Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
Of my third class, those who are enticed to the road,--and their number
is legion,--I have been able to discover three different types. The old
roadster knows them all. Wherever he goes they cross his path, and beg
him to stop awhile and tell them of his travels. They seem to realize
that they have been swindled--that the road is, after all, only a
tantalizing delusion; but they cannot understand why it appeals to so
many of their elders, and it is in the hope that these will in the end
put them on the right track for the fun they are seeking that they hail
them, and cry, "What cheer?" It is a pitiful call, this, and even the
"old stager" winces at times on hearing it; but he cannot bring himself
to go back on "the profession," and quickly conquering his emotion, he
gives the tiny traveler fresh directions. The boy starts out anew,
hoping against experience that he is at last on the right route, and
plods on eagerly until stopped again at some troublesome cross-road
where he does not know which turn to take. Once more he asks for
directions, once more receives them, and so the ceaseless trudge goes
on. It is mainly at the cross-roads that I have learned to know these
children. Notwithstanding my alien position, they have hailed me too,
and inquired for sign-posts. I have seldom been able to help them, even
in the way that I most desired, but surely there are others who can.
The children of this third class that one meets oftenest are what the
older travelers call "worshipers of the tough." They have somehow got
the idea that cow-boy swagger and the criminal's lingo are the main
features of a manly man, and having an abnormal desire to realize their
ideal as quickly as possible, they go forth to acquire them. The hunt
soon lures them to the road, and up and down its length they scamper,
with faces so eager and intent that one is seldom at a loss to know what
they are seeking. There are different explanations of the charm that
this wild life has for them. A great many people believe that it is
purely and simply the work of the devil on their evil-bent natures;
others, that it is the result of bad training; and still others, that it
is one form of the mimicry with which every child is endowed in larger
or smaller degree. I favor the last opinion. In the bottom of their
hearts they are no worse than the average boy and girl, but they have
been unfortunate enough to see a picture or hear a story of some famous
rascal, and it has lodged in their brains, until the temptation to "go
and do likewise" has come upon them with such overwhelming force that
they simply cannot resist. Each one has some particular pattern
continually before his eyes, and only as he approaches it does he feel
that he is becoming tough. Now it is "Blinkey Morgan" that fascinates
him, and, despite his terrible end, he strives to be like him; then it
is "Wild Bill," whoever he may be; and not unfrequently it is a
character that has existed only in dime novels, or not even so
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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