Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond LifeFlynt, Josiah
History
Tramping with Tramps: Studies and Sketches of Vagabond Life
Flynt, Josiah
Tramps
My first night in this tramp-nest was one I shall never forget. I slept
with an old beggar in a bed long since given over to other lodgers, who
fought us that night as if we were Frenchmen. And the stench in the
sleeping-room was similar to that in a pigsty. Any complaint, however,
would have been useless, for the price paid was only three cents, and
for that sum of money one could not expect very much. Then, too, the
host asked for no _Legitimations-Papier_, and this was an advantage
which must be set over against most of the annoyances. Nevertheless, I
was glad enough to turn out early in the morning and look for a
breakfast, which was soon found, but thoroughly European in quantity.
Carl continued begging even after his breakfast, while I remained in the
lodging-house talking with some of the inmates. I was surprised to see
how fairly well dressed the German tramp is. The men in the Herberge
were clad much more respectably than their American _confrère_, and
seemed to have a desire to appear as decent as possible. Their
intelligence was also very fair, every one being able to read and write
as well as cipher. This, however, is not so surprising, for they were by
no means young. It is my opinion that the majority of German tramps are
over thirty years of age. There are some boys on the road, it is true,
but by no means the number found in American trampdom. And I am happy to
say that my experience convinces me that their treatment by the elder
men is much more humane than in my own country. There is not in the
German that viciousness which seems ingrained in the character of the
American vagrant. The latter is a more generous fellow, however, than
the German, as I learned by practical experience. When some of the
tramps returned to the Herberge in the afternoon, I tried their good
fellowship by asking several for a sechser with which to buy a cup of
coffee. I offered my very sore foot as an excuse for not having myself
begged. But they were not touched in the slightest. One fellow said: "If
you can't beg your own money, why, you'd better get off the road, for no
other Chausséegrabentapezirer will hustle for you." An American beggar
would, as a rule, have handed me a penny, if he had it. But these men
sat drinking their beer, schnapps, and coffee, utterly incapable, at
least then, of a bit of brotherly charity. They had plenty of money,
too. During the day nearly every one had begged from ninety pfennigs to
one mark twenty, while Carl returned about five o'clock with three marks
in hand.
I think the usual wage for diligent begging is between one mark fifty
and four marks, in addition to the three meals. Of course there are a
few who are much more successful. One fellow at the Herberge, for
instance, who had been in England and could speak English quite well,
claimed that he begged forty marks in one week during the previous
winter from the Americans in Dresden.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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