Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 50.djvu/271

Rh he traveled he always spoke to the cook in some hotel at meal times and received a good meal gratis, a favor which he would repay some time if chance offered.

The greater part of this class perform no economic function whatever. Printers do not travel of necessity, but simply because it has become a custom with their trade. Agents of various sorts, of course, do perform a function, yet their work could be done as well if left to the retail stores. They make more profit on their goods than does the average retailer.

All of these classes have one thing in common—a roving disposition—and are divided by the possession or lack of other qualities. If the character we are discussing has the tramp instinct, but lacks both in mental ability and moral stamina, he will be a mere tramp; grant him some degree of mental ability, and he takes up a graft. If we give him a moral stamina without mental ability, we have the man temporarily tramping to see the country, while if we give him both intelligence and moral fiber he becomes a canvasser or roadster proper.

II. The class who travel from necessity is one of the most interesting spectacles in the border land of trampdom. Here we see the real tramp in the process of formation. When a young unmarried laborer is thrown out of employment and finds none where he is, he generally stays until his money is exhausted and then goes on the road in search of work. His case is genuine, but he is brought into disrepute because all tramps pretend to belong to this class. If he finds work within a short time, his experience will not result very badly for him, but if he is forced to remain a tramp for a month or so he is quite likely to lose his independence and join the ranks for good. In any case it is easier for him to take to the road in event of another lack of employment, and each time he does so he is more liable to become a permanent tramp.

It is surprising how large a number of men have belonged to this class at one period or another. Many laboring men when traveling prefer to go by freight in order to save expense. They do not think it a disgrace at all. Indeed, they rather regard ability to make one's way rapidly over the country without expense as an important part of their education, and the more I know of the vicissitudes in the lives of our workingmen, the more I am inclined to agree with them.

In dealing with the tramp question we must consider the distinctions just noted. The man who travels simply because he wants to, wastes his energy and ought to be suppressed, both for his own good and the good of society in general. But with the man who travels because he has to things are very different. He must travel. It is a critical time in his life. Forces are acting on