Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
penology will start on a fresh course.
It may be worth while to say what I can about their physical appearance.
The most of them have seemed to me to have fairly well-formed bodies,
but something out of the ordinary in their eyes, and in a few cases in
the entire face. Sometimes the left eye has drooped very noticeably, and
one boy that I recall had something akin to a description I once heard
of the "evil eye." It was a gipsy who explained it to me; and if he was
right, that a "little curtain," capable of falling over the eyeball at
will, is the main curiosity, then this boy had the evil eye. He could
throw a film over his eye in the most distressing fashion, and delighted
in the power to do so; indeed, it was his main way of teasing people. He
knew that it was not a pleasant sight, and if he had a petty grudge to
gratify, he chose this very effective torment. Concerning the faces, it
is difficult to explain just what was the matter. They were not exactly
deformed, but there was a peculiar depravity about them that one could
but notice instantly. At times I fancied that it was in the arrangement
of features rather than acquired expression of the life; but there were
cases where the effects of evil environment and cruel abuse were plain
to see. I have sometimes taken the pains to look up the parents of a
child who thus interested me, but I could not discover any similar
depravity in their countenances. There was depravity there, to be sure,
but of a different kind. I believe that the parents of these children,
and especially the mothers, could tell a great deal concerning them, and
the theorists in criminology will never be thoroughly equipped for their
work till all this evidence has been heard.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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