A TRAMP'S EXPERIENCES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5961, 28 August 1897, Page 7

A TRAMP'S EXPERIENCES.

When I reached the workhouse, my ticket was taken from me, and I was directed into the bath-room, where I found a tramp drying himself. While undressing Hooked very dubiously atthe water inwhich I was to immerse myself . As usual, it had already done such good service thatit ought to have been allowed to run away. "Rather dirty, isn't it?" I remarked to the pauper attendant. "- Oh, there' 3 only been three in it," he naively rejoined. This was conclusive. There was no more to be said. But what, I wonder, is the extreme number of vagrants permitted to perform their ablutions in one lot of water ? After washing myself, however, I put on a cotton shirt handed me by the porter, and: depositing my own clothes on top of a disinfecting apparatus, followed that individual to the sleeping quartei-3, which here resemble the wooden-parti-tioned cubicles of a model lodging-house ; only the beds are of the plank variety, and all that softens them to the wearied frame is a single rug. To obtain anything more to lie on is practically impossible, for of the two rugs allowed to each casual one must be devoted to covering purposes. Presently the attendant brought us a hunk of bread apiece, after which he came from cell to cell, with a can in his hand, inquiring, " Want a drink ?" A little altercation at the end of the- passage made it plain that one must drink all one wanted at a draught. Such was supper. A little later the doors were opened again, this time by the tramp-master — a most humane and considerate official, let me say. " All right?" he asked each of his charges and on receiving a reply in the affirmative, he bade him " Good-night," and bolted him in till the morning. If I were to relate my subsequent sensations, I should be accused of exaggeration. It is difficult to . believe, unless you know something of casual wards, that there may be times when all your bones seem in the way, and when a certain kind of pillow, wooden, fixed, rounded, and so high as nearly to dislocate your neck, may strike you as having been designed not as an aid to peaceful repose, but as an instrument of torture. Foi* my part, and I speak as one who has known many strange resting-places — I nevei* could sleep on a plank bed. I believe such a couch is tolerable in prison, because the inmates are allowed to retain their clothes ,- but I have never been on one in a . workhouse (where, of courso, every shred of apparel is taken away from the tramp) without wishing myself, for choice, on a heap of broken stontes by the roadside, with my boot 3 under my head as a pillow. Enough, therefore, that we were woke at six o'clock on the following morning, and, after having eaten our breakfast — a mere repetition of the previous night's supper — were conducted into the yard. This was au anxious moment — for me, afc least — because my hands were still sore as a result of Tuesday's work. But not

long were wo in doubt as to the work vr-r-'iiiired o p iv. Our tasks were soon allotted. <Jno in-Uvidiial, wlio complained of his legs?, vr.-.s given oakum to pick, six or eight labouring men were sot in front of three-hundredweight heaps of stone, and the remaining four "casuals"— two unmistakable • "spike-rangers," a painter on the road in search of work, and myself, were put to wood-sawing. Thia arrangement appeared to satisfy everybody. Certain it is, at all events, that at half -past ten, the wholo of the tasks then being practically done, we were returned our tickets and set at liberty— an agreeable contrast to my experience at Dudley.— Quiver.