Tougher Life For Paris Tramps

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32053, 30 July 1969, Page 9

Tougher Life For Paris Tramps

(N.Z.P.A.Reuter) PARIS. Life is getting steadily tougher for the 6000 unwashed tramps of Paris. Evil-smelling, often drunk from cheap wine, they are now having to work much harder at the vagrancy business to keep body and soul together. Modernisation of the French capital has driven them from many of their old haunts and they have to be systematic in their daily routine, according to the Paris Police Review. And competition for the small coins handed over by Parisians and foreign tourists now comes from the younger generation of beatniks, whose ranks have been swelling for the last four years. The Paris tramps, or “elo-

chards” as they are called, sleep on the banks of the Seine, under bridges and over the ventilation grills of the Metro stations. Although clearly identifiable, they no longer make the impact they did . in the eighteenth century, when a quarter of the city’s population were vagabonds. They are often seen pushing prams with rags and scrap metal. Police pick them up at regular intervals lor a wash and a haircut at a special centre, or for hospital treatment if required. Every time a tramp sets foot inside a police station a general disinfection is done, and the police cars in which the tramps are brought in are sent back to the depot for de-lousing. Police say that most tramps are drunk when picked up, for cheap red wine usually forms a big part of their staple diet. Their alcoholism often leads to crime or even death. Police say that their delin-

iquency does not constitute a big problem. The Police Review calls for the setting up of special treatment centres to take the place of prison sentences which have no long-term effect on the tramps. Most of them have drifted into the tramp’s way of life through laziness, lack of willpower or as a flight from responsibility. But nearly all of them have a daily set routine. For the dustbin scroungers it means a dawn trek around the streets to get there before the municipal garbage collectors. Then off they go to the scrap dealer with their booty of rags and occasionally a more valuable find. Other tramps clean out sheds and clear rubbish for concierges and some pose for tourists. Until recently, a number of tramps helped with odd jobs around the Halles vegetable market in the middle of Paris. But now the vegetable mar-

ket has been transferred to a site in the outskirts of the city. For the tramps this means the disappearance of another of their old haunts, which provided a source of revenue and scraps of food. Construction of an inner ring motorway and an expressway along the right bank of the Seine has chased them away from other habitual hunting grounds. Gradually, says the Police Review, they are seeing their territories restricted to a few areas in the middle and east of the city. As for the beatniks, the Police Review says they have come hitch-hiking into France from many countries since 1965. They live mainly along the left bank of the Seine.

A cafe in the Latin Quarter serves as unofficial headquarters and as a beatnik post office. The beatniks scratch a living singing outside cafes, drawing on the pavement and doing odd jobs.