STORY OF THE TRAMPS" LIBRARY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 65, 17 March 1934, Page 19

STORY OF THE TRAMPS" LIBRARY

Every morning about 20 "casuals"! on tramp between Hitehin and Biggies-1 wade, or Hitehin and Eoyston, stop at I Baldoek to Test.- They never fail to! call at the bookshop, conducted by Mr. Lionel W.. Jones, where they are given books which Mr. Jones collects from people who have no further use for them. What a variety of reading matter goes out from the book shop! The men —and sometimes women—who walk the 13 miles from one casual ward to the other belong to all types of society, states the "Evening Standard." Novels are in great demand among the tramps, but a largo percentage of more serious books are easily disposed of by Mr. Jones. "Once," he said, "I had a set of arithmetic books sent to me. I thought this the limit. No tramp will want to study arithmetic, so I put them away in a corner and forgot all about them."Then, some months afterwards, a tramp came along pushing a" perambulator—a man who had obviously tramped the roads for years. He came into my shop and looked, around, and then asked if I had any old arithmetic books. "When I expressed surprise that a tramp should want this type of reading matter, he told me that he was writing the history of arithmetic from the earliest times., "Sure enough, when I looked in his perambulator, at his invitation, I found a heap of manuscript which he had written dealing with mathematics of all countries of the world. No . doubt this was afa,d of his, for I could not see what he could, hope to gain from writing such'heavy,. stuff. He came to the , shop again about, three ,'months afterwards,and said he had brought me a bookshelf. It. was made pf tin, and ho had. picked it off a' dump at Slough and carried it all those miles in his perambulator. "One day a man, who had been a shipping clerk, called on me. He', was unable to get a 30b because he was too old and he could not receive unem-

ployment benefit. He asked if I had any books of biography or travel. I gave him one and' he sat down to examine it; and then I saw that his boots were in ribbons, l I told him ho could not go any further without better covering for his feet, for the soles were worn through and he was walking on bare feet. I had an old pair with rubber soles, and as they fitted him, he went away considerably brighter. At the beginning of this month he came back for another book,, and then told me he had walked to Edinburgh and back, about 600 miles. The shoes were still going strong." Explaining how he began lending books to tramps, Mr. Jones^said: ."II deal in rare books, and sometimes when I buy a batch of volumes I have to take all kinds. A few years ago I was getting a large accumulation of books I did not want, and I conceived the idea of giving them" to the tramps who passed the shop every liour. Those surplus books were soon gone, and when I found that the tramps still icame for more—for anything like that soon gets round —I had to beg them from people in the neighbourhood. Then 1 began to receive batches of books from all over the country, Somerset, Devon, and even. Scotland. The, tramps had evidently canvassed for me on their travels. Of course, I never get the books back, and I don't want them. They are passed from one tramp to another in the casual wards. I can always do with fresh supplies from anyone^ who wishes to get rid of them, and I give out on an average about 100 a week. I have no difficulty in getting lid of light fiction, but grammars are also in great demand. Some of the tramps who come here can talk on almost any subject. Many of them knowtwo or three languages. "Although I have never been ont of a job _ myself, since I have been 56 years in the book trade, I can; understand how demoralising it is for these educated men to be walking about the country, in and out of casual' wards, obtaining subsistence by charity." '