Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
get sloughed into jail when they get to boozin'. You can't expect the
people to stand such stuff as that. And these are the kind of fellows,
too, who jigger our ridin' on this railroad. They get drunk, and if they
want to ride and can't find an empty car, they break a seal [a car
seal], and then there's the devil to pay about the tramps tryin' to rob
the cars. If the bums would only keep sober once in a while, there
wouldn't be a tramp pinched once a month. The bulls around here don't
care to yank a tramp unless they have to. But what can they do when they
find a bloke paradin' the streets with a jag on? They pull him in, o'
course, or else the people would kick. I'll gamble that he wouldn't be
touched, though, if he were simply huntin' a meal."
In Syracuse, Biddy, in order to prove his acquaintance with the town,
told me of a house where I was certain of getting something to eat. I
followed his instructions, and got exactly what I went for--a good
dinner. The great excitements in Syracuse, I found, were a big drunk and
the State fair. I have never seen such a number of tramps together at
one time. Between De Witt and Syracuse there was a camp of fifty, and
there were twenty empty beer-kegs lying around in the grass. Some of the
fellows were sick, others had sick clothes, and many of the rest were in
fine shape for a free fight. There were two well-dressed tramps whom I
immediately recognized as "fawny men"--fellows who sell bogus jewelry
for more than it is worth. One of these men was a notorious roadster of
American birth, who, for purposes best known to himself, went by the
name of "Liverpool George." He is the most successful fawny man that I
have ever met. He earned twenty-two dollars in one day at the fair by
selling for two dollars apiece rings which can be bought in Buffalo for
two dollars a dozen. The tramps call this worldly success.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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