TRAMPS.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3498, 24 November 1894, Page 5

TRAMPS.

Each season has its plague, and it is not always wasps. This season, to judge by recent proceedings of the County Council of Warwickshire, it is tramps. Warwickshire is overrun with these troublesome little creatures and it lias held a conference of the Poor Law Unions of the county to see what can be done to stamp them out. It/does not stand alone in suffering. Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex. Gloucester," Worcester, and Wiltshire have each a scheme, and Warwickshire is afraid of being: left behind.. They swarm h the workhouses, and they will not let themselves be counted, foi in summer time many of them are artful enough to sleep in the fields.' It is felt that common action is the only possible safeguard against them, so the Conference has drawn up a series of resolutions for submission to the Local Government Board, and to the Boards of Guardians represented at the meeting. The main object of these is to separate the professional tramp irom ihe honest wayfarer looking ( for work. As in every other kingdom of the animal world there is, in tramps, a great difference between the pure bred and the merely accidental varieties, There is the tramp that stings, and is a veritable blood-sucker, the poor vagrom man looking for a job, whose only fear is that the beadles and the Board of Guardians will sting him. The beadle being no naturalist, too often confounds one with the other, and crushes the innocent with the guilty with one stamp of his hobnailed boot. The worst ot it is, the trne specimen generally survivesand passes unscathed through re pressive measures which crush the life out of his harmless companion To do it justice, the Conference has but faint hopes of success with the noxious part of the breed. The genuine tramp is bold, hard enduring, and strong on the wing. He laughs at beadles as love laughs at another sort of men. The beadle pur* sues him with his cocked hat, and lo! there is nothing under it when it is lifted from the ground. He knows his rights under thelaw; and he takes his ration like a Collectivist who is exercising the first duty of citizenship. Often, when he leaves the workhouse, he may be seen going to a sort of natural safe deposit institution under a hedge, where his money lies concealed. It is proposed, then, to distinguish the true working-man in search of a job by furnishing him with a "way ticket." This instrument, signed by his past employer, or some other responsible person, will testify to the holder's character as a real member of the industrial class, It will entitle him to the good offices of the custodians of the casual ward. He will not be detained for useless expiatory tasks, but will be at once sent on his way. The stinger, on the contrary, if we may venture to apply that name to him, will bave to remain for all the rigours of the labour test. This test, moreover, is, if possible, to be made uniform throughout the country. At present it varies according to the idiosyncracy of the local tyrant. In some places the tramp grinds wheat, in others he breaks stones, or pumps water, while in a certain union he is sup. plied with a quantity of black and white oats (in England the food of horses) and has to employ his abundant leisure in separating the one from the other. While the task is going ou, the police are to take a good look at the unredeemed tramp. Only this, it seems, will make him " squirm." There, is that in the; steely blue of a policeman'* eye which he cannot endure, and which disturbs him to such a degree as sometimes to make him spoil the pattern of his oats. The tramp, of course, will carry no ticket, and this will at once reveal him to the local Dogberry as no true man. Certain improvements in'the ticket, suggested for consideration in Gloucester, and Wilts, provide that it shall be made a perfect itinerary for the industrious holder. It is to give him the name of the union at which he may seek shelter at the end of his day's journey, and of the police-station on the road where he may be supplied with a mid-day 'ration of bread. One member of the Conference moved to add the words" and cheese," but the amendment was lost. This is to be regretted, for it would have made a welcome addition to the scanty premium on honesty. As the resolution of the Conference stand, thj honest man is to be distinguished from the rogue only by the omi*ion of the labour test.— Daily News. ' :