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is necessary that we have the legal definition of the word "Tramp." In the winter of 1879, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed a law defining the word tramp and providing for his arrest and punishment, determining that to be a tramp was a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment.

This act defines a tramp as "a person going about from place to place begging, asking or subsisting upon charity, and for the purpose of acquir ing money or a living, and who shall have no fixed place of residence or lawful occupation in the county or city in which he shall be arrested." From this definition, it would appear that the tramp is one who has made choice of tramping as the business of his life, one who has an irreconcilable dislike to all kinds of honest employment, and has adopted for his motto the old saw "The world owes me a living," and who claims his support in his wanderings as a right or debt due to him. To this class alone would I apply the word tramp as an epithet, and he is unworthy of any commiseration or any better name, for no tinge of shame mantles his brazen cheek at his own baseness and worthlessness when in pursuit of this his adopted vocation. Honor and principle are words without a meaning to him; he would appropriate the orphan's crust or the widow's scanty meal, if better fare is denied him, with as little compunction of conscience as a jackal would have in robbing a grave. He is a kind of beast of prey of the human species, if you will allow such expression. That he is destitute of every manly principle and sentiment is evidenced by his life and actions. That he is capable of imposing himself as a burden upon his fellow-men by deception, falsehood; and threats, fixing himself like a vampire upon the honest, industrious citizen, is sufficient to condemn him alone. But this imposition of himself, as a burden upon others, is not by any means the only objection to this society pest, but, what is a graver subject for apprehension to the law abiding citizen, is the menace to life and property incurred by these vagabonds tramping the country, boldly resenting, by arson or by murder, all refusals to comply with their demands; they recognize nothing as too sacred for them to claim as their own. Neither age nor sex, life nor property, is secure when they are abroad. This is proved by the murder of households, the outraging of women, the burning and pillaging of property, and such like misdemeanors. And this nuisance is on the increase. I am not able to give their number, but that they are organized with signs and signals, thereby recognizing and communicating with each other, there can be but little doubt. Now the practical question is, how shall we abate this nuisance? Is the law referred to above sufficiently severe in its provisions and broad and practical enough in its details to meet the requirements of the case? The first difficulty that meets us in considering the subject is, how shall we distinguish between the tramp proper and the honest seeker for employment? It is sufficiently hard for the poor laborer that necessity drives him from his home and family, sending him forth as a wanderer to "beg a brother of the earth to give him leave to toil," suffering the refusals and discouragements, the hunger and the fatigue that fall to his lot, without the annoyance of petty officials and the cruel suspicions of crime, or the expensive and tedious vindication by law. This last sad wanderer deserves our encouragement. The hand of charity should be open to him, the heart of sympathy ready to cheer him on. God knows life is full enough of bitterness for him, and any act of ours that may tend to sweeten his life or smooth away its roughness is praiseworthy. In the act of 1879, before referred to, the following provisions are made for the protection of this class of honest laborers, viz: That if any person so arrested can prove by satisfactory evidence that he does not make a practice

of going about begging or subsisting upon alms for the purpose aforesaid, in the manner above set forth, he shall not be deemed guilty of the offense hereinbefore described, and, upon such proof, shall be discharged from arrest either by the magistrate before whom he is committed, or by the court upon the hearing of the case, upon writ of habeas corpus." As the act further provides that an act of begging shall be prima facia evidence of guilt, it throws the honest seeker for employment, if driven by hunger to ask for bread, liable to arrest, and then the burden of proof falls on him. This is a difficulty we would gladly see him spared, but must confess our inability to suggest a remedy and leave the law effective. The law as it stands is a creditable one: while it holds out the rod of correction to the guilty, it endeavors to interpose the shield of protection to the unfortunate. While it provides for the punishment of the able bodied mendicant, it licenses the lame, the maimed, and the blind to appeal to the charity of the public. These provisions are praiseworthy; the law fails most in its object; in its provisions for the protection of the innocent who are forced by circumstances to make themselves liable to suspicion as tramps. The citizen has his part to perform in ridding the community of this nuisance as well as the legislators. Laws, to be useful and effective, must be enforced. The citizen in this case has failed to make use of the machinery provided by the Legislature for the extermination of this pest. If the law were enforced, it would rob the tramp's life of its charms, and return to useful and to industrial pursuits many a one that is now wasting his energies without accomplishing any good and burdening the community without any necessity to do so. While charity is a duty, it is neither charity nor duty to encourage vice; and any assistance given the tramp, other than assistance to honest employment, is encouraging and perpetuating this nuisance. If every honest citizen would do his part to see that this law was enforced, exercising his judgment, and not wronging his conscience, giving charity where he believed it due, and calling in the aid of the law where he believed that the proper assistance to lives of usefulness, happiness, and honesty required it, we would then, and not until then. have performed our duty.

The subject being open for discussion:

J. MCDOWELL of Washington. I have seen as many as five together at one time hid in a corn-shock until night would come on and then taken to jail and kept there. I live on the National road and I know of a man, to all appearances an honest man, who could not find lodging, and some one suggested that he should go to jail and stay there--I don't understand the whole law. He goes before the justice and he has one dollar and the constable has some fee, and the sheriff retains him there and he won't let him out, and he kept him there until he had a bill against this man that wanted to go next morning. Now, that is the way that officers want to make tramps out of persons that are not tramps. It seems to me we need some change with regard to the office of sheriff. It is said in Washington that the office has paid immense profits, until we can come down to Mr. Piollet's idea: pay them by salary, then we can get to the administration of justice.

Sena or DAVIS. I was in the Legislature when the act of 1879 was passed. I did not vote for it, and I have not changed my mind as to the inhuman character, or rather of the injustice, that may be done under the execution of that law. Under pressure coming from many of the counties represented by men who would come up there and tell tales in reference to the evils of tramping that were almost marvelous, it was enacted into a

law under a claim that by the vigor and the severity of the law the evil would be done away with. The law goes on the presumption of guilt, whereas I have always been taught to believe that the presumption of innocence attached to any prisoner until proved guilty. At that period of time we were just recovering from a period of great depression and of lack of employment of labor. Immediately following the passage of the law, there was a general demand for labor, and all over the State of Pennsylvania the tramp became almost unknown, again proving to my mind the fact that tramps are not entirely to be condemned; that there is a want and a necessity that drives them to the business of tramping. You have your law upon your statute books that treats them as criminals, considered as criminals, adjudged as criminals, without trials. While the prevailing sentiment in Pennsylvania is in favor of the stringent enforcement of the law, yet it does not change my mind, nevertheless, that the law is exceedingly inhuman and exceedingly harsh, and may act to the condemnation and confinement of innocent men who are driven to become tramps by the necessities of the What shall we do with the families of the tramps, with their daughters and their sons. We have condemned them in our statute laws. Though the prison doors are open to them, the moment work becomes scarce you will find our State flooded with these tramps. That brings to my mind that they don't follow that occupation because they desire it, but because of some radical necessity that requires them to do so. As to what shall we do with our tramps is a serious question. I question very much whether we shall ever remove the difficulty by threatening them with confinement in jail. My friend touched upon the subject, that officers made much money in this direction. I find in my own county, that the officers are becoming exceedingly greedy to grasp every one that travels up and down this railroad, in order to put the fees in their pockets. He is already condemned by passing up and down your railroad, and I declare it to be an inhuman and very stringent law.

case.

J. P. BARNES of Lehigh. The essay, I think, is a very fine one. It refers to the law by which the tramp may be punished. Now, it supposes the tramp to be guilty, but the tramp is not the judge in that case, and in order that some of our officers in our counties can make a little money out of the tramp, they undertake to tell whether he is a tramp. We are favored in our county with tramps, as well as other sections, and we find that it is a difficult subject to contend with. We find that in the neighborhood of Allentown, large numbers of them, as many as forty, gather at night in places where boilers are used for generating steam, for the purpose of securing a warm place for sleeping, and from there start out in the morning in various directions, to return again at night. They repeat this plan from time to time, in preference to going to jail. In some localities the commissioners put them to work. The present authorities in our place have decided that they shall be fed on bread and water and sleep on the bare floor. Some of them, when they are released from jail, say: "You will soon see me again," and then commit some petty theft in order to get back again. Some of them commence their lives tramps, and end it so.

Hon. R. E. PATTISON. I would like to say, on the subject of the tramp, that there is one question that has somewhat interested me in the last seven or eight years, and that is the question of pauperism. I believe this country is yet but in its infancy. Pauperism is keeping apace with population. It is no solution of the question that society provides money for its homes and almshouses for the protection of paupers. I think the greatest protection to give the pauper is to discover why he is a pauper. Take the alms

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