The Autobiography of a Super-TrampDavies, W. H. (William Henry)
General
The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp
Davies, W. H. (William Henry)
Davies, W. H. (William Henry), 1871-1940; Poets, English -- 20th century -- Biography; Tramps -- Biography
The greatest enemy to the man who has to carry on his body all his
wardrobe, is rain. As long as the sun shines he is indifferent, but if
he is caught in a wet condition after sunset he is to be pitied. He
does not fear any ill consequences to health from being wet through,
as does his more fortunate brother, but he does not like the
uncomfortable sensation of shivering and not being able to keep warm.
This unsettled feeling is often made worse by an empty stomach. In
fact a full stomach is his one safeguard against the cold, and he
cares not then if the rain and the wind penetrate his clothes. No
seaman ever searched the heavens for a dark speck, or astronomer for a
new light, as does this homeless man for a sign of rain. To escape
from the coming deluge he seeks shelter in the public library, which
is the only free shelter available; and there he sits for hours
staring at one page, not a word of which he has read or, for that
matter, intends to read. If he cannot at once get a seat, he stands
before a paper and performs that almost impossible feat of standing
upright fast asleep, so as to deceive the attendants, and respectable
people who are waiting a chance to see that very paper. To be able to
do this requires many unsuccessful efforts, which fail on account of
hard breathing, nodding and stumbling against the paper stand; but
success has at last been attained, and there he stands fast asleep and
apparently absorbed in a most interesting paragraph. He attains such
perfection in this one act that he has been known to stand like a
marble statue before a large sheet of costly plate glass, what time
sleep had overpowered him in the act of admiring a baker's art. The
homeless man must always remember one thing, that though he may sit on
wooden seats and stone parapets, eat in public and go in rags, he must
not, on any account, sleep. Working men only are allowed that
privilege and those who can afford to remain idle. No policeman would
think of indulging in a short nap until he made sure that there was no
vagrant sleeping on his beat. And what respectable householder could
rest in bed knowing that a tramp was sleeping in his doorway? If
necessity is the mother of invention, sleep must certainly be
necessary to a human being, or the tramp, according to his many
chances of experiments, would be the first to prove the contrary. So
much for the very lowest men.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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