WHY TRAMPS WON’T WORK.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 3 January 1925, Page 15

WHY TRAMPS WON’T WORK.

SCIENTISTS SAY THEY DESERVE SYMPATHY.

“Anything but work’.” From time immemorial that has been the motto of the tramp. Most people belie' fi; that their aversion to labour in any shape or form is the result of sheer laziness, but the fact is, according to scientific investigators, they are all, or most of them, abnormal in so far as they a suffering from a peculiar disease to which science applies the name claustrophobia,” says a writer in Tit Bits In other words, they cannot tolerate crowds and closed spaces—they must be out in the open; and combined with this they experience an uncontrollable re When one of his attacks of this combination of “claustrophobia” and restle«sness comes on, the tramp lifts no alternative but to go, and to' keep on going. ' There is no particular place to which he wants to go, nothing he particularly desires to see. All he wishes to do is to get away from where lie is —and as fast as he can. You seldom find a married tramp. Why? During a recent investigation at a workhouse a number of tramps were asked why they did not marry, and a similar response was forthcoming in each case —’they would be afraici that the urge to get away would be stronger than the desire to remain with a family. , , . One tramp confessed that he had proposed marriage because he hoped that the responsibility’ of a family would be strong enough to keep him at home when the attack of wanderlust cameon—blit he copjd not overcome an attack a few days before the date set for the wedding, with the result that his bride-to-be was left to bewail the loss of her fiancee. The tramp was sincerely sorry, but the urge to get away had been too great for him to resist. Tramps have been known to risk death by exposure and starvation rather than remain in the workhouse when the wanderlust fever has gripped them. Contrary to the general idea, tramps seldom form friendships. They may meet companions, travel a short distance. together, but one may stop for a moment to take a pebble but of his shoe' and the other will go along as though oblivious of his companion’s existence. And the one who stopped will not hurry to catch up with the other! Two knights of the road, walking in the middle of the road near a fork in the road, were separated bv a passing vehicle. One went to one side and the other to the other side. They walked on without a word to each other, and when tliey reached the fork the one continued on the right fork, the other continued on the left fork, although neither knew where the two branches led tod

Tramps have not the- slightest desire for companionship. Friendship implies permanency, and that is the one thing they cannot tolerate. Nor is it a cave-free, healthful existence they lead. Getting out and taking a walk is many a. doctor’s advice to a patient. But the tramp takes his walks too often and he goes too far.

After about two years on the road he begins to get varicose veins in the legs. The veins lose their elasticity, they become stretched and the circulation in them becomes much lower than in the arteries. After standing or walking a short time the veins become filled with blood, the legs feel heavy, and the sufferer must sit down. That is why tramps cannot keep a job reauiring much standing or walking. Thev don’t know why they become tired so soon, and the public doesn’t know that they have a disease which makes them tired after a little work. At a special examination in one workhouse it was found that one-third of all the lodgers had foot or leg defects;. about ten times as many as would be found in the same number of men taken at random. Most tramps have bad teeth, and this. - with improper food, causes chronic indigestion. Tn short, the “Weary Willies” of the road deserve, according to scientific investigators. not our derisive gibes, but our deepest sympathy!