1877 — Troublesome Tramps. [ARTICLE]

Troublesome Tramps.

The tramps have become unendurable to the inhabitants of Eastern Pennsylvania. In a petition addressed to Grand Juries, the “ Citizens’ Executive Committee of Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery counties” declare that 500 tramps are now roaming over the territory included in the counties named, and that the loss to the people through their idleness amounts to fully $75,000 yearly. They then make the following suggestion in regard to workhouses for the tramps : “ Your petitioners would respectfully suggest that a few farmhouses, or other buildings, in different parts of the country, might be hired at a small annual cost, to which frame sleeping apartments could cheaply be added. With lodgings thus provided at four or five points in the county, your petitioners believe that work could be found upon roads, quarries, and bridges, which would save the county much yearly outlay, while by truck and housework each of these houses could be made self-supporting.”