Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
In New Orleans I once saw a place somewhat similar, the only difference
being that at night ropes were stretched across the bar-room for the
men to lean on while sleeping. Some persons fail to note much difference
in the lives of the two-cent dossers and the tomato-can tramps, but the
two-cent dossers make a sharp class distinction out of their greater
privilege. Personally, I should rather live in a barrel or box than in a
joint, if only for the sake of cleanliness. The joint is simply a nest
of vermin, and cannot be kept clean; whereas, if a man is careful and
works hard, he can keep a barrel fairly habitable for himself, and with
no other occupants. Still, I am sorry to say that few men who do live in
barrels achieve or desire this success. The most unique feature of the
two-cent dosser class is its apparent happiness. The men are always
funny, and crack a joke as easily as they tell a lie. I remember most
vividly a night in one of their joints in St. Louis. All night long some
one was laughing and joking, and my questions always met a witty reply.
I noticed, for instance, that several of the men were blind in one eye,
and I asked the meaning of this.
"Ha! ha! Don' cher know! Why, it's 'cause we're lookin' fer work so
hard."
Another man wanted to know whether I could tell him where he could get a
"kid." I asked him what use he had for one.
"Oh, prushuns [kids] is val'able; when you've got 'em, you're treasurer
of a company."
Nevertheless, these men very seldom have boys, because their life is too
unexciting, and the lads will not stay with them. A prushun, as a rule,
wants something livelier than loafing around saloons and corners, and
consequently is rarely found in these two classes.
The other types of city vagabondage can be classified as the
"lodgin'-house-gang," with the exception of the room-beggar. I must
therefore consider them in relation to their different styles of begging
rather than living; for when once a beggar can live in any sort of
lodging-house, he has a right to belong to the general crowd, no matter
what he pays for his bed. The seven-center house, for instance, is
considerably lower than the ten-center, but its being a lodging-house is
sufficient to separate its inmates entirely from the two classes who
live in boxes and beer-shops. And to make the classifying feature more
intelligible, I shall give first a short account of the lodging-house in
all its grades, omitting only those that are carried on by charity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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