Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1895 — A Lecture on Tramps. [ARTICLE]

A Lecture on Tramps.

Trof. John J. McCook, of Trinity College, in a recent lecture in New Haven on “The Pathological Aspect of the Tramp Problem.” gave the following interesting facts about the knights of the road : “New Jersey was the first State to pass a law punishing the professional tramp, and at the same time to define what he was. This was in 1876. Rhode Island was the next, and Connecticut came third. A recent writer asserts that there are about 60,000 tramps in the United States. This number is a trifle large, although it is safe to say that there are over 40,000. This is larger than the army of Wellington at Waterloo. We look on tramps ns human wrecks and driftwood, and yet the majority of them are in the prime of life, and in better than the average health. Only 8$ per cent, of the tramps from whom my statistics were gleaned claimed in the dead of winter, while the grip was raging, that they were in bad health. They are robust, and will fill you with envy, malice and all other jealous feelings when you hear them snoring at midnight. “Eighty-one per cent, of tramps declare that they took to the road because they were out of a job, and only one man because machinery took his place. Over sixty per cent, of the English tramps are given as taking to the road because of vagrant habits. The majority of our tramps are of American birth, sixty-five per cent, of 1,1142 being of American parentage, and 272 Irish, who come next. Over 100 out of 1,7118 tramps could read and write, and they all spend money on the daily newspapers. Out of 1,1189 only seventy are married, fiftyseven are widowers and eighty-four have childfen. Thirty-eight percent, say that they work for their food, twenty-four per cent, beg it, and 5(1 per cent, steal It. Over 400 sleep at cheap lodging houses and nearly 800 in police headquarters. About 100 sleep in boxes.”