Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
This is also true of the office-beggar, or "sticker," as he calls
himself. His specialty brings him almost entirely in contact with men,
and he must be exceedingly clever to deal successfully with them. A man
will argue with a beggar, if he has time, just twice as long as a woman
will, and he will also give just twice as much money if he gives
anything. So the office-beggar has good material to work on if he
understands it. One of his theories is that, when begging of men, the
"story" must be "true to nature"; that is, so simple and direct that
there is no possibility of doubling on his track. For instance, he will
visit a lawyer, tell his story, and then simply hang around as long as
he dares. It is this waiting so patiently that gives him his name of
"sticker." There are fully a hundred tramps of this sort in New York
city alone. They have their separate beats, and seldom leave them unless
they are worked out. I know one beggar who never leaves Newspaper Row
and Wall Street except for amusement, and he makes, on an average,
seventy-five cents a day. And I know another tramp whose business keeps
him confined to Broadway between Barclay Street and the Battery, while
his home is in the Bowery near Houston Street. Men of this stamp have
evidently been lucky in the selection of offices where a certain sum of
money will be given every week. Such good fortune is the ambition of
every energetic city tramp. He wants something definite every day, week,
and month, and as he gets it or fails to get it, rates himself
successful or unsuccessful.
The aristocrat of city vagabondage is represented by what I call the
room-beggar. He cannot be classified with the lodging-house men, because
he has little to do with them, except socially, as at the saloon or
music-hall, for instance. His home is entirely separated from theirs, it
being a room, and sometimes even an apartment, which he rents for
himself and family. If he is successful at his trade, and is careful to
dress with some nicety, he can scarcely be distinguished from the usual
citizen, except by the trained observer; the only mark about him being
that peculiar glance of the eye common to all criminals and beggars.
The room-beggar has no unique line of trade that I have been able to
discover; he goes into anything that pays, and the main difference
between him and the majority of the men in the "lodging-house gang" is
his greater ingenuity in making things pay. He is the brainy man of the
city tramps, and the other beggars know it, and all look up to him, with
the exception of the clever street-beggar, who considers himself his
equal, as I think he really is.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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