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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35040-8.txt b/35040-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..aac4ab7 --- /dev/null +++ b/35040-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4628 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Notes of an Itinerant Policeman, by Josiah Flynt + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes of an Itinerant Policeman + +Author: Josiah Flynt + +Release Date: January 22, 2011 [EBook #35040] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES OF AN ITINERANT POLICEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Google +Print archive. + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: JOSIAH FLYNT.] + + + + +NOTES OF AN +ITINERANT +POLICEMAN + + +By +JOSIAH FLYNT + +AUTHOR OF "TRAMPING WITH TRAMPS" + + +[Illustration] + + +BOSTON +L. C. PAGE & COMPANY +_MDCCCC_ + + + + +_Copyright, 1900_ +BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + + + + +INSCRIBED +TO +WILLARD ROPES TRASK + + + + +NOTE. + + +A number of the chapters in this book have appeared as separate papers +in the _Independent_, _Harper's Weekly_, the _Critic_, _Munsey's +Magazine_, and in publications connected with McClure's Syndicate; but +much of the material is new, and all of the articles have been revised +before being republished. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +For a number of years it had been a wish of mine to have an experience +as a police officer, to come in contact with tramps and criminals, as a +representative of the law. Not that I bore these people any personal +grudge, or desired to carry out any pet policy in dealing with them; but +I had learned to know them pretty intimately as companions in +lodging-houses and at camp-fires, and had observed them rather carefully +as prisoners in jails, and I was anxious to supplement this knowledge of +them with an inquiry in regard to the impression they make on the man +whose business it is to keep an official watch over them while they are +in the open. I desired also to learn more concerning the professional +offender than it had been possible for me to find about him in tramp +life. If one has the courage to go and live with professional criminals +as one of them, he can become even more intimate with them than in a +police force, but it is very difficult to associate with their class +long and not be compelled to take an active part in their criminal +enterprises, and my interest in them was not so great that I was +prepared to do this. I merely wanted to know how strong they are as a +class, in which sections of the country they are the most numerous, +whether they have peculiar characteristics differentiating them in +public thoroughfares from other types of outlaws, how they live, and +what is the general attitude toward them of our police and prison +authorities. Partial answers to these questions I had been able to get +in Hoboland, but I was anxious to fill them out and get any new facts +that would throw light on the general situation. + +During the spring and summer of last year (1899) it was possible for me +to have a police officer's experience. The chief of a large railroad +police force gave me a position as a patrolman, and, in company of two +other officers, I was put on a "beat" extending over two thousand miles +of railroad property. The work we were given to do was somewhat of an +innovation, but it afforded me an excellent opportunity to secure the +information I desired. For two months and a half, which was the extent +of my connection with the undertaking and with the force, we had to +travel over the property, protecting picnic trains, big excursions, +passengers travelling to and from towns where circuses were exhibiting, +and the ordinary scheduled traffic, whenever there was reason to believe +that pickpockets and other thieves were likely to put in an appearance. + +Early in the spring wandering bands of thieves start out on tours of the +railroads. They follow up circuses and picnics, and make it a point to +attend all big gatherings, such as county fairs, races, conclaves, and +congresses. Their main "graft," or business, is pocket-picking, but in a +well-equipped "mob" there are also burglars, sneak-thieves, and +professional gamblers. The pickpockets and gamblers operate, when they +can, on passenger trains, and they have become so numerous and +troublesome in a number of States that railroad companies are compelled +to furnish their own protection for their patrons. + +This protection, on the road for which I worked, has generally been +provided for by the stationary members of the force, and more or less +satisfactorily, but last year the chief wanted to experiment with "a +flying squadron" of officers, so to speak, who were to go all over the +property and assist the stationary men as emergency required, and we +three were chosen for this work. In this way it was possible for me to +come in contact with a large variety of offenders, to make comparisons, +and to see how extensively criminals travel. It was also easy for me to +get an insight into the workings of different police organisations along +the line, and to inspect carefully lock-ups, jails, workhouses and +penitentiaries. + +In the following chapters I have tried to give an account of my finding +in the police business, to bring out the facts about the man who makes +his living and keeps up a bank account by professional thieving, to tell +the truth in regard to "the unknown thief" in official life who makes it +possible for the known thief to prey upon the public, and to describe +some of the tramps and out-of-works who wander up and down the country +on the railroads. There is much more to be said concerning these matters +than will be found in this little book, but there are a great many +persons who have no means of finding out anything about any one of them, +and it is to such that my remarks are addressed. Until the general +public takes an interest in making police life cleaner and in +eliminating the professional offender and the dishonest public servant +from the problems which crime in this country brings up for solution, +very little can be accomplished by the police reformer or the +penologist. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WHO CONSTITUTE OUR CRIMINAL CLASSES? + + +The first duty of a policeman, no matter what kind of a police force he +belongs to, is to inform himself in regard to the people in his +bailiwick who are likely to give him trouble. In a municipal force an +officer can only be required to know thoroughly the situation on his +particular beat; if he can inform himself about other districts as well, +he is so much more valuable to the department, but he is not expected to +do much more than get acquainted with the people under his immediate +surveillance. In a railroad police force it is different, and it is +required of the officer that he study carefully the criminal situation +in all the towns and villages on the division on which he is stationed. +Some divisions are longer than others, but the average railroad +policeman's beat is not less than sixty miles, and in some cases nearly +two hundred. Mine, as I have stated, was over two thousand miles long, +and it took in five different States and nearly all the large cities in +the middle West. I was, consequently, in a position to acquaint myself +pretty thoroughly with the criminal classes in one of the most populous +and representative parts of the country. Offenders differ, of course, in +different localities, and one is not justified in drawing sweeping +conclusions concerning all of them from the study of a single type, but +my work was of such a nature that, in the course of my investigations, I +encountered, indoors and out, the most frequent offenders with whom the +policeman and penologist have to deal. It would take a large book merely +to classify and describe the different types, but there is a general +analysis that can be made without any great sacrifice of fact, and it is +this I desire to attempt in this chapter. + +There are six distinct categories of offenders in the United States to +which may be assigned, as they are apprehended and classified, the great +majority of our lawbreakers. They are: the occasional or petty offender, +the tramp, the "backwoods" criminal, the professional criminal, the +"unknown" thief, and what, for want of a better name, I call the +diseased or irresponsible criminal. All of these different types are to +be found on the railroads, and the railroad police officer must know +them when he sees them. + +The largest class is that of the petty offenders, and it is in this +category that are found the majority of the criminally inclined +foreigners who have emigrated to our shores. It is a popular notion that +Europe has sent us a great many very desperate evil-doers, and we are +inclined to excuse the increase of crime in the country on the ground +that we have neglected to regulate immigration; but the facts are that +we have ourselves evolved as cruel and cunning criminals as any that +Europe may have foisted upon us, and that the foreigners' offences are +generally of a minor character, and, in a number of instances, the +result of a misunderstanding of the requirements of law in this country, +rather than of wilful evil-doing. I hold no brief for the strangers in +our midst in this connection; it would be very consoling, indeed, to +know that we ourselves are so upright and honest that we are incapable +of committing crimes, and, this being proved, a comparatively easy task +to lessen the amount of crime; but there is no evidence to show that +this is the case. The majority of the men, women, and children that I +found in jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries, on my recent travels, +were born and brought up in this country, and they admitted the fact on +being arrested. If the reader desires more particular information +concerning this question, the annual police reports of our large cities +will be found useful; I have examined a number of them, and they +substantiate my own personal finding. In some communities the +proportion of foreign offenders to the general foreign population is +greater than that of native offenders to the general native population, +but I doubt whether this will be found to be the case throughout the +country; and even where it is, I think there is an explanation to be +given which does not necessarily excuse the crimes committed, but, in my +opinion, does tone down a little the reproach of wilfulness. The average +foreigner who comes to the United States looks upon the journey as an +escape; he is henceforth released, he thinks,--and we ourselves have +often helped to make him think so,--from the stiff rule of law and order +in vogue in his own land. He comes to us ignorant of our laws, and with +but little more appreciation of our institutions than that he fancies he +is for evermore "a free man." In a great many cases he interprets "free" +to mean an independence which would be impossible in any civilised +country, and then begins a series of petty offences against our laws +which land him, from time to time, in the lock-up, and, on occasions, +in jail. Theft is a crime in this country as well as elsewhere, and we +can make no distinction in our courts between the foreigner and native, +but I have known foreigners to pilfer things which they thought they +were justified in taking in this "liberal land;" they considered them +common property. Some never get over the false notions they have of our +customs and institutions, and develop into what may be termed occasional +petty thieves; they steal whenever the opportunity seems favourable. It +is this class of offenders, consisting of both natives and foreigners, +that is found most frequently in our police courts and corrective +institutions. + +I have put the tramp next to the occasional offender in numerical +importance, and I believe this to be his place in a general census of +the criminal population, but it is thought by some that his class is the +most numerous of all. Doubtless one of the reasons why he is considered +so strong is that he is to be found in every town and village in the +country. It must be remembered, however, that he is continually in +transit, thanks to the railroads, and is now in one town and to-morrow +in another. In both, however, he is considered by the public to +represent two distinct individuals, and is included in the tramp census +of each community. In this way the same man may figure a dozen times, in +the course of a winter, in the enumeration of a town's vagabonds, but as +a member of the tramp population he can rightfully be counted but once. +It is furthermore to be remarked concerning this class that a great many +wanderers are included in it who are not actual vagabonds. The word +tramp in the United States is made to cover practically every traveller +of the road, and yet there are thousands who have no membership in the +real tramp fraternity. Some are genuine seekers of work, others are +adventuresome youths who pay their way as far as food and lodging are +concerned, and still others are simple gipsy folk. The genuine tramp is +a being by himself, known in this country as the "hobo." The experienced +railroad police officer can pick him out of a general gathering of +roadsters nearly every time, and the man himself is equally expert in +discovering amateur roadsters. I will describe one of the first men I +learned to know in Hoboland; he is typical of the majority of the +successful tramps that I met during my experience as a police officer. + +His name was "Whitey,"--St. Louis Whitey,--and I fell in with him on the +railroad, as is the case in almost all hobo acquaintances. He was +sitting on a pile of ties when I first saw him. "On the road, Jack?" he +said, in a hoarse, rasping voice, sizing me up with sharp gray eyes in +that all-embracing glance which hoboes so soon acquire. They judge a man +in this one glimpse as well as most people can in a week's +companionship. I smiled and nodded my head. "Bound West?" + +"Yes." + +"The through freight comes through here pretty soon. I'm goin' West, +too. This is a good place to catch freights." I sat down beside him on +the ties, and we exchanged comments on the weather, the friendliness of +the railroad we were on, the towns we expected to pass through, some of +the tramps we had met, and other "road" matters, taking mental notes of +each other as we talked. I noticed his voice, how he was dressed, where +he seemed to have been, the kind of tramps he spoke most about, how he +judged whether a town was "good" or not, whether he bragged, and other +little things necessary to know in forming an opinion of all such men; +he observed me from the same view-point. This is the hobo's way of +getting acquainted, of finding out if he can "pal" with a man. There are +no letters of introduction explaining these things; each person must +discover them for himself, and a man is accepted entirely on the +impression that he makes. A few men have great names that serve as +recommendations at "hang-outs," but they must make their friends +entirely on their merits. + +Merely as a hobo there was nothing very peculiar about "Whitey." He +looked to be about forty years old, and knew American tramp life in all +its phases. His face was weather-beaten and scarred, and his hands were +tattooed. He dressed fairly well, had read considerably, mainly in +jails, wrote a good hand, knew the rudiments of grammar, and almost +always had money in his pockets. He made no pretensions to be anything +but a hobo, but the average person would hardly have taken him for this. +He might have passed in the street as a sailor, and on railroads he was +often taken for a brakeman. I did not learn his history before becoming +a tramp,--it is not considered good form to ask questions about this +part of a man's life,--but from remarks that he dropped from time to +time I inferred that he had once been a mechanic. He was well informed +about the construction of engines, and could talk with machinists like +one of their own kind. He had been a tramp about eight years when I +first met him, and had learned how to make it pay. He begged for a +thing, if it was possible to be begged, until he got it, and he ate his +three meals a day, "set downs" he called them, as regularly as the time +for them came around. I was with him for two weeks, and he lived during +this time as well as a man does with $1,500 a year. His philosophy +declared that what other people eat and wear he could also eat and wear +if he presented himself at the right moment and in the right way, and he +made it his business to study human nature. While I travelled with him +he begged for everything, from a needle to a suit of clothes, and did +not hesitate to ask a theatre manager for free tickets to a play for +both of us, which he got. + +What made him a tramp, an inhabitant of Hoboland, was that he had given +up the last shred of hope of ever amounting to anything in decent +society. Every plan that he made to "get on" pertained exclusively to +his narrow tramp world, and I cannot recall hearing him even envy any +one in a respected position. I tried several times to sound him +concerning a possible return to respectable living, and tentatively +suggested work which I thought he could do, but I might as well have +proposed a flying trip. "It's over with me," was his invariable reply. +His fits of drunkenness--they came, he told me, every six weeks or +so--had incapacitated him for steady employment, and he did not intend +to give any more employers the privilege of discharging him. He had no +particular grudge against society, he admitted that he was his own worst +enemy; but, as it was impossible for him to live in society respectably, +he deemed it not unwise to get all he could out of it as a tramp. "I'm +goin' to hell anyhow," he said, "and I might as well go in style as in +rags." Being considerably younger than he, he once barely suggested that +perhaps I would better try to "brace up," but it was in no sense of the +word an earnest appeal. Indeed, he seemed later to regret the remark, +for it is out of order to make such suggestions to tramps. If they want +to reform, the idea is that they can do it by themselves without any +hints from friends. + +As a man, separate from his business, "Whitey" was what most persons +would call a good fellow. He was modest, always willing to do a favour, +and everybody seemed to like him. During our companionship we never had +a quarrel, and he helped me through many a strait. I have seen him once +again since the first meeting. He was not quite so well dressed as +formerly, and his health seemed to be breaking up, but he was the same +good fellow. In late years I have not been able to get news of him +beyond the rumour that he was dying of consumption in Mexico. + +The menace of the tramp class to the country seems to me to consist +mainly in the example they set to the casual working man,--the man who +is looking around for an excuse to quit work,--and in the fact that they +frequently recruit their ranks with young boys. It is also to be said of +them that they are often in evidence at strikes, and take part in the +most violent demonstrations. As trespassers on railroads they are +notorious; they are a constant source of trouble to the railroad police +officer. Strictly speaking, the majority of them cannot be called +criminals, although a great many of them are discouraged criminals, but +in the chapter dealing with "The Lake Shore Push" it will be seen how +ferocious some of them become. + +The next largest class is composed of what I call backwoods criminals. +Scattered over the country, in nearly every State of the Union, are to +be found districts where people live practically without the pale of the +law. These places are not so frequent in the East as in the West, in the +North as in the South, but they exist in New England as well as in +Western States. They are generally situated far away from any railroad, +and the inhabitants seldom come in touch with the outside world. The +offenders are mainly Americans, but of a degenerated type. They resemble +Americans in looks, and have certain American mental characteristics, +but otherwise they are a deteriorated collection of people who commit +the most heinous offences in the criminal calendar without realising +that they are doing anything reprehensible. I have encountered these +miniature "Whitechapels" mainly on my excursions in tramp life, but I +had to be on the lookout for them during the police experience. In one +of the States which my "beat" traversed, I was told by my chief that +there was a number of such communities, and that they turned out more +criminals to the population in a year than the average large city. One +day, while travelling in a "caboose" with a native of the State in +question, I asked him how it came that it tolerated such nests of crime, +but he was too loyal to admit their existence. "We used to have a lot of +them," he explained, "but we've cleaned them up. You see, when we +discovered natural gas, it boomed everything, and we've been building +railroads and schools all over. No; you won't find those eyesores any +more; we're as moral a State to-day as any in the Union." It was a +pardonable pride that the man took in his State, but he was mistaken +about the matter in question. There are communities not over a hundred +and fifty miles from his own town where serious crimes are committed +every day, and no court ever hears of them because they are not +considered crimes by the people who take part in them. Not that these +people are fundamentally deficient in moral attributes, or unequal to +instruction as to the law of Mine and Thine, but they are so out of +touch with the world that they have forgotten, if indeed they ever knew, +that the things they do are criminal. + +It is impossible at present to get trustworthy statistics in regard to +this class, because no one knows all of its haunts, but if it were +possible, and the entire story about it were told, there would be less +hue and cry about the evil that the foreigners among us do. I refer to +the class without advancing any statistics, because it came within my +province as a police officer to keep track of it, and because it had +attracted my attention as an observer of tramp life; but it is well +worth the serious consideration of the criminologist. + +The professional criminal, or the habitual offender, as he is called by +some, comes next in numerical strength, but first of all, in my opinion, +in importance. I consider him the most important because he frankly +admits that he makes a business of crime, and is prepared to suffer any +consequences that his offences may bring upon him. It is he who makes +crime a constant temptation to the occasional offender, and it is also +he with whom we have the most trouble in our criminal courts; he is +almost as hard to convict as the man with "political influence." On my +"beat" he was more in evidence, in the open at least, than any of the +other offenders mentioned, except the tramp, but, as I stated, the warm +months are the time when he comes out of his hiding-places, and it was +natural that I should see a good deal of him. + +My fifth category is made up of what a friend calls "the unknown thief," +whom he considers the most dangerous and despicable of all. He means, by +the unknown thief, the man in official life, or in any position which +permits of it, who protects, for the sake of compensation, the known +thief. "If you will catch the unknown thief," he has frequently said to +me, "I will contract to apprehend and convict the known," and he +believes that until we make a crusade against the former, the latter is +bound to flourish in spite of all our efforts. He sees no use, for +instance, in spending weeks and sometimes months in trying to capture +some well-known criminal, as long as it is possible for the man to buy +his freedom back again, and it is his firm belief that this kind of +bargaining is going on every day. + +Although there was no doubt that the unknown thief was to be located on +any "beat," if looked for, my instructions were not to disturb him +unless he seriously disturbed me, and as he made no effort to interfere +with my work I merely made a note of his case when we met, and doubtless +he also "sized me up" from his point of view. How strong his class is, +compared with the others, must remain a matter of conjecture, but I have +put his class fourth in my description because it is the quality of his +offences, rather than their quantity, which makes his presence in the +criminal world so significant. There are those who believe that he is +to be found in every town and village in the United States, if enough +money is offered him as bait, but I have not sufficient data to prove, +or to make me believe, such a statement. The league between him and the +known thief--the man whose photograph is in the "rogue's gallery"--is so +close, however, that I have devoted special chapters to both offenders. + +Of the last category, the man whom I have called the irresponsible +criminal, there is not much of interest or value that I have to report. +While acting as police officer I practically never encountered him in +the open, and the few members of his class that I saw in prisons seemed +to me to have become irresponsible largely during their imprisonment. +Perhaps I take a wrong view of the matter, but I cannot get over the +belief that the majority of offenders, particularly those who are ranked +as "professionals," are _compos mentis_ as far as the law need require. +In every department of the prisons that I visited, men were to be seen +who gave the impression of being at least queer, but they formed but a +very small part of the prison population, and may very possibly have +been shamming the eccentricities which seemed to indicate that they were +on the border line of insanity. For this reason, and, as I say, because +I met none in the open, it has seemed fair to put this class last. + +The foregoing classification is naturally not meant as a scientific +description in the sense that the professional criminologist would take +up the matter. I have merely tried to explain how the criminal situation +in the United States seems to the man whose business it is to keep an +official watch over it. I may have overlooked, in my classification, +offenders that some of my brother officers would have included, but it +stands for the general impression I got of the criminal world while in +their company. To attempt to estimate the numerical strength of these +classes as a whole would land one in a bewildering bog of guesses. It is +only recently that we have made any serious effort to keep a record of +offenders shut up in penal institutions, of crimes which have been +detected and of offenders who have been punished, and it is a fact well +known in police circles that there is a great deal of crime which is +never ferreted out. There is consequently very little use in trying to +calculate the number of the entire criminal population. The most that I +can say in regard to the question is that never before has this +population seemed to me to be so large, but I ought to admit that not +until my recent experience have I had such an advantageous point of view +from which to make observations. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE PROFESSIONAL CRIMINAL. + + +In appearance and manner the professional criminal has not changed much +in the last decade. I knew him first over ten years ago, when making my +earliest studies of tramp life. I saw him again five years ago, while on +a short trip in Hoboland, and we have met recently on the railroads; and +he looks just about as he did when we first got acquainted. + +Ordinarily he would not be noticed in mixed company by others than those +accustomed to his ways. He is not like the tramp, whom practically any +one can pick out in a crowd. He dresses well, can often carry himself +like a gentleman, and generally has a snug sum of money in his pockets. +It is his face, voice, and habits of companionship that mark him for +what he is. Not that there is necessarily that in his countenance which +Lombroso would have us believe signifies that he is a degenerate, +congenitally deformed or insane, but rather that the life he leads gives +him a look which the trained observer knows as "the mug of a crook." He +can no more change this look after reaching manhood than can a genuinely +honest man, who has never been in prison, acquire it. I had learned to +know it, and had become practised in discovering it, long before I +became a policeman. It took me years to reach the stage when in merely +looking hurriedly at a criminal something instinctively pronounced him a +thief, but such a time certainly comes to him who sojourns much in +criminal environment. There are, of course, certain special features and +wrinkles that one looks for, and that help in the general summing up, +but after awhile these are not thought of in judging a man, at least not +consciously, and the observer bases his opinion on instinctive feeling. +Given the stylish clothes to which I have referred, a hard face, +suspicious eyes which seem to take in everything, a loitering walk, a +peculiar guttural cough, given by way of signal, and called the thief's +cough, and a habit of lingering about places where a "sporty" +constituency is usually to be found, and there is pretty conclusive +evidence that a professional thief is in view. All of this evidence is +not always at hand; sometimes there is only the cough to go by, but, the +circumstances being suspicious, any one of them is sufficient to make an +expert observer look quickly and prick up his ears. + +In New York City, for instance, there are streets in which professional +thieves can be met by the dozen, if one understands how to identify +them, and it is only necessary to pass a few words and they can be drawn +into conversation. Some are dressed better than others,--there are a +great many ups and downs in the profession,--and some look less typical +than the more experienced men,--it takes time for the life to leave its +traces,--but there they stand, the young and old, the clever and the +stupid, for any one who knows how to scrape acquaintance with them. +They are the most difficult people in the world to learn to know well +until one has mastered their freemasonry, and then they are but little +more fearful of approach than is the tramp. + +I devote a special chapter to their class, because I believe that they +are the least understood of all offenders, and also, as I stated in the +last chapter, because I consider them the real crux of the problem of +crime in this country. The petty offender is comparatively easy to +discourage, the backwoods criminal will disappear as our country +develops, the born criminal, the man who says that he cannot help +committing crimes, can be shut up indefinitely, but the professional +criminal, thanks to his own cleverness and the league he and the unknown +thief have entered into, baffles both the criminologist and the +penologist, and he probably does more financial harm to the country than +all the other offenders put together. He is the man that we must +apprehend and punish before crime in the United States will fail to be +attractive, and at the present moment it is its attractiveness which +helps to make our criminal statistics so alarming. + +I have placed him fourth in numerical strength in my general +classification, and I believe this to be a correct estimate of the +number of those who really make their living by professional thieving. +If those are to be included who would like to succeed as professional +thieves and fail, and drop down sooner or later into the occasional +criminal's class, or into the tramp's class, the position I have given +the so-called successful "professional" would have to be changed; but it +has seemed best to confine the class to those who are rated successful, +and on this basis I doubt whether an actual census taking, if it were +possible, would prove them to be more numerous than I have indicated. +Seeing and hearing so much of them on my travels, I made every effort to +secure trustworthy statistics in regard to their number, and as the +majority of them are known to the police, it seemed reasonable to +suppose that, if I passed around enough among different police +organisations, I ought to get satisfactory figures, but the fact of the +matter is that the police themselves can only make guesses concerning +the general situation, and I am unable to do any better. + +When putting queries concerning the number of the offenders in question, +my informants wanted me to differentiate and ask them about particular +kinds of professionals before they would reply. One very well informed +detective, for instance, said: "Do you mean the whole push, or just the +A Number One guns? If you mean the push, why you're safe in saying that +there are 100,000 in the whole country, but the most of 'em are a pretty +poor lot. If you mean the really good people, 10,000 will take 'em all +in." + +The cities which were reported to have turned out the greatest number +were New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo, +Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Chicago +was given the palm for being, at the present moment, the main stronghold +of habitual criminals. Nearly every photograph I saw of a young +offender was said to represent one of Chicago's hopefuls, and the +pictures of the old men were generally described as the likenesses of +New York City "talent." Chicago's lead in the number of "professionals" +was explained by one man on the ground that it is a Mecca and Medina +"for young fellows who have got into some scrape in the East. They go to +Chicago, get in with the push, and then start out on the road. The older +men train them." + +A question that I was continually putting to myself when meeting the +"professional" was: What made him choose such a career? He is +intelligent, agreeable to talk to, pleasant as a travelling companion, +and among his kind a fairly good fellow, and why did he not put these +abilities and talents to a better use? To understand him well I believe +that one must make his acquaintance while he is still living at home, as +a boy, in some city "slum." He does not always come from a slum, but, as +a rule, this is where he begins his criminal career. In every quarter +of this character there is a criminal atmosphere. The criminologists +have not given this fact sufficient prominence in their writings. They +make some mention of it, but it is seldom given its true significance in +their books. The best-born lad in the world can go wrong if forced to +live in this corrupt environment. Not that he is necessarily taught to +commit crimes, or urged to, although this sometimes happens; they become +spontaneous actions on his part. The very air he breathes frequently +incites him to criminal deeds, and practice makes him skilful and +expert. In another environment, in nine cases out of ten, he could be +trained to take an interest in upright living; in this one he follows +the lines of least resistance, and becomes a thief. + +Let me describe the childhood of a criminal boy who will serve as a type +for thousands. + +He was born in one of the slums of New York, not far from the Bowery, +and within a stone's throw of the clock of Cooper Institute, and the +white spire of Grace Church. From the very start he was what is called +an unwelcome child. Not that there was any particular dislike toward him +personally, but his parents had all they could do, and more too, to care +for the half dozen other children who had come to them, and, when he +appeared, there was hardly any room in the house left. He grew up with +the sense of want always present, and when he got into the street with +the other children of the neighbourhood, it became even more oppressive. +Pretty soon he learned from the example of his playmates that begging +sometimes helps to quiet a boy's hunger, and that pilfering from the +grocer's sidewalk display makes the dinner at home more substantial. +These are bits of slum philosophy that every child living in slums +learns to appreciate sooner or later. The lad in question was no +exception. He was soon initiated into the clique, and played his own +part in these miniature bread riots. He did not appreciate their +criminal significance. All he knew was that his stomach was empty and +that he wanted the things he saw in the shops and streets. He was like a +baby who sees a pretty colour gleaming on the carpet, and, without +counting the cost or pains, creeps after it. He knew nothing of the law +of Mine and Thine, except as the thing desired was held fast in the fist +of its owner. Not that he was deformed in his moral nature, or naturally +lacking in moral power, but this nature and power had never been +trained. Like his body, they had been neglected and forgotten, and it is +no surprise that they failed to develop. Had somebody taken him out of +his "slum" environment, and taught him how to be respectable and honest, +his talents might have been put to good uses, but luck, as he calls +circumstances, was against him, and he had to stay in low life. + +In this life there is, as a rule, but one ideal for a boy, and that is +successful thieving. He sees men, to be sure, who find gambling more +profitable, as well as safer, and still others humble enough to content +themselves with simple begging, but as a lad truly ambitious and anxious +to get on rapidly, he must join the "crook's" fraternity. There is also +a fascination about crime which appeals to him. Men describe it +differently, but they all agree that it has a great deal to do in making +criminals. My own idea is that it lies in the excitement of trying to +elude justice. I know from experience as an amateur tramp that there is +a great deal of satisfaction in slipping away from a policeman just as +he is on the point of catching you, and I can easily understand how much +greater the pleasure must be to a man, who, in thus dodging the officer, +escapes not simply a few days in a county jail, but long years in a +penitentiary. It is the most exciting business in the world, and for men +equal to its vicissitudes it must have great attractions. + +In time it interested the boy I am describing. At first he thieved +because it was the only way he knew to still his hunger, but as he grew +older the idea of gain developed, and he threw himself body and soul +into the thief's career. He had been brought up in crime, taught to +regard it as a profitable field of labour, full of exciting chase and +often splendid capture, and naturally it was the activity that appealed +to him. He knew that he had certain abilities for criminal enterprises, +that there was a possibility of making them pay, and he determined to +trust to luck. The reader may exclaim here: "But this boy must have been +a phenomenon. No lad wilfully chooses such a career so young." He was in +all respects an average slum boy in his ambitions and maturity, and if +he seems extraordinary to the reader, the only explanation I can give is +that low life develops its characters with unusual rapidity. Outcast +boys are in business and struggling for a place in the world long before +the respectable boy has even had a glimpse of it. This comes of +competition. They must either jump into the fray or die. The child in +them is killed long before it has had a chance to expand, and the man +develops with hothouse haste. It is abnormal, but it is true, and it all +goes to show how the boy in question was registered so early in the +criminal calendar. He had to make his living, he had to choose a +business, and his precocity, if I may call it that, was simply the +result of being forced so early into the "swim." He ought to have been a +frolicsome child, fond of ball and marbles, but he had but little time +for such amusements. Money was what he wanted, and he rushed pell-mell +in search of it. I will leave him in the company of hardened tramps and +criminals, into which he soon drifted, and among whom he made a name for +himself. + +The resolution to be a "professional" comes later with some lads than +with others. Until well on into their teens, and sometimes even into +their twenties, there are those who merely drift, stealing when they can +and managing otherwise when they can't. Finally they are arrested, +convicted, and sent to state prison. Here there is the same criminal +atmosphere that they were accustomed to in the open, only more of it. Go +where they will in their world, they cannot escape it. In prison they +form acquaintances and make contracts against the day when they will be +free again. They are eventually turned loose. What are they to do? The +"job," of course, that they have talked about with a "pal" in the "stir" +(penitentiary). They do it, and get away with two or three thousand. +This decides them. They know of more deals, and so do their cronies, and +they agree to undertake them and divide the plunder. So it goes on for +years, and finally they have "records;" they are recognised among their +fellows and in police circles as clever "guns;" they have arrived at +distinction. + +Only one who has been in the criminal world can realise how easy it is +for a boy to develop on these lines. He who studies prison specimens +only, and neglects to make their acquaintance while they are still young +and unhardened, naturally comes to look upon them as weird and uncanny +creatures, to be accounted for only on the ground that they are freaks +of nature; but they are really the result of man's own social system. If +there were no slums in this country, no criminal atmosphere, and no +unknown thieves to protect the known, there would be comparatively few +professional offenders. The trouble at present is that when a boy gets +into this atmosphere, once learns to enjoy criminal companionship and +practice, he is as unhappy without them as is the cigarette fiend +without his cigarette. Violent measures are necessary to effect any +changes, and there comes a time when nothing avails. + +Before closing this chapter it seems appropriate to refer to some of the +peculiar characteristics of professional offenders. The most that can be +attempted in the space of one chapter is a short account of a few of +their traits as a class, but an interesting book might be written on +this subject. + +A peculiar caste feeling or pride is one of the most noteworthy +characteristics of professional offenders. They believe that, in +ostracising them from decent company, the polite world meant that they +should live their lives in absolute exile, that they should be denied +all human companionship, and in finding it for themselves among their +kind, in creating a world of their own with laws, manners, and customs, +free of every other and answerable only to itself, they feel that they +have outwitted the larger world, beaten it at its own game, as it were. +Their attitude to society may be likened to that of the boy who has been +thrown out of his home for some misdemeanour and who has "got on" +without paternal help and advice; they think that they have "done" +society, as the boy often thinks that he has "done" his father, and the +thought makes them vain. Individually, they frequently regret the deeds +which lost them their respectability, and a number, if they could, would +like to live cleaner lives, but, collectively, their new citizenship and +position give them a conceit such as few human beings of the respectable +sort ever enjoy. Watch them at a hang-out camp-fire gathering! They sit +there like Indian chiefs, proud of their freedom and scornful of all +other society, poking fun at its follies, picking flaws in its +morality, and imaginatively regenerating it with their own suggestions +and reforms. At the bottom of their hearts they know that theirs is a +low world, boasting nothing that can compare with the one which they +criticise and carp at, and that they are justly exiled; but the fact +that they have succeeded alone and unaided in making it their own puffs +them up with a pride which will not allow them to judge impartially. + +I remember talking with a Western criminal in regard to this matter, and +taking him to task for his loose and careless criticism, as I considered +it. He had tossed off bold judgments on all manner of inconsistencies +and immoralities which he claimed that he had found in respectable +society, and took his own world as a standard of comparison. Generosity +was a virtue which he thought much more prevalent in his class. He +listened to my objections, and seemed to accept some of the points made, +but he closed the argument with a passionate appeal to what he would +have called my class pride. "But think how we've fooled 'em, Cigarette," +he exclaimed. "Why, even when they put us in prison we've still got our +gang, just the same, our crowd,--that's what tickles me. I s'pose they +are better'n I am,--I'll be better when I'm dead,--but they ain't any +smarter'n I am. They wanted me to go off in the woods somewhere 'n' chew +up my soul all alone, 'n' I've fooled 'em,--we all have! That's what I'm +kickin' for, that they give in 'n' say, 'You ain't such Rubes as we +thought you were.' If one uv 'em 'ud jus' come to me 'n' say: 'Jack, +it's a fact, we can't ring in the solitary confinement act on +you.--d'you know, I believe I'd reform jus' to be square with 'im. What +I want 'em to do is to 'fess up that I ain't beholden to 'em for cump'y, +for my gang, 'n' that they ain't any smarter'n I am in findin' a gang. +I'm jus' as big a man in my crowd as they are in theirs, 'n' nothin' +that they can do'll make me any smaller. Ain't that right, eh?" And I +had to confess that from his point of view it was. + +Respectable, law-abiding people never realise what a comfort this caste +feeling is to thousands of men. I have met even educated men to whom it +has been a consolation. They have never been able to define exactly the +compensation it affords them, indeed they have often been ashamed to +admit the fact, but it has remained, nevertheless. I think the man I +have just quoted enunciates it as clearly as it is possible to be set +forth in words. His joy consisted in discovering that he was just as +"smart," just as full of resource, just as equal to a trying situation, +even in his disgrace and downfall, as the man who shunned his company, +who wanted him banished or sent to prison; he had revenged himself, so +to speak, on his avengers, a gratification which is more or less dear to +all human beings. + +Personal liberty and freedom in contra-distinction to class liberty and +freedom also count for a good deal in the outcast's life. Besides being +independent of other people, he is also more or less independent of his +own people, so far as laws and commands are concerned. He tolerates no +king, president, or parliament, and resents with vigour any +infringements upon his privileges, either from society or his own +organisation. In fact, he leaves the organisation and lives by himself +alone, if he feels that its unwritten, but at times rather strict, laws +bear too heavily upon him. There are men who live absolutely apart from +the crowd, shunning all society, except that which supports them. They +are often called "cranks" by their less thoroughgoing companions, and +would probably impress every one as a little crotchety and peculiar, but +their action is the logical outcome of the life. The tendency of this +life is to make a man dislike the slightest conventionalism, and to live +up to his disliking is the consistent conduct of every man in it. He +hates veneer about him in every particular and only as he throws off +every vestige of it does he enjoy to the full his world. + +In a lodging-house in Chicago, some years ago, I met a tramp who was a +good example of the liberty-loving professional offenders. We awoke in +the morning a little earlier than the rest, and, as it was not yet time +to get up, fell to talking and "declaring ourselves," as tramps do +under such circumstances. After we had exchanged the usual cut and dried +remarks which even hobo society cannot do entirely without, he said to +me, suddenly, and utterly without connection with what had gone before: +"Don't you love this sort o' life?" at the same time looking at me +enthusiastically, almost as if inspired. I confessed that it had certain +attractive features, and showed, for the sake of drawing him out, an +enthusiasm of my own. "I don't see," he went on, "how I have ever lived +differently. I was brought up on a farm, but, my goodness, I wouldn't +trade this life if you'd give me all the land in the wild West. Why, I +can do just as I please now--exactly. When I want to go anywhere, I get +on a train and go, and no one has the right to ask me any questions. +That's what I call liberty,--I want to go just where I please," and he +brought out the words with an emphasis that could not have been stronger +had he been stating his religious convictions. + +I have often been asked whether tramps and criminals have class +divisions and distinctions like those in society proper. "Are there +aristocrats and middle class people, for instance," a number of persons +have said to me, "and does position count for much?" Most certainly +there are these distinctions, and they constitute one of the most +notable features of the life. There is just as much chance to climb high +and fall low, in the outcast world, there are just as many prizes and +praises to win, as in the larger world surrounding it, and the +investigator will find, if he observes carefully enough, the identical +little jealousies, criticisms, and quarrels that prevail in "polite +society." + +A man acquires position in pretty much the same way that it is acquired +elsewhere,--he either works hard for it, or it is granted him by common +consent on account of his superior native endowment. There is as little +jumping into fame in this world as in any other; one must prove his +ability to do certain things well, have a record of preparation +consistent with his achievements, before he can take any very high place +in the social order. The criminal enjoys, as a rule, the highest +position; he is the aristocrat of the entire community. Everybody looks +up to him, his presence is desired at "hang-out" gatherings, boys +delight to shake his hand, and men repeat his remarks like the wise +sayings of a prophet. He feels his importance, works for it, and tries +to live up to it, just as determinedly as aristocrats in other spheres +of activity, and if he loses it and falls from grace, the disappointment +is correspondingly keen. + +The tramp may be said to belong to the middle class of the outcast +world, and, like other middle class people, he often finds life a little +nicer in a class socially above him. He enjoys associating with +criminals, being able to quote them on matters of interest to the +"hang-out," and giving the impression that he is _au courant_ with their +business. If he can do all this well it makes him so much the more +important among his fellows. His own particular class, however, also +has advantages and attractions, and there are men who seek his company +nearly as much as he seeks the criminals. There is an upper middle class +as well as a lower, and the line of separation is sharply drawn. The +"old stagers," the men who have been years "on the road," and know it +"down to the ground," as they say, constitute the upper middle class. +They can dictate somewhat to the tramps not so experienced as they are, +and their opinions are always listened to first. If they say, for +instance, that a certain town is "hostile," unfriendly to beggars, the +statement is accepted on its face, unless some one has absolute evidence +to the contrary, and even then the under class man makes his demurrer +very modestly. I have never succeeded in getting as far as this during +my tramp experiences, and had to remain content in the lower division, +but even there I had a significance denied to men less experienced than +I was. A newcomer, for instance, a "tenderfoot," was expected to show me +deference, and if I happened in at a "hang-out," where only newcomers +were present, I was cock of the walk. Even these "tenderfeet" have a +class pride, too, for at the bottom of all this social arrangement there +are men and women who have been turned out of every class, the outcast +of the outcasts. They are called "tomato-can-stiffs" and "barrel +dossers" by the people above them, terms which indicate that they have +reached the last pitch of degradation. They realise their disgrace +nearly as much as their counterparts who have been turned out of +respectable society, and often look with longing upon the positions they +once enjoyed, but their lot is not entirely without its consolations, as +I learned one day in talking with one of them. "Well, at any rate," he +said, "I ain't got to keep thinkin' all the while 't I'm goin' to fall +and lose my posish the way you have to. There's no place for me to fall +to, I've come to the end o' my rope. You've got to keep lookin' out fer +yerself ev'ry step you take--keep worryin' about gettin' on, 'n' I don't +have them worries any more, 'n' it's a big relief, I tell you. You feel +the way you do when you get out o' prison." This thought is a little +fanciful, and not entirely sincere, but I can nevertheless appreciate +the man's point of view, for, with all the independence and liberty of +this world, there is, just as he said, considerable worry about holding +one's place, and I can imagine a time when it would be pleasant to be +relieved of it all. + +The financial profits in a professional offender's career are not easy +to determine, but they must be taken into consideration in all accounts +of his life, no matter how short. I saw more of the pickpocket, during +my police experience, than of any other professional thief, and it was +possible for me to learn considerable in regard to his winnings. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BUSINESS OF PICKING POCKETS. + + +Next to the tramp, who is more of a nuisance on American railroads, +however, than a criminal offender, the pickpocket is the most +troublesome man that a railroad police officer has to deal with. He has +made a study of the different methods by which passengers on trains can +be relieved of their pocketbooks, and unless he is carefully watched he +can give a railroad a very bad name. The same is true of a circus, in +the wake of which light-fingered gentry are generally to be found. +Circuses, like railroads, hire policemen to protect their properties and +patrons, and there are certain "shows" which one can attend and feel +comparatively safe; but in spite of the detectives which they employ, +many of them are exactly what the owner of a circus called them in my +presence--"shake-downs." Everybody is to be "shaken down" who is "green" +enough to let the pickpockets get at him, and, if pocketbooks are lost, +the proprietor will not be held responsible. + +A railroad company, on the other hand, is severely criticised, and +justly, if pickpockets are much in evidence on its trains, and as they +are the most numerous of all habitual offenders, the railroad police +officer is kept very busy during the summer season. + +The origin of the pickpocket takes one too far back in history to be +explained in detail here, but the probability is that his natural +history is contemporaneous with that of the pocket. When pockets were +sewed into our clothes, and we began to put valuables into them, the +pickpocket's career was opened up; to-day he is one of the most expert +criminal specialists. In the United States he has frequently begun life +as a newsboy, who, if he is dishonest, soon learns how to take change +from the "fob" pocket of men's coats. If he becomes skilled at this +kind of "grafting," and attracts the attention of some older member of +the pickpocket's guild, he is instructed in the other branches of the +art, or trade, as one pleases; I call it a business. An apt pupil can +become an adept before he is in his teens; indeed, some of the most +successful pickpockets in the country to-day are young boys. There are a +number of reasons why so many criminals make pocket-picking a specialty. +In the first place, it brings in hard cash, which does not have to be +pawned or sold, and which it is very difficult to identify. The +"leather," or pocketbook, is "weeded" (the money is taken out) and then +thrown away, and unless some one has actually seen the pickpocket take +it he cannot be convicted. Another reason is that it requires no +implements or tools other than those with which nature has provided us. +Two nimble fingers are all that is necessary after the victim has once +been "framed up," and the ease with which victims are found constitutes +still another attraction of the profession. We all think we take great +care of our pocketbooks in crowded thoroughfares, and on street cars, +but the most careful persons are "marks" for the pickpocket, if he has +reason to believe that the plunder will pay him for the necessary +preparations. It is usually the unwary farmer from the country who makes +the easiest victim, but there are knowing detectives who have been +relieved of their purses. + +A fourth reason, and the main one, is that a practised hand at the +business takes in a great deal of money. Twenty-five dollars a "touch" +is not considered a phenomenal record if there is much money in the +crowd in which the pickpocket is working, and five or six touches in a +day frequently only pay expenses. An "A Number One grafter" is after +hundreds and thousands, and it is the ambition of every man in the +business to be this kind of pickpocket. + +Some men operate on the "single-handed" basis; they travel alone, +arrange their own "frame-ups" (personally corner their victims), and +keep all the profits. There are a few well-known successful pickpockets +of this order, and they are rated high among their fellows, but the more +general custom is for what is called a "mob" of men to travel together, +one known as the "tool" doing the actual picking, and the others +attending to the "stalling." A stall is the confederate of the +pickpocket, who bumps up against people, or arranges them in such a way +that the pickpocket can get at their pockets. Practically any one who +will take a short course of instruction can learn how to stall, but +there are naturally some who are more expert than others. A tool who +hires his stalls and makes no division of spoils with them will +sometimes have to pay as much as $5 a day for skilled men. When he +divides what he gets, each man in the mob may get an equal share or not, +according to a prearranged agreement, but the tool is the man who does +the most work. + +Of first-class tools, men who are known to be successful, there are +probably not more than 1,500 in the United States. Practically every +professional offender has a "go" at pocket-picking some time in his +career, but there are comparatively few who make a success of it as +actual pickpockets; the stalls are numberless. Among the 1,500 there are +some women and a fair portion of young boys, but the majority are men +anywhere from twenty to sixty years old. The total number of the +successful and unsuccessful is thirty, forty, or fifty thousand, as one +likes. All that is actually known is that there is an army of them, and +one can only make guesses as to their real strength. + +It is an interesting sight to see a mob of pickpockets at work. It +equals football in exercise and tactics, and fencing in cunning and +quickness. At the railroad station one of the favourite methods is for +the mob to mix with the crowd, pushing and tugging on and near the steps +of the coaches. It was my duty to watch carefully on all such occasions, +and I was finally rewarded by seeing some pickpockets at work. We were +three officers strong at the time, and we had concentrated at the +middle of the train, where the pushing was worst. One of the officers +was a man who has made a lifelong study of grafts and grafters. He and I +were standing close together in the crowd, and suddenly I saw him dart +like a flash toward the steps of one of the cars. I closed in also, as +best I could, and there on the steps were two big stalls blocking the +way, one of them saying to the people in front of him: "Excuse me, but I +have left my valise in this car." His confederate was near by, also +pushing. Between the two was the tool and his victim, and my companion +had slipped in among them just in time to shove his arm in between the +tool's arm and the victim's pocket, and the "leather" was saved. + +In the aisle of a car, when the passengers are getting out, another +popular procedure is for one stall to get in front of the victim, +another one behind him, and the tool places himself so that he can get +his hand into the man's pocket. The stall behind pushes, and the one in +front turns around angrily, blocking the way meanwhile, and says to the +innocent passenger: "Stop your pushing, will you? Have you no manners?" +The man makes profuse apologies, but the pushing continues until the two +stalls hear the tool give the thief's cough or make a noise with his +lips such as goes with a kiss, which is a signal to them that the +leather has come up, and is safely landed; it has been passed in +lightning fashion to a confederate in the rear; the tool never keeps it +if he can help it. On reaching the station platform the front stall begs +pardon for the harsh words he has spoken to the passenger, and in the +language of the story-teller, all ends happily. + +Still another trick, and one that can happen anywhere, is to tip the +victim's hat down over his eyes, and then "nick" him while he is trying +to get his equilibrium again. A veteran justice of the peace whom I met +on my travels, and who was the twin brother in appearance of the poet +Whittier, has an amusing story to tell of how this trick was played on +him. We had called on him--my two brother officers and I--to find out +whether he would enforce the local suspicious character ordinance if we +brought pickpockets before him that we knew were in town. It was circus +day, and a raft of them had followed the show to the town, and we were +afraid that they might attempt to do work on our trains. + +"Pickpockets! Enforce the suspicious character ordinance!"--screamed the +squire. "You just bring the slickers in, an' see what I'll do with them. +Why, gol darn them, they got $36 out o' me the night the soldier boys +came home." + +"How did it happen?" + +"I can't tell you. All I know is that I was coming down that stairway +over there across the street, my hat fell over my eyes, and I stumbled. +I didn't think anything about it at the time, but when I got down to +Simpson's, where I was going to buy some groceries for my wife, I found +that my wallet was gone." + +"Did you notice any one on the stairway?" + +"Yes, there was a well dressed looking stranger coming down behind me, +and there may have been another man, coming down behind him, but I +couldn't 'a' sworn that they took my wallet. Some boys found it down the +street the next day." + +For the benefit of those who have to travel much, and we are all on the +cars a little, it seems worth while to describe the "raise" and "change" +tricks. When a victim is to be raised, one stratagem is for a stall to +go to him and ask whether a valise in the seat behind him is his,--it +always is,--and if so will he kindly shift it. If passengers are getting +into the car, and there is considerable crowding going on, the man will +be relieved of his pocketbook while he is reaching down for his valise. + +To "change" a man is to shift him from one car to another on the plea +that the one he is in is to be taken off at a junction. While he is +changing and going down the aisle, his "roll" or wallet disappears, and +the pickpockets take another train at a junction. It is all done in a +flash, and is as simple as can be to those who are in the business, but +a great many "leathers" would be saved if people would only be careful +and not crowd together like sheep. At circuses I have seen them push and +shove like mad, and all the while the pickpockets were at work among +them. + +An interesting story is told of an Illinois town where a mob of +pickpockets had been led to believe that they had "squared" things +sufficiently with the authorities to be able to run "sure thing" games +at the show grounds with impunity,--pickpockets dabble occasionally in +games,--but they swindled people so outrageously that the authorities +got scared and prohibited the games. The men had paid so heavily for +what they had considered were privileges, that they were going to be +losers unless they got in their "graft" somehow, so they turned +pickpockets again, and, as one man put it, "simply tore the crowd open." +When it dispersed, the ground was literally covered with emptied +pocketbooks. + +The easiest way for the police officer to deal with the pickpocket is to +know him whenever he appears, and to let him understand that he is +"spotted" and would better keep away. Some officers are born +thief-catchers, and can seemingly scent crime where it cannot even be +seen, and, whether they know a man or not, can pick out the real +culprit. The average officer, however, must recognise his man before he +can touch him, unless he catches him red-handed, and it is he who knows +a great many offenders and can call the "turn" on them, give their names +and records, that is the great detective of modern times. The sleuth of +fiction, who catches criminals by magic, as it were, is a snare and a +delusion. + +During my police experience I carried with me a pocket "rogue's gallery" +of the most notorious pickpockets of the section of the country in which +I had to travel. For a time I saw so many of these gentry in the flesh, +and was shown so many pictures, that a bewildering composite picture of +all formed in my mind. It seemed to me, sometimes, as if everybody I saw +in the streets resembled a pickpocket that I had to be on the lookout +for. I finally determined to commit to memory a picture a day, or every +two or three days as was necessary, and learn to differentiate, and the +method proved successful. To-day there are about fifty pickpockets that +I shall know wherever I see them. The majority of them I have met +personally, but a number are known to me by photograph only. + +To illustrate the usefulness of photographs in the police business, and +incidentally my method, I must tell about a pickpocket whom I +identified, one morning, in a town where a circus was exhibiting. He had +tried to take a watch from a fellow passenger on a trolley-car, and had +nearly succeeded in unscrewing it from the chain when he was discovered. +He was a desperate character, and drew a razor, with which he frightened +everybody off the car, including the motorman. He attempted to escape by +running the car himself, but on seeing that it was going to take him +back to the town, he deserted it, appropriated a horse and buggy, and +made another dash for liberty. He was eventually driven into a fence +corner by some of the young men of the town, and kept at bay until the +police arrived, when he was taken to the lock-up, where, in company with +my two companions, I saw him. He was brought out of his cell for our +inspection, and, as luck would have it, it was his photograph in my book +that I had elected to commit to memory a few days before. I knew him the +minute I saw him, and he was identified beyond a possible doubt. In +return he gave me the worst scolding I have ever had in my life, and +threatened to put out "my light" when he is free again, but this is a +_façon de parler_ of men of his class; after he has served his five or +ten years he will have forgotten me and his threat. + +The amount of money which pickpockets take in annually is probably +greater than that of any of the other specialists in crime. It would be +idle to say how large it is, but it is a well-known fact that thousands +of dollars are stolen by them at big public gatherings to which they +have access. It was reported, for instance, that at the recent +Confederate Soldiers' Reunion in the South $30,000 were stolen by +pickpockets, and almost every day in the year one reads in the +newspapers of a big "touch" reaching into the thousands. I think it is a +conservative statement to say that in a lifetime the expert pickpocket +steals $20,000. Multiply this figure by 1,500, which I have given as the +number of the first-class tools in the country, and the result reaches +high up into the millions. Like other professional thieves, the +pickpocket throws away his money like water, and very seldom thinks of +saving for old age, but practically all successful mobs have "fall +money" (an expense fund for paying lawyers, etc., when they get +arrested) of from $3,000 to $5,000 each, carefully banked, and I know of +one pickpocket who is the owner of some very valuable real estate. A +good illustration of the rapidity with which they recoup themselves +financially after a period of rest, or a term in prison, is the story +told about one of them who returned to this country penniless after a +pleasure trip in Europe. The man related the incident to a friend of +mine. "Didn't have a red," he said. "I tackled a saloon keeper I knew +for a couple of thousand. How long do you think I was paying him back? +Three weeks!" + +If the pickpocket knew how to save his money, and could invest it well, +his children might some day be but millionaires. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW SOME TOWNS ARE "PROTECTED." + + +Speaking generally, there are two methods in vogue in American police +circles for dealing with crime, and they may be called the compromising +and the uncompromising. The latter is the more honest. In a town where +it is followed, the chief of police is known to be a man who will not +allow a professional thief within the city limits, if he can help it, +and he is continually on watch for transient offenders. He will make no +"deal" with criminals in any particular, and he takes pride in securing +the conviction and punishment of all whom his men apprehend. He is +naturally not liked by offenders, although they respect his consistency, +and there is a local element of rowdies who consider him "an old fogey," +but he is the kind of officer that makes Germany, for instance, and +England, too, in a measure, so free of the class of criminals that in +this country are so bold. There are some chiefs of police in the United +States of this character, and they become known throughout the criminal +world, but there ought to be more of them. + +The compromising policeman is a man of another stripe. He knows about +the uncompromising "copper," has read about him and thought about him, +but he excuses his disinclination to accept him as a model on the ground +that, if he did, the thieves would "tear his town open." + +"Why, if I should antagonise this class, as you suggest," he will say to +the protesting citizens, "they would come here some night and steal +right and left, just out of revenge. I haven't enough men to protect the +city in that way. The Town Council only give me so much to run the +entire force, and I have to manage the best way I can. If you'll give me +more men, I'll try to drive all the thieves out of the city." + +In certain instances his argument has truth in it; it sometimes happens +that he has not enough men to take care of the city from the +uncompromising policeman's point of view. The trouble is, however, that +because he is thus handicapped he thinks that he can go a step farther, +and is justified in reasoning thus: "Well, I had to pay to get this +position, and if the people don't want the town protected as it ought to +be, it isn't my fault, and I'm going to get out of the job all that's in +it," and then begins a miserable conniving with crime. + +To illustrate what a professional thief can accomplish with such a +police officer, let it be supposed that the thief is happily married, as +is sometimes the case, has a family, and wants to live in a certain +town. The chief of police knows him, however, and can disgrace his +family, if he is so inclined. The thief wants his family left alone, he +takes a pride in it, so he visits the chief at "Headquarters," and they +have a talk. "See here, chief," he says, "I'll promise you not to do any +work in your town, if you'll promise to leave me and mine alone. Now, +what's it going to cost me?" + +Sometimes it costs money, not necessarily handed over the desk, and not +always to the chief personally, but in a manner that is satisfactory to +all concerned. In other cases the matter is arranged without money, and +the thief may possibly promise to "tip off" to the chief some well-known +"professional" when he comes to town, so that the chief can get the +benefit of an advertisement in the newspapers; they will say that such +and such a man has been captured, "after a long and exciting chase ably +conducted by our brilliant chief." The chase generally amounts to a +quiet walk to the hotel or saloon where the visiting thief is quietly +reading a newspaper or drinking a glass of beer, and the capture +dwindles down to a request on the part of the chief or his officer that +the man shall go to the "front office," which he does, wondering all the +while who it was that "beefed" on him (told the chief who he was). A +number of the "fly catches," as they are called in police parlance, +which create so much comment in the press, can be explained in some such +way as this. Meanwhile, however, what has become of the protected thief? +He may keep his word, a number of thieves do, and commit no theft in the +town where he is allowed to live; it depends on how much money he needs +to meet his various expenses, how dear his family is to him, and what +temptations he encounters. If he does break his word, however, and there +are no hall-marks on his theft, by which it can be definitely traced to +him, all he has to say, when asked by his protector as to who did it, +is: "It must have been outside talent." In other words, he can "work" +with almost absolute safety in the town, and the innocent public is +paying taxes all the while for a police force that ought to be able to +apprehend him. + +To prove that this case is not hypothetical but actual, I would say that +I have recently been in at least two cities where I know that +professional thieves live with impunity, for I saw as many as ten in +each, and they were not afraid to do criminal work in either. The +police of both places claimed that in giving the thieves a domicile they +were protecting their towns, but any one who knows either city well is +aware that professional crime is prevalent. + +One of the worst features of the policy under consideration is its +selfishness. A chief who says to a professional thief, "I will leave you +alone if you will leave me alone," practically says to him: "Go to +another town when you want to steal." An amusing story is told in this +connection about two chiefs who aired their different notions in regard +to the matter, at one of the annual conferences of the chiefs of police. +One of them had said tentatively, so the story goes, that he had heard +that in some cities criminals were protected, and that he considered the +practice a bad one. Another chief, who was thought to favour such a +policy, got up and said that he did not know much about the question in +hand, but he did know that his town was particularly free of crime. +"That may be, Bill," retorted the first speaker, "but I'll tell you +what your thieves do--they come down to my town to steal and go back to +yours, where they are left alone, to live." I give the anecdote merely +as gossip, but it illustrates splendidly one of the worst results of +compromise with crime. + +It sometimes happens that an entire municipal administration, or, at any +rate, the most powerful officials in it, favour the policy of +compromise, and then it is utterly impossible to punish the criminal +adequately. I have been in such communities. Not long ago I was in a +town of about ten thousand inhabitants where a "mob" of New York +pickpockets were caught in the act of attempting to pick a pocket. On +being charged with the crime by the officers who had discovered them, +they admitted their guilt and profession, and said: "But what are you +going to do about it?" If the town authorities had been trustworthy the +pickpockets could have been sent to the penitentiary; because there was +practically no hope of securing their conviction in the local courts on +account of their ability to bribe, or to give a purely nominal bail and +then run away, they were let go. + +One of the best illustrations of how a town's officials sell themselves +is embodied in the vile character known as "the fixer." I know this man +best as a circus follower. Connected with nearly all shows, sometimes +officially and sometimes not, are men who have games of chance with +which they swindle the public. In late years it has become necessary for +these men, in order to run their games, to pay for what are called +"privileges," and the man who secures these is called "the fixer." He +goes to the mayor or the chief of police of a town, as necessity +requires,--sometimes to both,--assures them that the games are harmless +(which they know is a lie), and hands them $25, $50, or $100, as +circumstances may require. In association with the men who have the +games are pickpockets and other professional thieves,--indeed the +gamesters themselves can frequently change clothes with the pickpockets +and let the thieves attend to the games while they pick pockets. It is +not necessarily understood that the "crooks" are to be protected by the +authorities to the extent that the gamesters are, but "the fixer," who +stands in with the thieves also, is supposed to be able to get them out +of any serious trouble, or, at least, to warn them if he knows that +trouble is brewing. + +It was once my duty to run a race with a "fixer," and try to get the ear +of a mayor of a town before he did. Two other officers and myself had +assured ourselves that a "mob" of pickpockets was following up a circus +which was being transported over the railroad we were protecting, and we +knew that in one town, at least, "the fixer" had "squared" things with +the authorities. The circus was on its way to another town on our lines, +the mayor and police of which we believed we could swing our way if we +got to them before "the fixer" did, and we travelled there ahead of him. +We were particularly anxious to have the pickpockets arrested if they +put in an appearance, and we told the mayor who they were, what +protection they were getting, and explained to him how he would be +approached by "the fixer." The mayor listened to us, nodded his head +from time to time, and then said: "Well, there'll be no fixing done in +this town, and if you will point out the pickpockets, when they come in, +you may rest assured that they will be arrested. I can't understand what +the citizens of a town can be thinking of when they elect to office men +such as you describe." The pickpockets as well as "the fixer" must have +got wind of what we had done, for the former did not appear, and the +latter made no call on the mayor. We learned, however, that he arranged +things satisfactorily to all concerned in the town where the circus +exhibited on the following day. + +How many towns in this country can be "fixed" in this manner is a +question I would not attempt to answer, but I do know that in the +district where I was on duty as a police officer a great deal of tact +exercise was necessary to beat "the fixer" in a town where it was to his +interests to buy up the local authorities; and I ask in wonderment, as +did the mayor whom I have quoted: What are the citizens of a town +thinking of, when they allow such corrupt officials to manage things? Is +it because they are ignorant of what goes on, or merely because they are +indifferent? A friend in the police business, but a man who has +understood how to remain honest in spite of it, answers the question by +saying: "The world is a graft; flash enough boodle under nine noses out +of ten, and you can do as you like with them. Take New York, for +instance. I could clean up that city in a week if the people would stand +by me. They wouldn't do it. Enough would tumble down in front of some +fixer to queer everything that I might do. You can't do anything worth +while in the police business unless you've got the people behind you, +and they are as fickle as a cat. Why, if I were chief of police in New +York, and I should clean up the city thoroughly, there is a class of +business men who would come to me and say that I was taking away some of +the main attractions of the city, and that they were going to make a +kick about it. Heaven knows that the police are corrupt, but I tell you +that the public is corrupt, too. See how things are up in Canada! I have +just come back from there, and I can assure you that there is no such +sneak work going on up there as there is with us. Their police courts +are as dignified almost as is our Supreme Court, and if a crook gets +into one of them they settle him. How many crooks get what they ought to +in this country? About one in ten, and he could get off with a light +sentence, if he had money enough to square things." + +Perhaps this is true, and we are indifferent to corruption as a people. +Certainly the police business makes one think so, but I have not been in +it long enough to hold to this pessimistic notion. It is my opinion that +the majority of the people in this country do not realise what goes on +about them, and I can take my own experience as an example. I have seen +more of criminal life, perhaps, than the average person, and it would +seem that I ought to have been able to learn considerable about the +corruption in the country, but I must admit that, until this experience +in a police force, I had no idea that it was as widespread as it is. It +is not unreasonable to suppose that people who have never had occasion +to look into such matters at all must be even more ignorant of the +situation than I was. There is a great deal of wrong-doing that is +apparent to any one who takes an active part in municipal politics, and +the newspapers are continually reporting things which can but make it +obvious to all who read that there is a strong criminal class in the +United States; but one seldom takes such matters seriously until he is +brought in close contact with them, and the general public is not thus +influenced. + +Take the Mazet Committee, which recently investigated New York. So far +as the police are concerned, I cannot see that the committee brought to +light much that was new, and it was difficult for me to take an interest +in this part of the investigation. If they had subpoenaed a few +successful professional thieves located in New York, however, and +persuaded them to tell what they know, the situation would have been +much clearer to me and to the general public. More interest and +indignation would also have been aroused if New York is "protected" in +the way that I have indicated in the case of other towns. The police are +not going to help investigate themselves, and the public is not likely +to be permanently affected by what they say. A very definite effect +would be made upon me, however, if a thief would get up and tell on what +basis he is allowed to live in New York, what it costs him, if anything, +to "square" things when he is arrested, what his annual winnings are, +and what, in general, he thinks of the criminal situation in the city. +He is a specialist entitled to speak with authority, and I would accept +his statements as trustworthy. + +It is, of course, to be replied to all this that it is very difficult to +persuade a thief to talk, but the point I would make is that the public +seldom gets the truth in regard to such matters as are under +consideration. It hears in an indefinite way that corruption is rampant, +and then there is an investigation, but the average citizen rarely +realises what is going on until some personal business brings him in +contact with the suspected officials. Let a man have his pocket picked, +or his home robbed, and go to the police about it, and he will begin to +see how things are managed. If everybody could have this experience, +meet both detective and thief, and all could have a talk together, there +would be an awakening in public sentiment that would be very beneficial. + +Meanwhile all that I can recommend is to hunt down the unknown thief, +and punish him hard. There are different methods by which he can be +apprehended, but I know of none better than to catch the known thief and +through him find out the other. The police and court proceedings, if +carefully followed, are bound to develop the facts, and, these once +secured, the public is to blame if the unknown thief is not punished. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PENOLOGICAL PILGRIMAGE. + + +One of the advantages that the itinerant policeman has over the +stationary officer is that he can inspect a large number of penal +institutions, and find out who, among the people he has to keep track +of, are shut up. The municipal officer may know that a certain +"professional" is out of his bailiwick, but unless he can place him +elsewhere he is never sure when or where he may turn up again. The +itinerant officer, on the other hand, can follow a man, and if he gets +into prison the officer knows it immediately. This is a very definite +gain in the police business, and it would be well if police forces +generally were given the benefit of it. There is a National Bureau of +Identification to which officers who are members may apply for +information in regard to any offender of whom there is a record, and the +institution is to be recommended to those who are connected with police +life, but voluntary information in regard to convicts sent to police +chiefs by prison wardens would also be helpful. + +My interest in the lock-ups, jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries that +I visited on my travels was, in a measure, professional, but I was +mainly concerned in getting information in regard to their condition and +management, and in finding out to what extent they have a deterrent +effect on crime. All told, I inspected about thirty-five places of +detention and penal institutions, and they represent the best and worst +of their kind in the country. In criticising them I would not have it +understood that I hold the officials in charge necessarily responsible +for their condition--the taxpayers decide whether a community shall have +a truly modern prison or not; my purpose is merely to report what I saw, +and to comment objectively on my finding. + +I visited more lock-ups than anything else. On reaching a town, I went +as soon as possible to the "calaboose" to see who were held there. +Sometimes the little prison was empty, and then again every cell would +be occupied, but in a week I generally saw from thirty to fifty inmates. +Mature men predominated, but women and boys were also to be found. The +women were invariably separated from the men by at least a cell wall, +but the boys, and I saw some not over ten years old, were thrown in with +the most hardened criminals. They were allowed to pass about among the +men in the lock-up corridor, and at night were shut up with them in the +cells. This is the worst feature of the lock-up system in the United +States. Very little effort is made in the smaller towns to separate the +young from the old, the hardened from the unhardened, and even in the +lock-ups of large cities a much more careful classification of the +inmates is necessary. The officials in charge of these places excuse the +policy now in vogue on the ground that there is not room enough to give +the boys better attention, and the taxpayers say that there is not +money enough in the community to build larger lock-ups. There is always +a reason of some sort for every blunder that is made, but as long as we +make our lock-ups "kindergartens of crime," as I once heard a criminal +call them, there is no excuse whatever to wonder why there are so many +offenders. It is a fashion, nowadays, to run to "the positive school" of +Italy and France for an explanation concerning the origin of the +criminal, to ask Signor Lombroso to diagnose the situation, but in this +country we need but make a round of our lock-ups to discover where the +fresh crop of offenders comes from. They generally get to the lock-up +from the "slum," where they may or may not have shown criminal +proclivities, but once in the lock-up and allowed to associate with the +old offenders, very few of them, indeed, escape the contaminating +influences brought to bear upon them. + +The county jail may be described as the public school of crime. There +are some county jails in which a thorough classification of the inmates +is secured, but there is a very small number of these jails compared +with the hundreds in which young and old, first offenders and habitual +criminals, are all jumbled together. I can write from a full experience +in regard to our county jails, because I have not only had to visit them +as a police officer, but I have also had to "serve time" in them as a +tramp, and I know whereof I speak. Practically any boy, no matter what +his training has been, can be made a criminal if handed over to skilled +jail instructors, and every day in the year some lad, who, after all is +said, is really only mischievous, is committed by a magistrate or +justice of the peace to a county prison. There is no other place for the +magistrate to send the boy, if his parents demand his incarceration, and +the sheriff is not prepared to take him to the reform school +immediately, and so he is tossed into the general rag-bag of offenders +to take his chances. He is eventually sent to the reform school or house +of correction, where it is theoretically supposed that he is going to be +reformed; but it is a fact that the majority of professional offenders +in this country have generally spent a part of their youth in just such +institutions, where they were no more reformed than is a confirmed +jailbird on his release from a penitentiary. It is an extremely +difficult task to change any boy who goes to a reform school after a +long sitting in a county jail, and the wonder to me is that our +reformatories accomplish what they do. The superintendent of a +reformatory school in Colorado took me to task some years ago for making +the statement in public, in regard to tramps, that I have just made +about professional criminals,--that the majority of them have +experienced reform-school discipline,--and he said that it was a +thoroughly established fact that tramps keep out of such places. Of +course they keep out of them as full-grown men, as do also grown-up +thieves, but they are sent to them as youngsters, if apprehended for +some offence, whether they like it or not, and any one who is acquainted +with tramps and criminal life knows this to be true. + +I make so much mention of boys in this paper because they are to be the +next generation of offenders, unless we succeed in rescuing them from a +criminal life while they are still susceptible to good influences; and +we are not doing this, or even seriously thinking about it, when we give +them professional thieves and convicted murderers as associates in +jails. + +Various suggestions have been made by which the county jail system can +be improved, and I favour the one which recommends that the county +institution be abolished entirely, and that two or three well-equipped +houses of detention be made to suffice for an entire State. Such an +arrangement would not only be a great deal cheaper than the present +practice, but it would permit of a careful division of all the inmates. +Some of our workhouses are already run on this basis, several counties +contributing toward the support and maintenance of each. It would, of +course, be necessary to make a county's contributions toward the support +of a jail proportionate to its population, but there ought not to be any +great difficulty in arranging a satisfactory contract; and it is time, +anyhow, that we throw over some of our commercial notions about making +corrective and penal institutions pay their way. The thing to do is to +make them effective in checking crime, and if they are successful in +this very important particular, we can well afford to put a little money +in them without worrying about the financial returns. + +I visited but one reformatory during my pilgrimage, but it was +representative of the latest of these institutions. I refer to the +Elmira, N. Y. type. The old and hardened "professional" calls these +places the high schools of crime, the next grade after the county jail, +but I do not agree with him in this classification. It is true, as he +says, that a number of offenders are committed to these institutions, +who ought to have been sent to the penitentiary, and it is particularly +disgusting to him to see educated men, with "pull" and friends, who have +been convicted of crimes for which less favoured offenders would receive +sentences to the State prison, relieved of the disgrace of going to +prison by being sent to the "kids' pen," as the reformatory is also +sometimes called; but, admitting all this, I believe that the modern +reformatory, when well managed, represents the best penological notions. +As in all prisons, however, where the inmates work on the association +basis, a great deal can be taught that is not in the curriculum of the +institution, and it is consequently no surprise to meet, in the open, +criminals who have "served time" in reformatories. In the reformatory +that I visited, it was a disappointment to me to find that men whose +faces, manner, and bearing proved them to be, if not actual +professionals, at least understudies of men who are, were mixed up in +the workshops with young fellows whom any one would have picked out; for +comparatively innocent offenders. I believe in the principle of +association in certain corrective institutions also, but I do not +approve of indiscriminate companionship. A natural reply to my criticism +is that it is hard to tell who are the old offenders, but a prison +official who knows his business, and has learned how to read faces and +to interpret actions, ought to be able to separate the "crook" from the +beginner in crime. It is a false notion to think that the former is +going to be helped by association with the latter. A prison is a prison, +no matter what euphemistic name it is called, and the old offender is +not going to allow any "mother's boy" fellow prisoner to set him an +example. In the criminal world, as in the larger world on which it +lives, the law of the survival of the fittest is operative, and the +fittest, as a rule, are those who are the most hardened; in prison and +out, it is they who really run things. + +Another mistake made in the reformatory in question, according to my +view, is the age limit by which admission into the institution is +regulated. When a young man has reached his twenty-first year, and +commits a crime which calls for a prison sentence, I say let him have +it, no matter whose son he may be, provided the penitentiary authorities +observe the classification referred to above. If it can be proved +beyond a reasonable doubt that the young man is mentally deficient, and +not accountable for his actions, it is obvious that the State prison is +no place for him; but, otherwise, it is my observation that more good +than harm is done, if he is made to suffer the punishment that the law +demands. I realise that I am on debatable ground in taking this view of +such cases, but they are debatable largely because the different +opinions held in regard to them are the result of different +observations. Mine have been made mainly in the outdoor criminal world, +and I have not had a wide experience with the offender in confinement, +but I have met the pampered young criminal so often, and it has been so +plain that it was light punishment which trained him to stand the more +severe, that I have come to believe that a quick checking-up at the +start would have been more beneficial. + +Of penitentiaries I saw two, each in a different State. One contained +about two thousand five hundred inmates, and the other about one +thousand eight hundred. It is not easy even for a police officer to +explore these institutions freely. I know of one warden who refuses to +let the police have photographs of criminals in his charge; he says that +"it is not nice to pass them around,"--but I managed to see a good deal +that I could not possibly have seen as an ordinary visitor, hurried +through by a guard. + +As a general statement, it may be said that a penitentiary reflects the +warden's personality. There are rules to be observed and work to be +done, which have been arranged and planned for by the board of +directors, but the warden is the man with whom the prisoners have to +deal, and they look up to him as the principal authority in every-day +matters. His main anxiety is to get good conduct out of his charges, and +he has to experiment with various methods. Some wardens favour one +method and some another. One, for instance, will think that leniency and +kindness work best, while another will recommend whipping, the dungeon, +electricity, hot water, etc., for recalcitrant inmates. The idea of each +warden is that he wants things to go smoothly, and if they do not, he +has to straighten them out as best he can. All this is very interesting +from the warden's point of view, and it interested me also somewhat when +visiting the two penitentiaries; but my main endeavour was to try to +find out to what extent these institutions were lessening the number of +criminals in the communities which they served. A man may be as gentle +as a lamb while in durance, and the warden may pride himself on the good +conduct he is getting out of him, but how is he going to be when he has +his liberty once more? The cleverest criminal is usually the most docile +prisoner, and yet he takes up crime again as his profession after his +time has expired, and the penitentiary has been in his case merely a +house of detention. Excepting the death penalty, however, imprisonment +in a penitentiary is the final form of punishment that we have in this +country, and if it fails to check crime, either our criminals are +increasing out of proportion to our means for taking care of them, or we +do not administer the proper chastisement. From what I have been able +to see of our penitentiaries as a visitor, and have heard about them as +a fellow traveller with tramps, and incidentally with criminals, I am +inclined to accept the second conclusion. Crime has increased in this +country faster than the population, but in the older States there are +enough penal institutions to take care of the offenders, if they were +made to have the discouraging effect on criminals that similar +institutions have in Europe. + +The late Austin Bidwell, an American offender who had a long experience +in an English prison, and who was a competent judge of the kind of +punishment that is the most deterrent, once said to me that he believed +that a short imprisonment, if made very severe, accomplished more than a +long imprisonment with comforts. And he added that he thought that in +the United States a mistake was made in giving criminals long sentences +to easy prisons. I hold more or less to the same view. Penologically, I +think that the punishment in vogue in Delaware, for certain offences, +is wiser and more to the point than that in any other State in the +Union. Punishment in prison ought not to be wholly retributive,--it has +been well called expiatory discipline,--but it ought to check crime, and +up to date there is no satisfactory evidence that our prisons are +achieving this end. In many of them the discipline is too lenient. At +one of the prisons I visited, two Sundays of the month are given up to a +lawn festival, which the prisoners' friends may attend. They bring lunch +baskets and join the prisoners in the prison garden, where they chat, +eat ice-cream, and drink lemonade, sold at a booth presided over by one +of the prisoners, and generally amuse themselves. It seemed to me that I +was attending a picnic. In a talk with the warden in regard to the +affair, he said that he found that such favours made the prisoners more +tractable. + +In my humble opinion, a prison is not a place where favours of this +character need be expected or shown, and if good conduct can only be got +out of them by being "nice" to them after this fashion, they would +better be shut up in their cells until they can learn to obey. + +In conclusion, I desire to put two queries: Why is it that the cleverest +criminals in our prisons are frequently to be found taking their ease in +the prison hospitals and "insane wards," and how does it come that men +who belong to the class of prisoners who ought to wear the "stripes" are +allowed the clothes which ordinarily are only given to prisoners who +have passed the "stripe" period of their incarceration? In one +penitentiary I found a politician and rich physician favoured in the +latter particular, and in the hospital and insane ward of another, +enjoying themselves in rocking-chairs and a private garden, I found more +professional thieves than in any other part of the institution. I ask +the questions in all innocence, but there are those who claim that +correct answers to them would disclose some very bad practices in prison +management. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A NEW CAREER FOR YOUNG MEN. + + +Up till the present time the police business in the United States has +remained almost exclusively in the hands of a particular class. From +Maine to California one finds practically the same type of man +patrolling a beat, and there is not much difference among the superior +officers of police forces. They all have about the same conceptions of +morality, honesty, and good citizenship, and they differ very little in +their notions of police policy and methods. The thing to do, the +majority of them think, is to keep a city superficially clean, and to +keep everything quiet that is likely to arouse the public to an +investigation. Nearly all are politicians in one form or another, and +they feel that the security of their positions depends on the turn that +politics may take. If they have a strict chief, one who tries to be +honest according to his best light, they are more on their good +behaviour than when governed by an easy-going man, but even under such +circumstances there may be found, in large forces, a great deal of +concealed disobedience. Their main friends and acquaintances are +saloon-keepers, professional politicians, and employees in other +departments of the municipal government. In small towns they mix with +the citizens more than in large cities, but the best of them acquire in +time a caste feeling which impels them to find companionship mainly +among their own kind. Not all are dishonest or lazy, but the majority +have a code of honour suggested by their life and business. Once in the +life, and accustomed to its requirements, it is very difficult for them +to change to another. They have learned how to arrest men, to make +reports, to keep their eyes open or shut according to necessity, to rest +when standing on their feet, and to appreciate the benefits of a +regularly drawn salary, and their intelligence and general training +correspond with such an existence. A few develop extraordinary ability +in ferreting out crime, and become successful detectives, and others +keep their records sufficiently clean, or secure enough "pull," to rise +to superior posts, and in certain cases these exceptional men would fit +into exemplary police organisations. As a general thing, however, they +are men who would have received much less responsible positions in other +walks of life. This is as true of the commanding officers as of the +patrolmen. The captain of a precinct is frequently as poorly educated as +the patrolman serving under him, and his gold braid and brass buttons +are all that really differentiate him from the men he orders about. The +chief, in some instances, is a man of demonstrated ability, but there +are chiefs and chiefs, and the way their selection is managed it is +largely a matter of luck whether a town gets a good or bad one. +Occasionally the citizens of a town will become indignant, and remove +from office a disreputable chief, choosing in his place some highly +respected citizen who has consented to take the position on a "reform +platform" and for awhile the town has a man at the head of its police +force who is accepted as an equal in society and is recognised as an +influential man in municipal affairs, but before long the professional +politicians get hold of the reins of government again, things get back +into the old rut, and the conventional chief returns. + +It is this precariousness of the life, and the slavery to politicians, +that have probably deterred educated young men from making police work +their life business. They have seen no chance of holding prominent +police positions long, and they have possibly dreaded the companionship +which a policeman's life seems to presuppose. The young man just out of +college and casting about for a foothold in the world practically never +includes the police career in the number of life activities from which +he must make a choice. It is the law, medicine, journalism, or +railroading which generally attracts him, and he leaves unconsidered +one of the most useful callings in the world. There are few men who are +given more responsible positions, and who have better opportunities of +doing something worth while, than the police officer, and I think that I +ought to add, the prison official. In Germany this fact is recognised, +and men train for police and prison work as deliberately and diligently +as for any other profession; in this country very little training is +done, and the result is that comparatively inferior men get the +important posts, and our cities are not taken care of as they ought to +be, and could be. + +There is nothing sufficiently promising as yet in the state of public +opinion to justify one in saying that the time is particularly opportune +for young men to begin to consider the police career as a possible +calling, but I doubt whether there ever will be until the young men take +the matter into their own hands and give public notice of their +determination to enter the profession. Numerous obstacles will be put in +their way, and hundreds will get discouraged, but for those who +"stick," a great career will open up. The beginners must necessarily be +the pioneers and fight the brunt of the battle, but, the battle once +fought, there will be some positions of splendid opportunity. + +For the benefit of those who may care to consider seriously the +possibilities of the career, it will not be inappropriate, perhaps, to +describe the kind of men they may expect to have to associate with while +going through their apprenticeship, to explain some of the difficulties +that will be encountered, and to make a few suggestions in regard to the +training necessary for a successful performance of duty. I can write of +these matters only as a beginner, but it is the would-be beginner that I +desire to reach. + +In all police organisations supported by cities there are two distinct +kinds of officers, the uniformed men and the detectives. Among these the +beginner will have to pick out his friends, and until he knows well the +work of both classes of men he will be in a quandary as to which he +desires to ally himself with. There are things in the detective's life +which make it more attractive to some men than the policeman's, and +_vice versa_. The two officers have different attitudes toward the +criminal world, and the beginner will probably be decided in his choice +according to the impression the different attitudes make upon him. The +uniformed officer, or "Flatty," as he is called in the thief's jargon, +if he remains upright and honest, arrests a successful professional +criminal with the same _sang-froid_ and objectivity that are +characteristic of him when arresting a "disorderly drunk." It is a +perfunctory act with him; the offender must be shut up, no matter who he +is, and he is the party paid to do it. + +The officer in citizen's clothes, the "Elbow," is a different kind of +man. He realises as well as the "Flatty" that it is his business to try +to protect the community which employs him, but he handles a prisoner, +especially if the latter is a nicely dressed and well known thief, in a +different way from the ostentatious manner of arrest characteristic of +the ordinary policeman. It almost seems sometimes as if he were showing +deference to his prisoner, and the two walk along together like two old +acquaintances. The fact of the matter is that a truly successful +professional thief is a very interesting man to meet, and he is all the +more interesting to the officer if he has been able to catch him +unawares and without much trouble. Realising what a big man he has +got,--and thieves themselves have no better opinion of their ability +than that which the detective has of it,--he likes to ask him about +other big men, to get "wise," as the expression is. If it has been a +hard chase, he also likes to go over the details of it, and find out who +has doubled the most on his tracks. In time, if he keeps steadily at the +business and learns to know a number of what are called "good guns" +(clever thieves), he develops into a recognised successful +thief-catcher; but he has spent so much of his time in fraternising with +"guns," in order to learn from them, that he comes to think that his +moral responsibility is over after he has located them. Technically, I +suppose this is true; it is his business to catch, and the State must +prosecute and convict. The point I would bring out, however, is that he +is inclined to be lenient with his prisoner. To him the struggle has +been merely one of intelligence and shrewdness; he has had to be quick +and alert in capturing the "gun," and the latter has exercised all of +his ingenuity in trying to escape. Moral issues have not been at stake; +the thief has not stolen from the officer, and why should the latter not +be friendly when they meet? + +In defence of this attitude toward crime it may be said that criminals +are much more tractable in the custody of an officer of the kind under +consideration than when arrested by some blustering "Flatty," who shows +them up in the street as they walk along, and it is natural for a +detective to try to do his work with as little friction as possible. The +question, however, that I was continually putting to myself as a +beginner in the business was, whether I should not eventually drift +into a very easy-going policeman if I learned to look upon the thief +merely as a whetstone, so to speak, on which my wits were to be +sharpened. It seemed to me that to do my full duty it was necessary to +have moral ballast as well as shrewd intelligence, really to believe in +law, and that lawbreakers must be punished. I would not have it +understood that there are no police officers who keep hold of this +point, but I am compelled to say that the detective--and he is the man +to whom we shall have to go before professional crime in this country +can be seriously dealt with--is too much inclined to overlook it. + +The beginner in the profession must take sides, one way or another, in +regard to this kind of officer, and as he chooses for him or against him +he will find himself in favour or not with the class--and it is a large +one--to which the man belongs. It is unpleasant to have to begin one's +career by immediately antagonising a number of daily companions, and a +series of exasperating experiences follow such a policy, but in the +case in question I believe it will be found best to nail up one's +colours instanter and never to take them down. The officer who does this +gets the reputation of being at least consistent even among his enemies, +and he is also relieved of being continually approached by criminals +with bribes. + +Once started on his course, and his policy defined, the worst difficulty +that he will encounter for a number of months will be a reluctance, +natural to all beginners, to make an arrest. It seems easy enough to +walk up to a man, put a hand lightly on his shoulder, and say: "You're +my prisoner," but one never realises how hard it is until he tries it. +During my experience I had no occasion to make an arrest single-handed, +but it did fall to my lot to have a prisoner beg and beseech me to let +him go after he had been turned over to my care, and to the beginner +this is the hardest appeal to withstand. The majority of persons +arrested are justly taken into custody, and the bulk of the "hard luck" +stories they tell are fabrications, but it takes a man who has been +years in the service to listen to some of their tales of woe without +wincing. + +This squeamishness conquered, the beginner will have to be careful not +to become hard and pessimistic. There is a good deal to be said in +excuse of a police officer who develops these traits of character,--the +life he leads is itself often hard,--but if they dominate his nature he +learns to look upon the world in general merely as a great collection of +human beings, any one of whom he may have to arrest some day. He sees so +much that is "crooked" that he is in danger of thinking that he sees +crime and thieves wherever he turns, and unless he is very cautious he +will drift into a philosophy which permits him to be "crooked" also, +because, as he thinks, everybody else is. + +If the beginner has lived in a society where courtesies and kindnesses, +rather than insults and scoldings, have prevailed, he will also find it +hard for awhile to appreciate the fact that a police officer is a +peacemaker, and not an avenger. Wherever he goes, and no matter what he +does, he is a target for the nasty slings of rowdies and a favourite +victim of the "roastings" of thieves. In tramp life I have had to take +my share of insults, and until I experimented with the police business I +thought that as mean things had been said to me as a man ought to stand +in an ordinary lifetime, but on no tramp trip have I been berated by +criminals as severely as during my recent experience as a railroad +police officer, and yet it was my duty not to answer back if a quarrel +was in sight. + +Not all, however, in the policeman's life is exasperating and +discouraging. But few men have so many opportunities of doing good, and +of keeping track of people in whom they have taken an interest. Nothing +has pleased me more in my relations with the outcast world than the +chance I had as a railroad patrolman to help in sending home a penitent +runaway boy. He had left Chicago on the "blind baggage" of a passenger +train to get away from a tyrannical stepfather, and he fell into our +hands as a trespasser and vagrant several hundred miles from his +starting-point. It was a pitiful case with which no officer likes to +deal according to the requirements of the law, but we had to arrest him +to rescue him from the local officers of the town where he had been +apprehended; if he had been turned over to them the probability is that +he would have been put on the stone-pile with the hardened tramps, and +when released would have drifted into tramp life. We took him to +headquarters on the train, and the general manager of the railroad gave +him a pass home, where he has remained, sending me a number of weekly +accounts about himself. I report the incident both to show the +opportunities in a policeman's life, and to give a railroad company +credit for a kind deed which has probably preserved for the country a +bright lad who would otherwise have been an expense and trouble to it as +a vagabond and criminal. + +A word, before closing this chapter, in regard to how a young man, +desirous of following the police career, can best get a start. I chose a +railroad police force for my preliminary experience, and I would +recommend a similar choice to other beginners if the opportunity is +favourable. As long as a man does his work well in a railroad police +organisation he is not likely to be disturbed, but under existing +conditions the same cannot be said of a municipal force. A railroad +officer also has the advantage of being able to travel extensively and +to acquaint himself with different communities. If he can rise to the +top there is no reason, so far as I can see, why he should not be an +eligible candidate for the superintendency of a municipal police force. +The chief that I had, if he were able to gather the right men about him, +could protect a large city as successfully as he now protects a big +railroad system. If it is impossible for a would-be beginner to find +lodgment in any police force at the start, my suggestion is that he +experiment with the work of a police reporter on a newspaper. It is +difficult at present for a police reporter to tell all that he learns, +and it is to be hoped that he will some day be able to give the readers +of his paper full accounts of his investigations; but the young man who +is training for police work can make the reporter's position, in spite +of its present discouraging limitations, a stepping-stone to a position +in a police organisation. It helps him to get "wise," as the detective +says, and it is when he has become "wise" in the full sense of the word +that he is most valuable in the police business. + +A guard's position in a penitentiary makes a man acquainted with a great +many criminals, and is helpful in teaching one in regard to the +efficiency of different kinds of punishment. It is, perhaps, to be +recommended to the beginner as the next best position to try for, if, +after the reporter experience, there is still no opening in a police +force. The beginner may not be sure whether he desires to become a +police officer or to take part in the management of a prison, and the +guard's post helps him to come to a decision. + +All three of the recommended preparatory positions will be found useful, +if the young man has the patience and time to go through the drudgery +which they involve, and he will find that when he finally succeeds in +getting into a large police force he has a great advantage over men who +have not had his thorough training. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"GAY-CATS." + + +Scattered over the railroads, sometimes travelling in freight-cars, and +sometimes sitting pensively around camp-fires, working when the mood is +on them, and loafing when they have accumulated a "stake," always +criticising other people but never themselves, seldom very happy or +unhappy, and almost constantly without homes such as the persevering +workingman struggles for and secures, there is an army of men and boys +who, if a census of the unemployed were taken, would have to be included +in the class which the regular tramps call "gay-cats." They claim that +they are over five hundred thousand strong, and socialistic agitators +sometimes urge that there are more than a million of them, but they +probably do not really number over one hundred thousand. + +Not much is known about them by the general public, except that they are +continually shifting from place to place, particularly during the warm +months. In the winter they are known to seek shelter in the large +cities, where they swell the ranks of the discontented and complaining, +and accept benefits from charitable societies. They certainly are not +tramps, in the hobo's sense of the word. His reason for derisively +calling them "gay-cats" is that they work when they have to, and tramp +only when the weather is fine. + +Many of them really prefer working to begging, but they are without +employment during several months in the year, and are constantly +grumbling about their lot in the world. They think that they are the +representative unemployed men of the country, and are gradually +developing a class feeling among themselves. They always speak of their +kind as "the poor," and of the people who employ them as "the rich," and +they believe that their number is continually increasing. + +As a railroad policeman it was my duty to keep well in touch with this +class of wanderers. Although they do not belong to the real tramp +fraternity, and are disliked by the hoboes proper, they follow the +hobo's methods of travel, and are constantly trespassing on railroad +property. The general manager of the railroad by which I was employed +asked me to gather all the facts that I could in regard to their class. + +"The attitude of the company toward this class of trespassers," he said, +in talking to me about the matter, "must necessarily be the same as +toward the tramps, as long as they both use the same methods of travel, +but I have often wondered whether there are enough of those who claim to +be merely unemployed men to justify railroad companies in experimenting +with a cheap train a day, somewhat similar in make-up to the fourth +class in Germany and Russia. At present the trouble is that we can't +tell whether they would support such a train, and I personally am not +convinced that all of them are as honest out-of-works as they say they +are, when arrested for stealing rides. If you can gather any data +concerning them which will throw light on this matter, I should be glad +to have it." + +All told, I have met on the railroads about one thousand men and boys +who claimed to be out-of-works and not professional vagabonds and +tramps. In saying that I have met them, I mean that I have talked with +them and learned considerable about their history, present condition, +and plans and hopes for the future. They talked with me as freely as +with one of their own kind; indeed, they seemed to assume that I +belonged among them. + +The most striking thing about them is that the majority are practically +youths, the average age being about twenty-three years, both West and +East. Of my one thousand out-of-works, fully two-thirds were between +twenty and twenty-five years old; the rest were young boys under +eighteen and mature men anywhere from forty to seventy. + +Youths of all classes of society have their _Wanderjahre_, and so much +time during this period is taken up with mere roaming that it is easy to +understand how many of them must be without work from time to time. It +is also true that young men are more hasty than their elders in giving +up positions on account of some real or supposed affront; life is all +before them, they think, anyhow, and meanwhile they do not intend to +knuckle down to any overbearing employer. In certain parts of the +country, on account of crowded conditions, it must be stated, +furthermore, that it is difficult for a number of young men to get +suitable employment. + +There is a sociological significance, however, about the present +strikingly large number of young men who are "beating" their way over +the country on the railroads. There is gradually being developed in the +United States a class of wanderers who may be likened to the degenerated +_Handwerksburschen_ of Germany. They are not necessarily apprentices in +the sense that the _Handwerksburschen_ usually are, although the great +majority of them have trades and make some effort, in winter at least, +to work at them, but they are almost the exact counterpart of the +_Burschen_ in their migratory habits. Years ago the travelling +apprentice was a picturesque figure in German life, and it was thought +quite proper that he should pack up his tools every now and then, get +out his wheelbarrow, and take a jaunt into the world. He had to take to +the highways in those days, and there was no such inducement, as there +is now, to make long, unbroken trips. A few miles a day was the average +stint, and at the end of a fortnight, or possibly a month, he was ready +and glad to go to work again. + +This is not the case to-day. The contemporary _Handwerksbursch_ works +just as little as he can, and travels in fourth-class cars as far as the +rails will carry him. In a few years, unless there is some home +influence to bring him back, he generally wanders so far afield that he +becomes a victim of _Die Ferne_, a thing of romance and poetry to his +sturdier ancestors of Luther's time, which for him has become a snare +and a delusion. German vagabondage is largely recruited from German +apprentices. It is the same love of _Die Ferne_, the desire to get out +into the world and have adventures independent of parental care and +guidance, which accounts largely for the presence of so many young men +in the ranks of the unemployed in this country. As I have said, they are +not tramps or "hoboes," but neither are they victims of trusts, +monopolists or capital. + +Great public undertakings, like the World's Fair at Chicago, the recent +war with Spain, a new railroad and the attractions of places like the +Klondike, have a tendency to increase the number of these youthful +out-of-works. The World's Fair stranded many thousands, and there are +already signs that the war with Spain has brought out a fresh crop of +them. They have taken to travelling on the railroads because they have +become inoculated with _Wanderlust_ and because they think that it is +only by continually shifting that they are likely to get work. The same +thing took place, only on a larger scale, after the Civil War, and our +present tramp class is the result. Some of the young men who took part +in the Spanish war, and when mustered out joined the wanderers on the +railroads, will eventually develop into full-fledged tramps; it is +inevitable. At present they are merely out-of-works, and at times +honestly seek work. + +Let me tell the story of one of my young companions for a few days on a +railroad in Ohio. He was a plumber by trade and had left a job only a +fortnight before I met him. The weather had got too warm to work, he +said (it was in June), and he had enough of a "stake" to keep him going +for several weeks "on the road." He was on his way to the Northwest. + +"The West is the only part o' this country worth much, I guess," he +said, "'n' I'm goin' out there to look around. Here in the East +ev'rything is in the hands o' the rich. There's no chance for a young +fellow here in Ohio any more." I asked him whether he was not able to +make a good living when he remained at work. "Oh, I can live all right," +he replied, "but this country's got to give me somethin' more'n a +livin', before I'll work hard month in and month out. I ain't goin' to +slave for anybody. I got as good a right's the next man to enjoy myself, +'n' when I want to go off on a trip I'm goin'." I suggested that this +was hardly the philosophy of men who made and saved a great deal of +money. "Well, I ain't goin' to work hard all my life 'n' have nothin' +but money at the end of it. I want to live as I go along, 'n' I like +hittin' the road ev'ry now and then." + +"How long do you generally keep a job?" + +"If I get a good one in the fall I generally keep it till spring, but +the year round I guess I change places ev'ry two or three months." + +"How much of a loaf do you have between jobs?" + +"It depends. Last year I was nearly four months on the hog +once,--couldn't get anything. As a general thing, though, I don't have +to wait over six weeks if I look hard." + +"Are you going to look hard out West?" + +"Well, I'm goin' to size up the country, 'n' if I like it, why, I guess +I'll take a job for awhile. I got enough money to keep me in tobacco 'n' +booze for a few weeks, 'n' it don't cost me anything to ride or eat." + +"How do you manage?" + +"I hustle for my grub the way hoboes do,--it's easy enough." + +"I should think a workingman like yourself would hate to do that." + +"I used to a little, but I got over it. You got to help yourself in this +world, 'n' I'm learnin' how to do it, too." + +The nationality of the "gay-cats" is mainly American. A large number +have parents who were born in Europe, but they themselves were born in +this country, and there are thousands whose families have been settled +here for several generations. + +What I have said in regard to the unemployed young men applies also, in +a measure, to the old men; the latter, in many cases, are as much the +victims of _Wanderlust_ as are their youthful companions: but there are +certain special facts which go to explain their vagabondage. The older +men are more frequently confirmed drunkards than are the younger men. +Occasionally during the past year I have met an aged out-of-work who was +a "total abstainer," but nine-tenths of all the mature men were by their +own confession hard drinkers. Whether their loose habits are also +answerable for their love of carping and criticising, and their notion +that they alone know how the world should be run, it is impossible for +me to say; but certain it is that their continual grumbling and scolding +against those who have been more persevering than they is another of the +causes which have brought them to their present unfortunate state. Men +who are unceasingly finding fault with their lot, and yet make no +serious attempt to better it, cannot "get on" very far in this country, +or in any other. + +This type of out-of-work exists everywhere, in Germany, Russia, England, +and France as well as in the United States, but I am not sure that our +particular civilisation, or rather our form of government, has not a +tendency to develop it here a little more rapidly than in any other +country which I have explored. + +It is a popular notion in the United States that every American has the +right to say what he thinks, and my finding is that the love of speaking +one's mind is exceedingly strong among the uneducated people of the +country. Agitators, who go among them, are partly to blame for this, and +I have observed that a number of the expressions used by the "gay-cats" +are the stock phrases of socialistic propagandists, but there is +something in the air they breathe that seems to incite them to +untempered speech. In Germany, where there is certainly far more +governmental interference to rant about, and among an equally +intelligent class of out-of-works who are not allowed for an instant the +freedom of movement permitted the same class in America, there is no +such wild talk as is to be heard among our unemployed. I have met scores +of old men on the railroads whom long indulgence in unconsidered +language has incapacitated for saying anything good about any one of our +institutions, as they conceive them, and they begrudge even their +companions a generous word. Such men, it seems to me, must necessarily +go to the wall, and although a few, perhaps, can advance evidence to +show that circumstances over which they had no control brought them low, +the majority of those that I know have themselves to blame for their +present vagabondage. + +It is furthermore to be remarked concerning these aged out-of-works that +pride and unwillingness to take work outside of their trades have also +been causes of their bankruptcy. The same is true, to some extent, of +all sorts of unemployed men, young and old, but it is particularly true +of "gay-cats" who have passed their thirty-fifth year. I have known them +to tramp and beg for months rather than accept employment which they +considered beneath their training and intelligence. + +It has been a revelation to me to associate with these men and see how +determined they are that the employing class shall have no opportunity +to say: "Ah, ha! we told you so!" Many of them have given up their +positions in a pet, and taken to the "road," with the idea that if they +cannot get what they want they will make the world lodge and feed them +for nothing. To bring out clearly their point of view, I will describe a +man whom I travelled with in Illinois. He had been without employment +for over eight months when I met him, and had just passed his +forty-second year. He expected to get work again before long, and was +passing the time away, until the position was ready for him, travelling +up and down the Illinois Central Railroad. He was a carpenter by +profession, and claimed that for over five years he had never worked at +any other occupation, when he worked at all. + +"I put in three hard years learnin' to be a carpenter," he said, "an' I +ain't goin' to learn another trade now. For awhile I used to take all +kinds o' jobs when I got hard up, but I've got over that. It's +carpenterin' or nothin' with me from now on. You got to put your foot +down in this country or you won't get on at all. + +"If I was married 'n' had kids, o' course I'd have to crawl 'n' take +what I could get, but, seein' I ain't, I'm goin' to be just as stuck up +as any other man that's got somethin' to sell. That's what all men like +us in this country ought to do. The rich have got it into their heads +that they can have us when they want us, 'n' kick us out when they don't +want us, 'n' that's what they've been doin' with the most of us. They +ain't goin' to play with me any more, though. Ten years ago I was better +off than I am now, 'n' I'd be in good shape to-day if it hadn't been for +one o' them trusts." + +"Are you not at all to blame for your present condition?" I asked, +knowing that the man was fond of whiskey. He thought a moment, and then +admitted that he might have squandered less money on "booze," but he +believed that he was entitled to the "fun" that "booze" brings. + +"'Course we workingmen drink," he explained, "'n' a lot of us gets on +our uppers, but ain't we got as much right to get drunk 'n' have a good +time as the rich? I'm runnin' my own life. When I want work I'll work, +'n' when I don't I won't. What we men need is more independence. What +the devil 'ud become o' the world if we refused to work? Couldn't go on +at all. That's what I keep tellin' my carpenter pals. 'Don't take +nothin' outside o' your trade,' I tell 'em, 'n' then the blokes with no +trades'll have a better chance.' But you know how it is,--you might as +well tell the most of 'em not to eat. I have had a little sense knocked +into me. You don't catch me workin' outside o' my trade. I'd rather +bum." + +And, unless he got the job he expected, he is probably still "on the +road." + +Enough, perhaps, has already been said to indicate the general trend of +the philosophy of the "gay-cats," but this account of them will fail to +do them justice if I do not quote them in regard to such matters as +government, religion, and democracy. It has never been my privilege to +hear them contribute anything particularly valuable to a better +understanding of the questions they discuss, but it seems fitting to +report upon some of their conclaves, if only to show how they pass away +much of their time. They have an unconquerable desire to express +themselves on all occasions and on all subjects, and it is no +exaggeration to say that two-thirds of their day passes in talk. + +In regard to the government under which we live, the favourite +expression used to characterise it was the word "fake." + +"Republic!" I heard a man exclaim one day; "this ain't no republic. It's +run by the few just as much as Russia is. There ain't no real republic +in existence. You and I are just as much slaves as the negroes were." + +Not all stated their opinions so strongly as this, and there were some +who believed that on paper, at least, we have a democratic form of +government, but the prevailing notion seemed to be that it was only on +paper. The Republican party is considered as derelict as the Democratic +by these critics. Neither organisation, they contend, is trying to live +up to what a republic ought to stand for, and they see no hope, either +for themselves or anybody else, in any of the existing political +parties. When quizzed about our Constitution and the functions of the +various departments of the government, they all show deplorable +ignorance, but it avails nothing to take them to task on this ground. +"They guessed they knew the facts just about as well as anybody else," +and that was supposed to end the matter. + +Religion, which the majority of the men with whom I talked took to be +synonymous with the word church, was another favourite topic of +discussion. Indeed, as I look back now over my conversations with the +"gay-cats," it seems to me that there was more said on this subject than +any other, and I have observed its popularity as a topic of conversation +among unemployed men in other countries as well. There is something +about it which is very attractive to men who are vagrants, as they +think, because of circumstances over which they had no control, and they +sit and talk by the hour about what they think the church ought to do, +and wherein it fails to accomplish that which it is supposed to have +for a purpose. The men that I met think that the reason that the church +in this country is not more successful in getting hold of people is +because it neglects its duties to the poor. + +"Here you and I are," a young mechanic remarked to me, as we sat in the +cold at a railroad watering-tank, "and what does any church in this town +care about us? Ten chances to one that, excepting the Catholic priest, +every clergyman we might go to for assistance would turn us down. Is +that Christianity? Is that the way religion is going to make you and me +any better? Not on your life. I tell you, the church has got to take +more interest in me before I am going to go out of my way to take much +interest in it." + +"But the church is not a public poor-house," I remonstrated. "You and I +are no more excused than other people from earning our living. If the +church had to take care of all the people who think they're poor, it +would go bankrupt in a day." + +"It's bankrupt already, so far as having any influence over the men that +you and I meet," he replied. "I don't see a man more than once in six +months who goes near a church, and he's generally a Catholic. There's +something wrong, you can bet, when things have got to that pass. If the +church can't interest fellows like us, it's going to have its troubles +interesting anybody." + +There were others who expressed themselves equally strongly, but I was +unable to get any satisfactory suggestion from any of them as to how the +church may be made either more religious or effective. They all had +their notions concerning its defects and shortcomings, but they seemed +unable to tell how these were to be supplanted by merits and virtues. +Many of them impressed me as men who would be capable, under different +conditions, of religious feeling, and there was something pathetic, I +thought, in the way they loved to linger in conversation on the subject +of religion, but in their present circumstances the most inspired church +in the world could not do much with them. They are victims of the +passion for indiscriminate criticism, and I doubt whether they would +know whether a church was doing its duty or not. + +Naturally a never-failing subject for talk was the labour question, and, +under this general head, in particular the importation of foreign labour +by the big corporations. I cannot recall an allusion to their present +circumstances that did not bring this point prominently to the fore, and +on occasions the mere mention of the word "foreigner" was sufficient to +bring out the most violent invectives. In a number of instances they +claimed that they knew absolutely that they had been forced out of +positions to make room for aliens who would work for less money. + +"An American don't count for what he used to in this country," an old +man said to me in Chicago. "The corporations don't care who a man is, so +long as he'll work cheap. 'Course a Dago can live cheaper'n I can, 'n' +so he beats me. I don't blame the Dago, 'cause he's doin' better'n he +did in Italy, anyhow, but I do blame them corporations, 'n' they're +goin' to get it in the neck some day, too. I won't live to see it, +perhaps, but you will. I tell you, Jack, there's goin' to be a +revolution in this country just as sure as this city is Chicago. It's +comin' nearer every day. Just wait till there's about a million more men +on the road, 'n' then you'll see somethin'. It'll beat that French +revolution bang up, take my tip for that." + +This same man, if his companions told the truth, had had a number of +opportunities to succeed, and had let them slip through his hands. Like +hundreds of others, however, he could not bear to admit that he was to +blame for his own defeat in life, and he made the foreigner his +scapegoat. It is, perhaps, true that some foreigners in this country +have ousted some Americans from their positions, but one needs but to +make a journey on any one of the railroads frequented by "gay-cats" to +realise how small a minority of them are tramping because foreigners +have got their jobs. Corporations and trusts may or may not be +beneficial, according to the way one considers them, but, in my opinion, +they are innocent of dealing unfairly by the thousand "gay-cats" that I +have recently interviewed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LAKE SHORE PUSH. + + +Previous to my experience in a railroad police force, I was employed by +the same railroad company in making an investigation of the tramp +situation on the lines under their management. The object of the +investigation was to find out whether the policy pursued by the company +was going to be permanently successful in keeping tramps and +"train-riders" off the property, and to discover how neighbouring roads +dealt with trespassers. Incidentally, I was also to interview tramps +that I met, and ask their opinion of the methods used by the railroad +for which I worked. The first month of the investigation was given up to +roads crossing and recrossing the lines in which I was particularly +interested, and I lived and travelled during this period like a +professional tramp. While on my travels I made the acquaintance of a +very interesting organisation of criminal tramps, which is continually +troubling railroads in the middle West. As I also had to keep watch of +it while on duty as a patrolman, an account of my experience with some +of its members seems to fall within the scope of this book. + +One night, after I had been out about a week on the preliminary +investigation for the railroad, I arrived at Ashtabula, Ohio, on the +Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, in company with a little +Englishman, who, when we registered at the police station where we went +to ask for shelter, facetiously signed himself, George the Fourth. There +are four "stops," as the tramp says, in Ashtabula, three police stations +and the sand-house of the Lake Shore Railroad, and after we had used up +our welcome in the police stations we went to the sand-house. Later, +when we were sure that the police had forgotten us, we returned to the +"calabooses," and made another round of them, but we also spent several +nights at the sand-house. On our first night at the sand-house we +arrived there before the other lodgers had finished their hunt for +supper, and on the principle of "first come first served" we picked out +the best places in the sand. It was early in April, and in Ashtabula at +this season of the year the sand nearest the fire is the most +comfortable. During the evening other men and boys came in, but they +recognised that our early arrival entitled us to the good places, and +they picked out the next best. About ten o'clock we all fell asleep, +leaving barely enough room for the sand-house attendant to move about +and attend to his duties. A little after midnight I was awakened by loud +voices scolding and cursing, and heard a man, whom I could not see, +however, say: + +"Kick the fellow's head off. It's your place right 'nough, teach 'im a +lesson." + +Somebody struck a match then, and I saw two burly men standing over the +little Englishman. They were the roughest-looking customers I have ever +seen anywhere. More matches were struck in different parts of the +sand-house, and I heard men whispering to one another that the two +disturbers were "Lake Shore Push people," and that there was going to be +a fight. + +"Get up, will ye?" one of them said, in a brutal voice to my companion. +"It's a wonder ye wouldn't find a place o' yer own." + +"Hit 'im with the poker," the other advised. "Stave his slats in." + +Then the first speaker made as if he were going to kick the Englishman +in the head with his big hobnailed boot. The Englishman could stand it +no longer, and jumping to his feet and snatching up an empty +sand-bucket, he took a defensive position, and said: + +"Come on, now, if you blokes want a scrap. One o' ye'll go down." + +The crowd seemed only to need this exhibition of grit on the part of the +Britisher to make them rally to his side, and one of them set a ball of +newspapers afire for a light, and the rest grabbed sand-buckets and +pieces of board and made ready to assist the Britisher in "doing up" the +two bullies. The latter wisely decided that fifteen to two was too much +of a disadvantage, and left, threatening to come back with the "push" +and "clean out the entire house," which they failed to do, however, that +night or on any other night that the Englishman and I spent at the +sand-house. + +After they had gone, the crowd gathered around the Englishman, and he +was congratulated on having "put up such a good front" against the two +men. Then began a general discussion of the organisation, or "push," as +it was called, which I could only partially follow. I had been out of +Hoboland for a number of years previous to this experience, and the +"push" was a new institution to me. It was obvious, however, that it +played a very prominent part in the lives of the men at the sand-house, +for each one present had a story to tell of how he had been imposed upon +by it, either on a freight-train or at some stopping-place, in more or +less the same way as the Englishman had been. Had it not been that +questions on my part would have proven me to be a "tenderfoot," which it +was bad policy for one in my position to admit as possible, I should +have made inquiries then and there, for it was plain that the "push" was +an association that ought to interest me also; but all that I learned +that night was that there was a gang of wild characters who were trying +to run the Lake Shore Railroad, so far as Hoboland was concerned, +according to their own wishes and interests, and that there were +constant clashes between them and such men as were gathered together in +the sand-house. There was no mention made of their strength or identity; +the conversation was confined to accounts of their persecutions and +crimes, and to suggestions as to how they could be made to disband. One +man, I remember, said that the only thing to do was to shoot them, one +at a time, on sight, and he declared that he would join a "push" which +would make this task its object as an organisation. "They're the +meanest push this country has ever seen," he added, "an' workin' men as +well as 'boes ought to help do 'em up. They hold up ev'rybody, an' it's +got so that it's all a man's life's worth to ride on this road." + +The following morning, while reading the newspaper, a week or so old, in +which a baker had wrapped up some rolls which I had purchased of him, I +came across a paragraph in the local column, which read something like +this: "A middle-aged man was found dead yesterday morning, lying in the +bushes near the railroad track between Girard and Erie. His neck was +broken, and it is thought that he is another victim of the notorious +'Lake Shore gang.' The supposition is that he was beating his way on a +freight-train when the gang overtook him, and that, after robbing him, +they threw him off the train." + +After reading this paragraph, I strolled down the Lake Shore tracks to +the west, until I came to the coal-chutes, where tramp camps are to be +found the year round. As many as fifty men can be seen here on +occasions, sitting around fires kept up by the railroad company's coal, +and "dope" from the wheel-boxes of freight-cars. I found two camps on +the morning in question, one very near the coal chutes, and the other +about a quarter of a mile farther on. There were about a dozen men at +the first, and not quite thirty at the second. I halted at the first, +thinking that both were camps where all roadsters would be welcome. I +had hardly taken a seat on one of the ties, and said, "How are you?" +when a dirty-looking fellow of about fifty years asked me, in sarcasm, +as I afterward learned, if I had a match. "S'pose y' ain't got a piece +o' wood with a little brimstone on the end of it, have ye?" were his +words. I replied that I had, and was about to hand him one, when a +general grin ran over the faces of the men, and I heard a man near me, +say, "Tenderfoot, sure." It was plain that there was something either in +my make-up or manner which was not regular, but I was not left long in +suspense as to what it was. The dirty man with the gray hair explained +the situation. "This is our fire, our camp, an' our deestrict," he said +in a gruff voice, "an' you better go off an' build one o' yer own. Ye've +got a match, ye say?" the intonation of his voice sneeringly suggesting +the interrogation. There was nothing to do but go, and I went, but I +gave the camp a minute "sizing up" as I left. The men were having what +is called in tramp parlance a "store-made scoff." They had bought eggs, +bread, butter, meat, and potatoes in Ashtabula, and were in the midst of +their breakfast when I came upon them. In looks they were what a tramp +companion of mine once described as "blowed in the glass stiffs." It is +not easy to explain to one who has never been in Hoboland and learned +instinctively to appraise roadsters what this expression signifies, but +in the present instance it means that depravity was simply dripping off +them. Their faces were "tough" and dirty, their clothes were tattered +and torn, their voices were rasping and coarse, and their general +manner was as mean as human nature is capable of. To compare them to a +collection of rowdies with which the reader is acquainted, I would say +that they resembled very closely the tramps pictured in the illustrated +edition of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper." Their average age +was about thirty-five years, but several were fifty and over, and others +were under twenty. The clever detective would probably have picked them +out for what they were, "hobo guns,"--tramp thieves and "hold-up" +men,--but the ordinary citizen would have classified them merely as +"dirty tramps," which would also have been the truth, but not the whole +truth. + +I learned more definitely about them at the second camp, where a welcome +was extended to everybody. "Got the hot-foot at the other camp, I +guess?" a young fellow said to me as I sat down beside him, and I +admitted the fact. "Those brutes wouldn't do a favour to their own +mothers," he went on. "We've jus' been chewin' the rag 'bout goin' over +an' havin' a scrap with 'em. There's enough of us this mornin' to lay +'em out." + +"Who are they?" + +"Some o' the Lake Shore gang. They jump in an' out o' here ev'ry few +days. There's a lot more o' them down at Painesville. They're scattered +all along the line. Las' night some of 'em held up those two +stone-masons settin' over there on that pile o' ties. Took away their +tools, an' made 'em trade clothes. Caught 'em in a box-car comin' East. +Shoved guns under their noses, an' the masons had to cough up." + +A few nights after this experience, and again in company with my friend, +George the Fourth, I applied for lodging at the police station at +Ashtabula Harbour. We made two of the first four to be admitted on the +night in question, and picked out, selfishly, it is true, but entirely +within our rights, two cells near the fire. We had made up our beds on +the cell benches out of our coats and newspapers, and were boiling some +coffee on the stove preparatory to going to sleep, when four newcomers, +whom I had seen at the "push's" camp, were ushered in. They went +immediately to the cells we had chosen, and, seeing that our things were +in them, said: "These your togs in here?" We "allowed" that they were. +"Take 'em out, then, 'cause these are our cells." + +"How your cells?" asked George. + +"See here, young fella, do as yer told. See?" + +"No, I don't see. You're not so warm." And George drew out his razor. +The men must have seen something in his eyes which cowed them, for they +chose other cells. I expected that they would maul us unmercifully +before morning, but we were left in peace. + +One more episode: One afternoon George and I decided that it was time +for us to be on the move again, and we boarded a train of empty cars +bound West. We had ridden along pleasantly enough for about ten miles, +taking in the scenery through the slats of the car, when we saw three +men climb down the side of the car. George whispered "Lake Shore Push" +to me the minute we saw them, and we both knew that we were to be "held +up," if the fellows ever got at us. It was a predicament which called +for a cool head and quick action, and George the Fourth had both. He +addressed the invaders in a language peculiar to men of the road and +distinctive mainly on account of its expletives, and wound up his +harangue with the threat that the first man who tried to open the door +would have his hand cut off. And he flashed his ubiquitous razor as +evidence of his ability to carry out the threat. The engineer +fortunately whistled just then for a watering-tank, and the men +clambered back to the top of the car, and we saw them no more. + +So much for my personal experience with the "Lake Shore Push" as a +possible victim; they failed to do me any harm, but it was not their +fault. They interested me so much that I spent two weeks on the Lake +Shore Railroad in order to learn the truth concerning them. I reasoned +that if such an organisation as they seemed to be was possible on one +railroad property, it might easily develop on another, and I deemed it +worth while to inform myself in regard to their origin, strength, and +purpose. Nearly every other newspaper that I came across, while +travelling in this district, made some reference to them, but always in +an indefinite way which showed that even the police reporter had not +been able to find out much about them. They were always spoken of as the +"infamous" or "notorious Lake Shore gang," and all kinds of crimes were +supposed to have been committed by them, but there was nothing in any of +the newspaper paragraphs which gave me any clue as to their identity. In +the course of my investigations I ran across a man by the name of Peg +Kelley, who had known me years before in the far West, and with whom I +had tramped at different times. We went over in detail, I romancing a +little, our experiences in the interval of time since our last meeting, +and he finally confessed to me that he was a member of the "Lake Shore +Push," and added that he was prepared to suggest my name for membership. +From him I got what he claims are the facts in regard to the "push." To +the best of my knowledge, never before in our history has an association +of outlaws developed on the same lines as has the "Lake Shore Push," and +it stands alone in the purpose for which it now exists. + +In the early seventies, some say in 1874, and others a little earlier, +there lived in a row of old frame houses standing on, or near, the site +of the present Lake View Park in Cleveland, Ohio, a collection of +professional criminals, among whom were six fellows called New Orleans +Tom, Buffalo Slim, Big Yellow, Allegheny B., Looking Glass Jack, and +Garry. The names of these particular men are given, because Peg Kelley +believes that they constituted the nucleus of the present "Lake Shore +Push." They are probably all dead by this time; at any rate, the word +"push" was not current tramp slang in their day, and they referred to +themselves merely as the "gang." Cleveland was their headquarters, and +it is reported that the town was a sort of Mecca for outlaws throughout +the neighbouring vicinity. The main "graft," or business, of the gang, +was robbing merchandise cars, banks, post-offices, and doing what is +called "slough work," robbing locked houses. The leader of the company, +if such men can be said to have a leader, was New Orleans Tom, who is +described as a typical Southern desperado. He had been a sailor before +joining the gang, and claimed that during the Civil War he was captured +by Union soldiers and sailors, while on the _Harriet Lane_, lying off +Galveston. The gang grew in numbers as the years went on, and there is a +second stage in its development when Danny the Soldier, as he was +called, seems to have taken Slim's place in leadership. By 1880, +although still not called "The Lake Shore Push," the gang had made a +name for itself, or, rather, a "record," to use the word which the men +themselves would have preferred, and had become known to tramps and +criminals throughout northern Ohio and southern Michigan. The police got +after them from time to time, and there were periods when they were +considerably scattered, but whenever they came together again, even in +twos and threes, it was recognised that pals were meeting pals. When +members of the gang died or were sent to limbo, it was comparatively +easy to fill their places either with "talent" imported from other +districts, or with local fellows who were glad to become identified with +a mob. There has always been a rough element in such towns as Cleveland, +Toledo, Erie, and Buffalo, from which gangs could be recruited; it is +composed largely of "lakers," men who work on the lakes during the open +season, and live by their wits in winter time. This class has +contributed its full share to the criminal population of the country, +and has always been heavily represented in mobs and gangs along the lake +shore. + +Opinions differ, Peg Kelley claims, as to when the name "Lake Shore +Push" was first used by the gang, as well as to who invented it, but it +is his opinion, and I have none better to offer, that it was late in the +eighties when it was first suggested, and that it was outsiders, such +as transient roadsters, who made the expression popular. He says, in +regard to this point: + +"The gang was known to hang out along the lake shore, an' mainly on the +Lake Shore Road, an' 'boes from other States kep' seein' 'em an' hearin' +about 'em when they came this way. Well, ye know how 'boes are. If they +see a bloke holdin' down a district they give 'im the name o' the place, +an' that's the way the gang got its monikey (nickname). The 'boes kep' +talkin' about the push holdin' down the Lake Shore Road, an' after +awhile they took to callin' it the 'Lake Shore Push.' + +"Ev'ry 'bo in the country knows the name now. Way out in 'Frisco, 'f +they know 't ye've come from 'round here they'll ask ye 'bout the push, +if it's what it's cracked up to be, an' all that kind o' thing. It's got +the biggest rep of any 'bo push in the country." + +The story of how the "push" got its "rep" is best told by Peg, and in +his own words. I have been at considerable pains to verify his +statements, and have yet to discover him in wilful misrepresentation. He +admits that the "push" has done some dastardly deeds, and appreciates +perfectly why it is so hated by out-of-works who have to "beat" their +way on trains which run through its territory, but he believes that it +could not have been otherwise, considering the purpose for which the +"push" was organised. + +"Ye can't try to monopolise anythin', Cigarette," he said to me, +"without gettin' into a row with somebody, an' that's been the +'xperience o' the push. When there was jus' that Cleveland gang, nobody +said nothin', 'cause they didn't try to run things, but the minute the +big push came ev'rybody was talkin', an' they're chewin' the rag yet." + +"Who first thought of organising the big push?" + +"I don't know 't any one bloke thought of it. It was at the time that +trusts an' syndicates an' that kind o' thing was beginnin' to be +pop'lar, an' the blokes had been readin' 'bout 'em in the newspapers. I +was out West then,--it was in '89,--an' didn't know 'bout the push one +way or the other, but from what the blokes tell me the idea came to all +of 'em 'bout the same time. Ye see, that Cleveland gang had kep' growin' +an' growin' an' spreadin' out, an' after awhile there was a big mob of +'em floatin' up an' down the road here. Blokes from other places had got +into it, an' they'd got to be the biggest push on the line. There was no +partickler leader, the way the James and Dalton gangs had leaders, an' +there never has been. 'Course the newspapers try to make out that this +fella an' that fella runs the thing, but they don't know what they're +talkin' 'bout. The bigger the gang got, the more room it wanted, an' +pretty soon they began to get a grouch on against the gay-cats that kep' +comin' to their camps. Ye know how it is yourself. When ye've got +'customed to a push, ye don't want to have to mix with a lot o' +strangers, an' that's the way the gang felt, an' they got to drivin' the +gay-cats away from their camps. That started 'em to wonderin' why they +shouldn't have the Lake Shore Road all to themselves. As I was tellin' +ye, trusts an' syndicates was gettin' into the air 'bout that time, an' +the push didn't see why it couldn't have one too; an' they begun to have +reg'lar fights with the gay-cats. I came into the push jus' about the +time the scrappin' began. I ain't speshully fond o' scrappin', but I did +like the idea o' dividin' up territory. There's no use talkin', Cig, if +all the 'boes in the country 'ud do what we been tryin' to do, there'd +be a lot more money in the game. Take the Erie Road, the Pennsy, the +Dope,[1] an' the rest of 'em. Ye know as well as I do, 't if the 'boes +on those lines 'ud organise an' keep ev'ry bum off of 'em 't wasn't in +the push, an' 'ud keep the push from gettin' too large, they'd be a lot +better off. 'Course there's got to be scrappin' to do the thing, but +that don't need to interfere. See how the trusts an' syndicates scrap +till they get what they want, an' see how many throats they cut. We've +thrown bums off trains, I won't deny it, an' we hold up ev'ry one of +'em 't we can get hold of, but ain't that what the trusts are doin', +too?" + +I asked him whether the "push" distinguished or not in the people it +halted. + +"If a reg'lar 'bo, a fella 't we know by name," he went on, "will open +up an' tell us who he is, an' his graft, we'll let 'im go, but we tell +'im that the world's gettin' smaller 'n' smaller, 'n' 't he'd better get +a cinch on a part of it, too. That don't mean 't he can join the push, +an' he knows it. He understan's what we're drivin' at. He can ride on +the road 'f he likes, but he'll get sick o' bein' by himself all the +time, an' 'll take a mooch after awhile. 'Course all don't do it, ye've +seen yerself that there's hunderds runnin' up an' down the line 't we +ain't got rid of, an' p'r'aps never will. I ain't so dead sure that the +thing's goin' to work, but the coppers'll never break us up, anyhow. +They've been tryin' now for years, an' they've got some of the blokes +settled, but we can fill their places the minute they've gone." + +"How many are in the push?" + +"'Bout a hunderd an' fifty. Sometimes there's more an' sometimes +there's less, but it aver'ges 'bout that." + +"Do all the fellows come from around here?" + +"No, not half of 'em. There's fellas from all over; a lot of 'em are +Westerners." + +"What is the main graft?" + +"Well, we're diggin' into these cars right along. We got plants all +along the road, from Buffalo to Chi. I can fit ye out in a new suit o' +clothes to-morrow, 'f ye want to go up the line with me." + +"Don't the railroad people trouble you?" + +"O' course, they ain't lookin' on while we're robbin' 'em, but they +can't do very much. We got the trainmen pretty well scared, an' when +they get too rambunctious we do one of 'em up." + +"Do you ever shift to other roads?" + +"Lately we've branched out a little over on the Dope an' the Erie, but +the main hang-outs are on the Shore. We know this road down to the +ground, an' we ain't so sure o' the others. Most o' the post-office +work, though, is done off this road." + +"What kind of work is that?" + +"Peter-work,[2] o' course, what d'ye think?" + +"Pan out pretty well?" + +"Don't get much cash, but the stamps are jus' about as good. Awhile ago +I was payin' fer ev'rythin' in stamps. Felt like one o' the old +fourth-class postmasters." + +"Doesn't the government get after you?" + +"Oh, it's settled some of us, but as I was tellin' ye, there's always +fellas to take the empty places." + +"Got much fall money?" + +"No, not a bit. We don't save anythin', it all goes fer booze an' grub. +I've seen a big box o' shoes go fer two kegs o' beer, an' ye can't get +much fall money out o' that kind o' bargaining. We have a good time, +though, an' we're the high-monkey-monks o' this road." + +Later he introduced me to some of his companions. They were the same +kind of men with whom the Englishman and I had had the disagreeable +encounters,--rough and vicious-looking. "They're not bad fellas, are +they?" Peg asked, when we were alone again. "You'd tie up to them, Cig, +'f ye was on the Shore, I know ye would." + +It was useless to argue with him, and we separated, he to join a +detachment of the "push" in western New York, and I to continue on my +way westward. Since the meeting with Peg I have been back several times +in the "push's" territory, and have continued to make acquaintances in +it. In the tramp's criminal world it stands for the most successful form +of syndicated lawlessness known up to date, and, unless soon broken up +and severely dealt with, it will serve as a pattern for other +organisations. Whether it is copied or not, however, when the history of +crime in the United States is written, and a very interesting history it +will be, the "Lake Shore Push" must be given by the historian a +prominent place in his classification of criminal mobs. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. + +[2] A "Peter-man" is a safe-"blower," and Peter-work is safe-breaking. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW TRAMPS BEG. + + +It is a popular notion that tramps have a mysterious sign-language in +which they communicate secrets to one another in regard to professional +matters. It is thought, for instance, that they make peculiar chalk and +pencil marks on fences and horse-blocks, indicating to the brotherhood +such things as whether a certain house is "good" or not, where a +ferocious dog is kept, at what time the police are least likely, or most +likely, to put in an appearance, how late in the morning a barn can be +occupied before the farmer will be up and about, and where a convenient +chicken-coop is located. + +Elaborate accounts have been written in newspapers about the amount of +information they give to one another in this way, and many persons +believe that tramps rely on a sign-language in their begging. + +It is well to state at the outset that this is a false conception of +their methods. They all have jargons and lingoes of their own choosing +and making, and they converse in them when among themselves, but the +reported puzzling signs and marks which are supposed to obviate all +verbal speech are a fabrication so far as the majority of roadsters are +concerned. Among the "Blanket Stiffs" in the far West, and among the +"Bindle Men," "Mush Fakirs," and "Turnpikers," of the middle West, the +East, and Canada, there exists a crude system of marking "good" houses, +but these vagrants do not belong to the rank and file of the tramp army, +and are comparatively few in numbers. + +It is furthermore to be said that the marking referred to is occasional +rather than usual. Probably one of the main reasons why the public has +imagined that tramps use hieroglyphics, in their profession is that when +charity is shown to one of them the giver is frequently plagued with a +visitation from a raft of beggars. + +This phenomenon, however, is easily explained without recourse to the +sign-language theory. Outside of nearly all towns of ten thousand +inhabitants and more the tramps have little camps or "hang-outs," where +they make their headquarters while "working" the community. Naturally +they compare notes at meal-time, and if one beggar has discovered what +he considers an easy "mark,"--a good house,--he tells his pals about it, +so that they may also get the benefit of its hospitality. The finder of +the house cannot visit it himself again until his face has been +forgotten, at any rate he seldom does visit it more than once during a +week's stay in the town; but his companions can, so he tells them where +it is, and what kind of a story they must use. + +Although the hoboes do not make use of the marks and signs with which +the popular fancy has credited them, they have a number of interesting +theories about begging and a large variety of clever ruses to deceive +people, and it is well for the public to keep as up-to-date in regard to +these matters as they keep in regard to the public's sympathies. Not all +tramps are either clever or successful; the "road" is travelled by a +great many more amateurs than professionals, but it is the earnest +endeavour of all at least to make a living, and there are thousands who +make something besides. + +Roughly estimated, there are from sixty to seventy-five thousand tramps +in the United States, and probably a fifth of all may be classified as +"first-class" tramps. There is a second and a third class, and even a +fourth, but it is the "A Number One men," as they call themselves, who +are the most interesting. + +The main distinction between these tramps and the less successful +members of the craft is that they have completely conquered the +amateur's squeamishness about begging. It seems comparatively easy to go +to a back door and ask for something to eat, and the mere wording of the +request is easy,--all too easy,--but the hard part of the transaction is +to screw up courage enough to open the front gate. The beginner in +tramp life goes to a dozen front gates before he can brace himself for +the interview at the back door, and there are men to whom a vagrant life +is attractive who never overcome the "tenderfoot's" bashfulness. + +It was once my lot to have a rather successful professional burglar for +a companion on a short tramp trip in the middle West. We had come +together in the haphazard way that all tramp acquaintanceships are +formed. We met at a railroad watering-tank. The man's sojourn in +trampdom, however, was only temporary; it was a good hiding-place until +the detectives should give up the hunt for him. He had "planted" his +money elsewhere, and meanwhile he had to take his chances with the +"'boes." + +He was not a man who would ordinarily arouse much pity, but a tramp +could not have helped having sympathy for him at meal-time. At every +interview he had at back doors he was seized with the "tenderfoot's" +bashfulness, and during the ten days that our companionship lasted he +got but one "square meal." His profession of robber gave him no +assistance. + +"I can steal," he said, "go into houses at night, and take my chances in +a shootin' scrape, but I'll be ---- if I can beg. 'Taint like swipin'. +When ye swipe, ye don't ask no questions, an' ye don't answer none. In +this business ye got to cough up yer whole soul jus' to get a lump +(hand-out). I'd rather swipe." + +This is the testimony of practically all beginners in the beggar's +business; at the start thieving seems to them a much easier task. As the +weeks and months pass by, however, they become hardened and discover +that their "nerve" needs only to be developed to assert itself, and the +time comes when nothing is so valuable that they do not feel justified +in asking for it. They then definitely identify themselves with the +profession and build up reputations as "first-class" tramps. + +Each man's experience suggests to him how this reputation can best be +acquired. One man, for example, finds that he does best with a "graft" +peculiarly his own, and another discovers that it is only at a certain +time of the year, or in a particular part of the country, that he comes +out winner. The tramp has to experiment in all kinds of ways ere he +understands himself or his public, and he makes mistakes even after an +apprenticeship extending over years of time. + +In every country where he lives, however, there is a common fund of +experience and fact by which he regulates his conduct in the majority of +cases. It is the collective testimony of generations and generations of +tramps who have lived before him, and he acts upon it in about the same +way that human beings in general act upon ordinary human experience. + +Emergencies arise when his own ingenuity alone avails and the "average +finding" is of no use to him, and on such occasions he makes a note on +the case and reports about it at the next "hang-out" conclave. If he has +invented something of real value, a good begging story, for instance, +and it is generally accepted as good, it is labelled "Shorty's Gag," or +"Slim's," as the man's name may be, and becomes his contribution to the +general collection of "gags." + +It is the man who has memorised the greatest number of "gags" or "ghost +stories," as they are also called, and can handle them deftly as +circumstances suggest, that is the most successful beggar. There are +other requirements to be observed, but unless a man has a good stock of +stories with which to "fool" people, he cannot expect to gain a foothold +among "the blowed in the glass stiffs." He must also keep continually +working over his stock. "Ghost stories" are like bonnets; those that +were fashionable and _comme il faut_ last year are this year out of +date, and they must be changed to suit new tastes and conditions, or be +replaced by new ones. Frequently a fresh version of an old story has to +be improvised on the spot, so to speak. + +The following personal experience illustrates under what circumstances +"gags" are invented. It also shows how even the professionals forget +themselves and their pose on occasions. + +One morning, about eight years ago, I arrived in a small town in the +Mohawk valley in company with a tramp called Indianapolis Red. We had +ridden all night in a box-car in the hope of reaching New York by +morning, but the freight had been delayed on account of a wreck, and we +were so hungry when we reached the town in question that we simply had +to get off and look for something to eat. It was not a place, as we well +knew, where tramps were welcome, but the train would not stop again at a +town of any size until long after breakfast, so we decided to take our +chances. + +We had an hour at our disposal until the next "freight" was due. The +great question was what story we should tell, and we both rummaged +through our collections to find a good one. Finally, after each of us +had suggested a number of different stories and had refused them in +turn, on the ground that they were too old for such a "hostile" place, +Red suggested that we try "the deef 'n' dum' gag." There are several +"gags" of this description, and I asked him which one he meant. + +"Let's work it this way," he said, and he began to improvise. "I'm your +deef 'n' dum' brother, see? An' we're on our way to New York, where I'm +going to get a job. I'm a clerk, and you're seein' me down to the city +so's't nothin'll happen to me. Our money's given out, an' we've simply +got to ask fer assistance. We're ter'bly hungry, an' you want to know if +the lady o' the house'll be good enough to help yer brother along. See?" + +I "saw" all right, and accepted the proposition, but the odds seemed +against us, because the town was one of the most unfriendly along the +line. We picked out a house near the track. As a rule such houses have +been "begged out," but we reasoned that if our story would go at all it +would go there, and besides the house was convenient for catching the +next freight-train. + +As we approached the back door I was careful to talk to Red on my +fingers, thinking that somebody might be watching us. A motherly old +lady answered our knock. I told her Red's story in my best manner, +filling it out with convincing details. She heard me out, and then +scrutinised Red in the way that we all look at creatures who are +peculiar or abnormal. Then she smiled and invited us into the +dining-room where the rest of the family were at breakfast. It turned +out to be a Free Methodist clergyman's household. We were given places +at the table, and ate as rapidly as we could, or rather Red did; I was +continually being interrupted by the family asking me questions about my +"unfortunate brother." + +"Was he born that way?" they asked, in hushed voices. "How did he learn +to write? Can he ever get well?" and other like queries which I had to +answer in turn. By the time I had finished my meal, however, I saw by a +clock on the wall that we had still fifteen minutes to catch our train, +and gave Red a nudge under the table as a hint that we ought to be +going. We were about to get up and thank our hostess for her kindness +when the man of the house, the clergyman, suggested that we stay to +family prayers. + +"Glad to have you," he said; "if you can remain. You may get good out of +it." I told him frankly that we wanted to catch a train and had only a +few minutes to spare, but he assured me that he would not be long and +asked me to explain the situation to Red. I did so with my fingers, +telling the parson afterward that Red's wiggling of his fingers meant +that he would be delighted to stay, but a wink of his left eye, meant +for me alone, said plainly enough to "let the prayers go." + +We stood committed, however, and there was nothing to do but join the +family in the sitting-room, where I was given a Bible to read two +verses, one for Red and one for myself. This part of the program +finished, the parson began to pray. All went well until he came to that +part of his prayer where he referred to the "unfortunate brother in our +midst," and asked that Red's speech and hearing be restored. + +Just then Red heard the whistle of our freight. He forgot everything, +all that I had said and all that he had tried to act out, and with a +wild whoop he sprang for the door, shouting back to me, as he went out: + +"Hustle, Cigarette, there's our rattler." + +There was nothing to do but follow after him as fast as my legs would +carry me, and I did so in my liveliest manner. I have never been in the +town since this experience, and it is to be hoped that the parson's +family have forgiven and forgotten both Red and me. + +Besides studying the persons of whom he begs, and to whom he adapts his +"ghost stories" as their different natures require, the tramp also has +to keep in mind the time of the day, the state of the weather, and the +character of the community in which he is begging. I refer, of course, +to the expert tramp. The amateur blunders on regardless of these +important details, and asks for things which have no relation with the +time of the day, the season, or the locality. + +It is bad form, for instance, to ask early in the morning for money to +buy a glass of whiskey, and it is equally inopportune to request a +contribution toward the purchase of a railway ticket late at night. The +"tenderfoot" is apt to make both of these mistakes; the expert, never. +The steady patrons of beggars, and all old hands at the business have +such, seldom realise how completely adjusted to local conditions "ghost +stories" are. They probably think that they have heard the story told to +them time and again and in the same way, but if they observe carefully +they will generally find that, either in the modulation of the voice, or +the tone of expression, it is different on rainy days, for instance, +from what it is when the sun shines. It takes a trained ear to +discriminate, and expert beggars realise that much of their finesse is +lost even on persons who give to them; but they are artists in their +way, and believe in "art for art's sake." Then, too, it is always +possible that they will encounter somebody who will appreciate their +talent, and this is also a gratification. + +Speaking generally, there is more begging done in winter than in summer, +and in the East and North than in the South and West; but some of the +cleverest begging takes place in the warm months. It is comparatively +easy to get something to eat and a bed in a lodging-house when the +thermometer stands ten degrees below zero. A man feels mean in refusing +an appeal to his generosity at this time of the year. "I may be cold and +hungry some day myself," he thinks, and he gives the beggar a dime or +two. + +In summer, on the other hand, the tramp has no freezing weather to help +him out, and has to invent excuses. Even a story of "no work" is of +little use in the summer. This is the season, as a rule, when work is +most plentiful, and when wages are highest, and the tramp knows it, and +is aware that the public also understands this much of political +economy. Nevertheless, he must live in summer as well as in winter, and +he has to plan differently for both seasons. + +The main difference between his summer and winter campaigns is that he +generally travels in summer, taking in the small towns where people are +less "on to him," and where there are all kinds of free "dosses" (places +to sleep), in the shape of barns and empty houses. In November he +returns to the cities again to get the benefit of the cold weather +"dodge," or goes South to Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. + +Probably fifteen thousand Eastern and Northern tramps winter in the +South every year. Their luck there seems to be entirely individual; some +do well and others barely live. They are all glad, however, to return to +the North in April and go over their old routes again. + +An amusing experience that I had not long ago illustrates the different +kind of tactics necessary in the tramp's summer campaign. So far as I +know, he has never made use of the story that did me such good service, +and that was told in all truthfulness, but it has since occurred to me +that he might find it useful, and I relate it here so that the reader +may not be taken unawares if some tramp should attempt to get the +benefit of it. + +I was travelling with some tramps in western Pennsylvania at the time, +and we were "beating" our way on a freight-train toward a town where we +expected to spend the night. Noontime found us all hungry, and we got +off the train at a small village to look for lunch. It was such a small +place that it was decided that each man should pick out his particular +"beat," and confine his search to the few houses it contained. If some +failed to get anything, those who were more successful were to bring +them back "hand-outs." + +My "beat" was so sparsely settled that I hardly expected to get so much +as a piece of bread, because the entire village was known to hate +tramps; but an inspiration came to me as I was crossing the fields, and +I got a "set-down" and a "hand-out" at the first house I visited. + +The interview at the back door ran thus: + +"Madam,"--she was rather a severe-looking woman,--"I have exactly five +cents in my pocket and I am awfully hungry. I know that you don't keep a +boarding-house, but I have come to you thinking that you will give me +more for my nickel than the storekeeper will over in the village. I +shall be obliged to you if you will help me out." + +A look of surprise came into the woman's face. I was a new species to +her, and I knew it, and she knew it. + +"Don't know whether we've got anything you want," she said, as if I were +a guest rather than a wayfarer. + +"Anything will do, madam, anything," I replied, throwing into my words +all the sincerity of which a hungry man is capable. She invited me into +the dining-room, and gave me a most satisfying meal. There were no +conversational interruptions. I ate my meal in silence and the woman +watched me. The new species interested her. + +Just as I was finishing, she put some sandwiches, cake, and pie into a +newspaper. I had made a good impression. + +"There," she said, as I was about to go. "You may need it." + +I held out my nickel and thanked her. She blushed, and put her hands +behind her back. + +"I don't keep a hotel," she said, rather indignantly. + +"But, madam, I want to pay you. I'm no beggar." + +"You wouldn't have got it if you had been. Good-bye." + +The tramps' methods of begging, as has been said, are largely regulated +by circumstances and experience, but even the amateurs have theories +about the profession, and they are never more interesting than when +sitting around some "hang-out" camp-fire, discussing their notions of +the kind of "ghost stories" that go best with different sorts of people. +Indeed, the bulk of their time is passed in conferences of this +character. Each man, like the passionate gambler, has a "system," and he +enjoys "chewing the rag" about its intricacies. The majority of the +systems are founded on the tramp's knowledge of women. Taking the +country by and large, he sees more of women on his begging tours than +of men, and it is only natural that his theoretical calculations should +be busied mainly with women. Some tramps believe that they can tell to a +nicety what a blonde woman will give in excess of a brunette, or vice +versa, and the same of a large woman in contra-distinction to a small +one. Much of their theorising in these matters is as futile as is the +gambler's estimate of his chances of luck, but certain it is that after +a long apprenticeship they become phenomenally accurate in "sizing up" +people; and it is he who can correctly "size up" the greatest number of +people at first glance and adapt himself to their peculiarities, that +comes out winner in the struggle. + +Next in importance to the ability to appraise correctly the generous +tendencies of his patrons, and to modulate his voice and to concoct +stories according to their tastes, come the tramp's clothes and the way +he wears them. It probably seems to most persons that the tramp never +changes his clothes, and that he always looks as tattered and torn as +when they happen to see him, but the expert has almost as many +"changes" as the actor. Some days he dresses very poorly; this is +generally the case in winter; and on other days he looks as neat and +clean as the ordinary business man. It all depends on the weather and +the "beat" he has chosen for the day's work. Every morning, before he +starts out on his tour, he takes a look at the weather and decides upon +his "beat." The "beat" selected, he puts on the "togs" which he thinks +suit the weather, and away he goes for better or worse. In New York city +there are probably a hundred scientific beggars of this character, and +they live as well as does the man with a yearly income of $2,000. + +Sunday is the most dismal day in the week to the average tramp,--the +beggar who is content with his three meals a day and a place to lie down +in at night. But few men who go on tramp for the first time expect that +Sunday is going to be any different from any other day in the week. They +usually reach "the road" on a week-day after a debauch, and they find +that their soiled clothes and general unkempt condition differentiate +them in public thoroughfares very little from hundreds of workingmen. No +policeman worries them with suspicious glances, and in large cities they +pass unchallenged even in the dead of night. Indeed, they receive so +little notice from any one that they wonder how they had ever imagined +that outcasts were such marked human beings. + +Then comes their first Sunday. They get up out of their hayloft, or +wherever it may be that they lay down the night before, prepared to look +for their breakfast just as they did on the previous day, and after +brushing off their clothes and washing themselves at some pump or public +faucet, they start out. In a small town they feel that something is +wrong before they have gone a block, and by nine o'clock in large towns +they decide to go without their breakfast if they have not yet got it. A +change has come over the earth; they seem out of place even to +themselves, and they return through back streets to their lodging-houses +or retreats on the outskirts of the town, sincerely regretting that +they are travellers of "the road." + +A number of men in the world have to thank this Sunday nausea that they +are to-day workers and not tramps. The latter feel the effects of it to +the end of their days; it is as unescapable as death, but like certain +seafaring men who never get entirely free of seasickness and yet +continue as sailors, so old vagabonds learn to expect and endure the +miserable sensations which they experience on the first day of the week. +These sensations are due to the remnant of manhood which is to be found +in nearly all tramps. The majority of them are for all practical +purposes outcasts, but at breakfast-time, on Sunday morning, they have +emotions which on week-days no one would give them credit for. + +It was my fate, some years ago, to be one of a collection of wanderers +who had to while away a Sunday in a "dugout" on a bleak prairie in +western Kansas. We had nothing to eat or drink and practically nothing +to talk about except our dismal lot. Toward nightfall we got to +discussing in all earnestness the miserableness of our existence, and I +have always remembered the remarks of a fellow sufferer whom we called +"West Virginia Brown." He was supposed to be the degenerate scion of a +noble English family, and was one of the best educated men I have ever +met in Hoboland. He took little part in the general grumbling, but at +last there was a lull in the conversation, and he spoke up. + +"I wonder," he said, "whether the good people who rest on Sunday, go to +church, and have their best dinner in the week, realise how life is +turned upside down for us on that day. There have always been men like +us in the world, and it is for us as much as for any one, so far as I +know, that religion exists, and yet the day in the week set apart for +religion is the hardest of all for us to worry through. Was it, or +wasn't it, the intention that outcasts were to have religion? The way +things are now, we are made to look upon Sunday and all that it means +with hatred, and yet I don't believe that there's any one in the world +who tries to be any squarer to his pals than we do, and that's what I +call being good." + +The last "the road" knew of Brown, he was serving a five years' sentence +in a Canadian prison. His lot cannot be pleasant, but methinks that on +Sundays, at least, he is glad that he is not "outside." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE TRAMP'S POLITICS. + + +As a political party the tramps cannot be said to amount to much. +Counting "gay-cats" and hoboes, the two main wings of the army, they are +numerous enough, if concentrated in a single State, or in a city like +New York, to cast, perhaps, the determining vote in a close election, +but they are so scattered that they never become a formidable political +organisation. They are more in evidence in the East than in the West, +and in the North than in the South, but they are to be met in every +State and Territory in the Union. On account of their migratory habits +very few of them are legally entitled to vote, and the probability is +that only a small fraction of them actively take part in elections. In +large cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, +and during fiercely fought political struggles even in some of the +smaller towns, they are collected into colonies by unscrupulous +electioneering specialists, and paid to vote as they are told, but +otherwise they make very little effort to have their voices count in +political affairs. Two of their number, Indiana Blackie and Railroad +Jack, have achieved some notoriety as stump speakers, and Blackie was a +man who might have secured political preferment,--a consulship, +perhaps,--if he had understood how to keep sober, but he broke down +during a campaign in West Virginia, and was drowned not long after in +the Ohio River. In Wheeling, West Virginia, I heard him make one of the +wittiest political speeches I have ever heard anywhere, and his hearers +listened to him as attentively as a few evenings before they had +listened to a famous politician. The speech was no sooner ended, +however, than Blackie went off on a terrible "jag," and I saw him at +noon the next day, looking for a wash-boiler. He was splattered all +over with mud, and did not know whether he was in West Virginia or +Indiana. He finally concluded from the colour of the mud that he was out +in Wyoming. + +Although the tramps have no comprehensive political organisation, and +take but little interest in voting, except when their ballots bring in +hard cash, they are great talkers on political questions of the day, and +are continually championing the cause of some well-known political +leader. As a class, they may be called _Geister die stets +verneinen_,--they are almost invariably in opposition to the party in +power. Since the last presidential election Mr. William Jennings Bryan +has been their hero, and they expect of him, if his ambition to be +President is ever gratified, a release from all the troubles which they +think are now oppressing the country, and particularly themselves. They +have, without doubt, misconstrued a great deal that Mr. Bryan has said +in his speeches and writings; they have pinned their faith to him +without carefully considering his promises; but in something that he +has said or done, or in his personality, they have discovered, they +think, the elements of leadership, which, for the nonce, at any rate, +they admire. There is not a man in the country at the present moment, +for whom they would shout as much, and in whose honour they would get so +drunk, as for Mr. Bryan. They know very little concerning his theories +about silver, beyond the expression, "The Cross of Gold," and they are +very scantily informed in regard to his notions about expansion and +imperialism, but he represents for them, as probably no other political +leader ever did, upheaval and revolution, and it is on such things that +they expect to thrive. + +The place to hear them talk and to get acquainted with their political +views is at the "hang-out." Practically any nook or corner where they +can lie down at night is a "hang-out" to them, but as most of their life +is spent on the railroads their main gathering points are little camps +built alongside the track. Here they sleep, eat, wait for trains, and +"chew the rag." Much of their conversation is confined to purely +professional matters, but every now and then, at some large camp, a +roadster will make a slurring remark about this or that political +leader, or a paragraph in a newspaper in regard to a "burning" question +of the hour will be read aloud, and the confab begins. The topic that +started it is soon smothered under a continually accumulating pile of +fresh ones, but that does not matter, the "hang-out" never settles +anything; it takes up one thing after the other in rapid succession, as +fancy dictates, and one must listen carefully merely to catch the drift +of what is said. The sentences are short and broken, and a word often +suffices to kill what promised to be a lengthy discussion. The old men +speak first, the young men next, and the boys are supposed to keep quiet +and listen. Sometimes, when "booze" accompanies the talk, the age +distinctions are temporarily overlooked, and all speak together; but +this kind of a conclave finally ends in a free fight, to which politics +and everything else are subordinated. + +The burden of practically all the palavers is "the way the country is +going to the dogs." It comes as natural to the average tramp to declare +that the United States is in dire peril as it does to the German +socialist to say that Germany is a miserable _Polizei-Staat_. He does +not honestly believe all that he says, and it needs but a scurrilous +remark about our country from some foreign roadster to startle him into +a pugnacious patriotism; but in the bosom of his "hang-out" he takes +delight in explaining what a bad plight the country is in. This is +really his political creed. Free trade, protection, civil service +reform, the currency question, pensions, and expansion are mere side +issues in his opinion. The real issue is what he considers the frightful +condition of our "internal affairs." From Maine to California the tramps +may be heard chattering by the hour on this topic, and they have singled +out Mr. Bryan as their spokesman because they think that he voices their +pessimism better than any other man in public view. + +It came as a surprise to me, when first getting acquainted with tramps, +to find that they were such grumblers and critics,--such _Nörgler_, as +Kaiser Wilhelm says. I had pictured them as a class which managed to +live more or less successfully whether any one else got on or not, and +had imagined that they were, comparatively speaking, at peace with the +world. That they troubled themselves with public questions and political +problems was a thought that had not occurred to me. The fact is, +however, that they are as fierce political partisans as the country +contains, and in talking with them one must be careful not to let an +argument go beyond what in polite society would be considered rather +narrow bounds. They are quick to resort to fists in all discussions, and +in my intercourse with them it has paid best to let them do most of the +talking when politics has been the topic of conversation. + +It would take a book, and a large one at that, to report all the +evidence that they advance at "hang-out" conferences in support of +their statements concerning the evils from which they believe the +country is now suffering, but no account of their political notions, no +matter how short, should fail to take note of their rantings against +capital, and what they consider the political corruption of the country. +Nearly every conversation they have on politics begins with some wild +assertion in regard to one of these topics, and Mr. Bryan's name is +invariably dragged into the discussion. They believe that he hates the +man who has saved money and understands how to make it earn more, quite +as much as they do, and they will be very much disappointed in him, in +case he is ever elected President, if he does not suggest legislation by +which the rich man can be made "to shell out his coin." On no subject do +the tramps use such violent language as on this one of the capitalist. +They think that it is he who has imported all the foreign labour in the +country,--another eyesore in their opinion; who has made England the +real "boss" of things on this side of the Atlantic,--a notion which +they claim to have dug out of Mr. Bryan's speeches; who has reduced the +wages of the "poor workingman" and increased the cost of living; and, +worst of all, who is now trying to take away from them what they +consider their inalienable railway privileges. + +They hold him answerable also for the trusts and syndicates, agitation +against which they require from any political party in which they take +an interest. They have thought seriously over these matters about as +much as a ten-year-old child has, but that does not matter. They do not +propose to think hard about anything. Mr. Bryan is for the present doing +all the thinking which they consider necessary, and they are content +merely to repeat in their own jargon statements which he has made, or +which they think he has made. He has become for them an infallible +oracle, who understands them and their position, and whom they +understand. In the bottom of their hearts they know that they are +deserving of precious little championship, that they lead despicable +lives, and commit some very reprehensible deeds; but it is a +consolation to them which they cannot let go, to think that Mr. Bryan +includes them in his classification of victims of the "gold bugs," so +they try to make propaganda for him. + +The time was when many of them shouted for Henry George and "General" +Coxey as vociferously as they now shout for Bryan. They expected from +George and Coxey the same overthrow of their imaginary oppressors and +general upheaval of things that they now look forward to from Mr. Bryan. +They were once also enamoured of Mr. Blaine, but for a different reason. +They admired the way he championed the cause of Americans who got into +trouble in foreign parts. When he was Secretary of State it was a +temporary fad among them to scold about the way Americans were treated +abroad, and on one occasion, the details of which I have forgotten, Mr. +Blaine pleased them immensely by insisting on the release of an American +who had been falsely arrested in some foreign port. + +They are particularly entertaining when talking about the corruption in +the country. They discuss this question with all the seriousness of +professional moralists and reformers, and it seems never to occur to +them that there is any inconsistency in their attitude toward the +matter. An amusing instance of their lack of perception in this +particular came to my notice in Columbus, O., where I was temporarily on +duty as a railroad police officer. One morning, word came that Mr. Bryan +was expected to arrive about noon. He was to give a talk to his local +admirers. There were about two hours between the time I received notice +of his coming and the hour of his arrival, and I put them in strolling +about the streets, seeing whether there were any light-fingered gentry +in the town whom I knew. In the course of my wanderings I dropped into a +saloon in one of the side streets where a man, whom I recognised as a +"hobo gun,"--a tramp pickpocket,--was holding forth in loud language on +the "poleetical c'rupshun" in the country, and in Ohio in particular. +He made the usual platitudinous remarks about this matter, to which his +drunken hearers listened with approval, and wound up his harangue with a +eulogy on Mr. Bryan, who was "the one honest man in the land." When Mr. +Bryan arrived at the railroad station, my companions and I had to be on +watch to see that his pockets as well as those of the people crowding +about him were not picked, and whom should I find prowling about +suspiciously in the throng, but the loud-mouthed reformer of the saloon! +He was looking hard for a pocket to "nick," but some one must have +"tipped off" the "fly cops" to him, for he disappeared before long as +mysteriously as he had appeared, and without any plunder, for no +"leather" was "lifted" on that occasion. + +Not all of the tramps' political talk is merely negative and critical; +some of it is also positive and constructive. They think that they know +what they want in the way of government, as well as what they do not +want. Speaking generally, they favour a crude kind of state socialism, +to be prefaced, however, by a general cataclysm, in which existing +conditions are to be entirely revolutionised, and out of which the poor, +and more particularly the outcast, are to come victorious. They make no +attempt to elaborate in conversation the details either of the +convulsion, or of the new order of things which is to follow; +generalities alone interest them, and they scorn inquiries as to how +their theories are to be put into practice. That Mr. Bryan is in +sympathy with their notions of the extensive powers that the government +ought to have is proved for them by the fact that he believes that +silver can be given its rightful place in our monetary system merely by +an enactment of Congress, or by command of the President. They recognise +no laws in politics other than those which man makes. That there are +natural laws and economic facts, over which man has no control, is a +matter which they have never taken into consideration. I refer to the +rank and file of the tramp army. There are individual men who do not +subscribe to what I have given as the political philosophy of the +majority of the tramps,--men, indeed, who laugh at the thought of a +tramp having any political notions at all,--but they are exceptions. The +average roadster considers himself as justified in stating his political +beliefs, and working for them, if he is so inclined, as does the +workingman,--even more, because he thinks that he has time to formulate +his ideas, whereas the workingman is kept busy merely earning his bread. + +As agitators and propagandists the tramp is mainly in evidence at big +strikes. In the last fifteen years there has not been a notable railroad +strike in the country in which he has not taken part either as a helper +in destroying property, or as a self-elected "walking delegate." The +more damage the strikers achieve, the more he is pleased, because he +believes, as said above, that it is only upon ruins that the government +he desires can be founded. When a train of cars is derailed or burned, +he considers the achievement a contribution to the general downfall of +the rich and favoured classes. He also has the antiquated notion of +political economy, that when a thing has been rendered useless by +breakage or incendiarism the workingman is benefited, because the thing +must be replaced, and labour must be employed to do it,--hence it pays +the poor to effect as much destruction as possible. It would be unjust +to Mr. Bryan to say that the tramp has got this notion from him, but the +trouble is that Mr. Bryan preaches from texts so easily misunderstood by +the class of people to which tramps and criminals belong, that he does a +great deal of harm to the country, and materially hurts his own cause. +Not only the tramp, but thousands of workingmen expect of him, in case +he is successful in his ambition, things which he can no more give than +can the humblest of his admirers; yet both the tramp and the workingman +believe that they have promises from him which justify them in expecting +what they do. He is a victim of his own "gift of gab," as the tramp dubs +his oratory. He has talked so much and so loosely that the tramp has +read into his words assurance of changes which he can never bring about. +Of course it is not to be expected that he or any other man in his +position should put much store by what such a constituency as the tramps +thinks of him, but the tramp's exaggerated notions of his policy are +symptomatic of the man's influence on people. What the tramp +particularly likes about him is his doctrine of discontent; they would +drop him like a hot coal if he should admit that the country was in a +proper condition. A great many other people, who are not tramps, tie to +him for the same reason. He is the idol _par excellence_ of persons who +have nothing to lose whether he succeeds or fails. He has promised them +great benefits if they will help him to office, and as in the case of +the tramp, it costs them nothing to shout and vote for him. + +His tramp admirers, however, he can hold only so long as he represents +what they deem to be the most radical doctrines going. If another man +like "General" Coxey should appear, with more attractive propositions, +they would flock to him as readily as they now rally around Mr. Bryan. +They are a volatile people. Just before war had been declared with +Spain, while everybody was discussing our chances in the approaching +struggle, a great many of the tramps were sure that the United States +was going to get the "licking" of its life. One tramp was so positive of +this that he declared that "Spain had forgotten more than we ever knew +about naval warfare, or ever would know." To-day the same man, as well +as the majority of those who sided with him, believe that the United +States can "knock out" any nation in existence, and they are +dissatisfied because we don't do it. So it will probably go with Bryan, +so far as they are concerned. At the next presidential election, if he +is defeated again, the majority of them will look around for some other +man for whom they can talk. Even successful leadership bores them after +awhile. They love change, and are continually seeking it in their +every-day life as well as in their politics. It is this trait of theirs +which would defeat any attempt at permanent organisation among them. + +Two friends were recently discussing the relative power and influence of +the man who writes and the man who organises and leads. The late George +William Curtis was cited as a man who must have wielded great power with +his pen, and Richard Croker was set over against him as an organiser and +leader. The argument ran on for some time, and one of the friends +finally made this statement: "I wouldn't care if they were nothing +better than tramps, provided a thousand of them would follow my +directions in everything that was undertaken. Why, I could be king of a +ward with such a following. Take the East Side, for instance. The man +over there who can vote solid a thousand men on all occasions, beats any +writer in the country in influence." Perhaps he does, but no man in the +country, be he writer or organiser, could hold a thousand tramps +together in politics. For one election they might be kept intact, but a +defection would take place before the second one was due. As men to +manipulate and direct, they could be made to do most in battle, and I +have always regretted that a regiment of them did not go to Cuba during +the late war. With a regiment of regulars behind them to have kept them +from retreating, and some whiskey to inspire them, a regiment composed +of fellows such as are to be found in "The Lake Shore Push," for +instance, would have charged up San Juan Hill with a dash that even the +Rough Riders would have had trouble to beat. They are not good political +philosophers, or conscientious citizens, but in desperate circumstances +they can fight as fiercely as any body of men in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WHAT TRAMPS READ. + + +In a superficial way tramps read practically everything they can get +hold of. As a class they are not particularly fond of books when there +is something more exciting to engage their attention, such as a +"hang-out" conference, for instance, but they get pleasure out of both +reading and writing. They have generally learned how to read as boys, +either at home with their parents or in some institution for truants and +"incorrigibles." Dime novels and like literature amuse them most at this +stage in their career, and the same is true of tramp boys who are found +in Hoboland, but they learn to laugh over the fascination that such +books had for them, as do more highly cultivated readers. As a rule, +however, it is not until they have served a term in prison that they +take a definite interest in the books that appeal to educated people. In +all large prisons there are libraries from which the inmates can draw +books at stated intervals, and the majority of the truly professional +tramps generally serve at least one sentence in these institutions. As +youths, it was their ambition to be successful thieves, crack burglars, +pickpockets, and "Peter-men" (safe thieves), and they have usually +experimented with the thief's profession long enough to get a year or +two in a penitentiary. Some take a longer time than others to become +convinced that they lack criminal wit, and are fitted, so far as their +world is concerned, for nothing higher than tramping, but the majority +of tramps in the United States arrive at this conclusion sooner or +later, and degenerate into what may be called discouraged criminals. In +the process of getting discouraged they have access to prison libraries, +and can pick and choose their books as they like. In some prisons the +wardens keep track of the kinds of books their charges call for, and I +have seen interesting reports in which an attempt has been made to read +the characters of the men from their different bookish preferences; but +it is easy to make mistakes in such calculations. I know of prisoners, +for instance, who have called for nothing but religious books in the +hope that the "Galway" (the prison priest) would be so impressed with +their reformation that he would recommend their cases to the Board of +Pardons for reconsideration. Indeed, prisoners in general are such +_poseurs_, in one respect or another, that not much faith can be put in +conclusions as to their literary tendencies deduced from their selection +of books in prison libraries. One must observe them in the open, and see +what they read when they are free of the necessity of making an +impression, to discover their real preferences. + +In summer they are almost constantly "in transit," and read very little +except newspapers, but in winter they flock to the large cities and +gather around the stoves and radiators in public libraries, and it is +then that one can learn what kind of reading they like best. The library +in Cooper Union, for example, is one of their favourite gathering-places +in New York City during the cold months, and I have seen the same tramps +reading there day after day. Novels and books of adventure appeal to +them most, and it would surprise a great many people to see the kind of +novels many of them choose. Thackeray and Dickens are the favourite +novelists of the majority of the tramps that I have happened to talk +with about books, but the works of Victor Hugo and Eugene Sue are also +very popular. The general criticism of the books of all of these +writers, however, is that they are "terribly long drawn out." A tramp +who had just finished reading Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" once said to me: +"Why the devil didn't he choke it off in the middle, an' leave out all +the descriptions? It's a good book all right enough, but it's as +long-winded as a greyhound." Robert Louis Stevenson, on the other hand, +is admired by a Western tramp acquaintance of mine on account of his +"big mouthfuls of words." + +Detective stories like "Sherlock Holmes" and the books of Gaboriau are +read widely by both tramps and criminals, and the ingenuity of their +authors is often admired; but the tramp cannot understand, and no more +can I, why the writers of such stories prefer to give their own +conception of a detective to the "Hawkshaw" of real life. He believes, +and I agree with him, that much more interesting detective tales could +be written if the truth about police life were told; and there awaits +the writer who is prepared and willing to depict the "fly cop" as he +really is in Anglo-Saxon countries, a remunerative and literary success. +No mistake has been made in portraying him as the King of the Under +World, but some one ought to tell what a corrupt king he has been, and +still is, in a great many communities. + +Popular books, such as "Trilby," "David Harum," and "Mr. Dooley," almost +never reach the tramps until long after their immediate success is over. +The tramps have no money to invest in books of the hour, and the +consequence is that while the public is reading the book of some new +favourite author, they are poring over books that were popular several +years back. There are roadsters who are to-day reading for the first +time the earliest books of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and other well-known +authors, and the next crop of vagabonds will probably read the works of +writers who are now in the foreground. In Chicago I met, one day, a +tramp who had just discovered Bret Harte, and he thought that +"Tennessee's Partner" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" were recent +stories. "I tell ye, Cigarette," he declared, enthusiastically, "those +stories'll make that fella's fortune. Jus' wait till people get to +talkin' about 'em, an' you'll see how they'll sell." He had read the +tales in a sailor's mission to which somebody had donated a mutilated +Tauchnitz edition of Bret Harte's writings. + +In a county jail in Ohio I also once heard two tramps discuss for nearly +two hours the question whether Shakespeare wrote his plays when he did +or about two hundred years later. The tramp who favoured the latter +theory based it on the supposition that the balcony scene in "Romeo and +Juliet" could not have been possible so far back as "in Shakespeare's +time." + +"Why, gol darn it," he exclaimed, "they didn't have no such porches in +them days. A porch, I tell ye, is a modern invention, just like dynamite +is." + +Next to the exciting novel or tale of adventure, the tramp likes to read +books which deal with historical and economic subjects. It is a rather +exceptional tramp who can read intelligently such a book as Henry +George's "Progress and Poverty," but a number of roadsters have gone +through this work time and again, and can quote from it quite freely. +Indeed, it has been the cause of long discussions at "hang-outs" all +over the United States. Any book, by the way, which "shows up" what the +tramps consider the unreasonable inequalities in our social conditions, +appeals to them, and thoughts in regard to such matters filter through +the various social strata and reach the tramp class more rapidly than +the reader would think. I have heard tramps discuss socialism, for +instance, with quite as clear an insight into its weak points, and with +as thorough an appreciation of its alluring promises, as will be found +in any general gathering of people. They are much more entertaining when +discussing a book dealing with some serious question than when trying to +state their opinion of a novel. If a character in a novel has taken hold +of them, they can criticise it intelligently and amusingly, and they +have their favourite characters in fiction just as other people have, +but only a few tramps read novels with the intention of remembering +their contents for any length of time; such books are taken up mainly +for momentary entertainment, and are then forgotten. Books of historical +or political import, on the contrary, are frequently read over and over +again, and are made to do service as authorities on grave questions +discussed at "hang-out" conferences. Bryan's "First Battle" has been +quoted by tramps in nearly every State in the Union, and some roadsters +can repeat verbatim long passages from it. + +A striking example of the tramp's fondness for what he would call heavy +books was a man whom I met, some years ago, at a tramp camp in central +New York. We had been sitting around the camp-fire for some time, +discussing matters of the road, when the man called my attention to his +weak eyes. I had noticed that the lids of his eyes were very red, and he +told me that it was only with difficulty that he could read even large +print. "Used them up in the stir" (penitentiary), he explained. "We had +no work to do, and were shut up in our cells practically all of the +time, and I simply read myself blind." I asked him what kind of reading +he had enjoyed most, and he gave me a string of authors' names, whose +books he had drawn from the library, which but few college graduates +could beat. I have forgotten many of the books he mentioned, but Kant's +"Pure Reason" and Burton's "Melancholy" were among the number. We +talked together for over three hours about writers and writing, and I +have seldom enjoyed a conversation more. The man was still a tramp in +essential matters, and had no intention of becoming anything better, but +his reading had widened the boundaries of his world to such an extent +that in other clothes and with a few changes in his diction he might +have passed muster in very respectable companionship. If he is alive, he +is probably still looking for "set-downs" and "hand-outs," and +discussing between meals with the hoboes the wonderful things that were +revealed to him during the ten years he spent in his prison university. + +Endowed with this interest in books of a serious nature, it would seem +that the tramp ought eventually to take to heart some of the wisdom such +books contain, and try to live up to it in his every-day life, but I am +compelled to say that, in the majority of cases, he considers himself a +being apart from the rest of the world, so far as moral responsibility +is concerned. He likes to ponder over the moral obligations of others, +and to suggest schemes for a general social regeneration, but he finds +it irksome and unpleasant to apply his advice and recommendations to his +own existence. Theoretically, he has what he would call a religion, but +he no more expects to live up to his religion than he intends to work +when he can get out of it. He has two worlds in which he lives,--one +consisting of theories and fanciful conceits which he has got from books +and his own imagination, and the other of hard facts, prejudices, and +habits. He is most natural in the latter environment, but moods come +over him when he feels impelled to project himself into the world of +theories, and then nothing pleases him more than imaginatively to +reconstruct the world in general as he believes it ought to be. + +I have been asked whether he ever voluntarily reads the Bible. It is an +easy book to get hold of, and in prison it is forced upon the tramp's +attention, but it has no marked fascination for him. I have known a +roadster to beg a New Testament from a Bible House agency in order to +settle a dispute about religious doctrine, but this is a very +exceptional case. The average tramp knows no difference between the Old +and New Testaments, and bases any religious convictions that he may have +on personal revelations of truth rather than on inspired Scripture. In +one respect, however, he conforms to conventional customs,--he likes to +sing hymns. In jail or out, if he happens to be in a singing mood, it is +only necessary to start such hymns as "Pull for the shore," "There were +ninety and nine," "Where is my wandering boy to-night?" and this +tattered and uncouth creature breaks forth into song. There is a grin on +his lips while he sings, for he appreciates the ludicrousness of the +situation, but he sings on at the top of his voice. At night, on a +Western prairie, where he and his pals have built a "hang-out" near a +railroad track, there is no more picturesque scene in all Hoboland than +when he stands up, starts a tune, and the others rise and join him. + +Equally amusing, if not so harmless, are the tramp's improvised schools. +In the autumn, when the weather gets too cold for sleeping out, the +country schoolhouse becomes one of the tramp's night shelters. He gets +in through one of the windows. A wood-pile is near by, and what with a +good fire and benches to lie on, he makes a very cosy nest. Let a crowd +of ten or twenty appropriate such a place, and there is always a frolic +before bedtime. One of the tramps is elected teacher, the scholars' +books and slates are taken from their desks, and school begins. "Moike, +oppen yer mug 'n' see if ye kin read," the teacher commands, and the +burly pupil begins to paw over the leaves. Later comes a turn at +spelling, writing, and "figgerin'," and a wild hobo song ends the +session. A keg of beer sometimes helps to enliven things, and then +ink-bottles, readers, and spelling-books are scattered about the room in +great confusion. The wood-pile also disappears, and sometimes the +building itself goes up in flames. I have often wondered whether the +real pupils were not glad to find things so topsy-turvy in the morning. +It must take time to put the schoolhouse in order again, and the boys +and girls have a vacation meanwhile. The taxpayers grumble, of course, +but, as the tramp says, "they ought to fasten things tighter," and until +they do he will continue, I fear, to entertain himself at their expense. + +An experience that I had not long ago illustrates the tramp's +unwillingness to have his reading matter regulated by outsiders. I was +making an investigation of the tramp situation on certain railroads in +the middle West at the time, and one night, in company of some fellow +roadsters, I went for shelter to the tramp ward of a poor-house. The +room we were sent to was in the cellar, and we all passed a very +miserable night. In the morning we were given our breakfast in the +common dining-room of the institution, and while we were sitting at the +table the wife of the keeper gave each one of us a "tract," which we +carefully tucked under our plates and left there. When we had finished, +one of the tramps asked our hostess whether there was a place in the +building where we could wash; the hole we had had to stay in over night +was so dirty that our clothes and hands were covered with dust, and the +tramp knew that any stream we might find outside would be frozen over. +The woman looked at him severely, and said: "There's a brook at the foot +of the hill." The tramp's anger was aroused. "Madam," he said, "I have +always been taught that cleanliness is next to godliness. You have given +us all tracts, but you won't give us a place to wash. Your religion and +mine don't jibe. You'll find the tracts under the plates." We all got +another severe look, and the next batch of tramps probably got the +tracts. + +Of the newspapers that the tramp reads there is but little that is novel +to report beyond the fact that he begs for them in the same systematic +fashion characteristic of him when looking for his meals. Not all tramps +are anxious to keep up to date as regards the world's doings, but a fair +proportion of them look for their morning newspaper immediately after +breakfast. They go to stores and barber-shops, and do not hesitate to +ask even newsdealers. In summer the newspapers which they get also serve +them as beds in railroad box-cars; they spread them out on the floor of +the car and lie down on them, their shoes and vests doing duty as +pillows, and their coats as covering. Their favourite papers are of the +yellow kind, but I doubt whether they take them any more seriously than +other people do who buy them merely for particular items of news and +then throw them away. They like spicy articles and glaring pictures, and +scramble with one another for first chance at the _Police Gazette_, but +this taste is not unnatural; their life is rough, vulgar, and +sensational, and the wonder is that they can appreciate and care for the +high-class literature which many of them read. + +I have said that they get enjoyment out of writing as well as reading. +There are a few well-educated men in tramp life, and they have been +surprised attempting to make literature as well as to read it. In +Germany it is quite a custom among the _Chausseegrabentapezirer_ to +keep diaries in which they jot down notes and comments on their life, +and in this country, also, journals and essays by tramps have been +discovered. One of the most intelligent criticisms of my tramp papers in +_The Century_ came from a Boston tramp, hailing for the time being from +Texas. Excepting a few mistakes in grammar which many persons who are +not tramps are guilty of, it was a very creditable production. + +Once upon a time, not to be too particular, two tramps were shut up all +alone in a jail in Michigan, and their sentences wore so heavily upon +them that they found it very difficult to be patient. Their stories gave +out, the jail fare became tiresome, there was very little to read, and +they were by nature very restless. At last things looked so gloomy that +they decided to spin a coin for a choice of two suggested +pastimes,--writing a story, or planning and carrying out an escape. It +was "heads" for the story, and "tails" for the escape. Heads won. True +to their contract, these two men, one fairly well educated, and the +other with a big imagination, sat themselves down to the task, pencil +and paper being furnished by the sheriff. For ten days they wrote and +wrote, then rewrote, until, as the man with the imagination said, their +"poor brains seemed squeezed to death." Indeed, they had worked so hard +that the man with a little education thought it would be worth while to +try to sell the story; so, after it had been read to the sheriff and his +wife, both of whom it pleased, sufficient postage was collected to send +it to a periodical thought to be looking for such contributions; and off +it went, and with it the solemn prayers of the authors. Three weeks +later, lo and behold! a letter arrived in care of the sheriff. The two +men opened it tenderly and fearfully, each tearing a little of the end +off and then passing it to the other, saying, like silly girls: "I don't +dare." But what was their surprise, the terrifying little thing once +laid bare, to find in it a check for ninety dollars, payable to them +jointly or severally, as if the editor had fancied that they might be +turned loose at different times. Unfortunately, they were freed +together, and two hours afterward the man with the imagination had so +inflated it with whiskey that he wanted to storm the jail and free the +sheriff. His story, however, was not disgraced. It is still quite +readable. He, poor fellow, would probably like to toss up again for +pastimes; when last heard of he was "doing" solitary confinement. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +POLICING THE RAILROADS. + + +Engineers build railroads and are largely represented in their +management, but both in building and operating them they are dependent, +at one time or another, upon some kind of police protection. Indeed, +there are railroads that could not have been constructed at all without +the aid of either soldiers or policemen. The Trans-Caspian railroad was +built largely by soldiers, and is still superintended by the war +department at St. Petersburg rather than by the minister of ways of +communication. The Siberian line is, in parts, the result of the work of +convicts, who were carefully watched by police guards, and the Russian +civil engineers in Manchuria have needed the protection of Cossacks +merely to survey that end of the road. In Germany, practically all the +railroad officials, from the head of the engineering department down to +the track-walkers, have police power. The conductor of a train, for +instance, can put an obstreperous passenger under arrest without waiting +until a station is reached, and resistance to him is as serious an +offence as is resistance to the ordinary _Schutzmann_. + +In Europe, it was seen, when railroads were first coming into use, that +police efficiency, as well as that of the technical railroader, would be +required, if the properties were to be well managed, and it was secured +at the start. Before the railroads were built it had been made plain, +after long experience, that even on the public turnpikes policemen were +indispensable, and the authorities decided to employ them on railroads +as well. The protection of life and property is a very serious matter in +Europe, where precautions are taken which in the United States would +seem superfluous. It avails nothing in Germany, for example, for a +director of a company to excuse the loss of money intrusted to his care +on the ground that he thought he was acting in a businesslike manner. +Inspectors, or commissioners, are appointed to see whether his +transactions come up to the standard of what is considered businesslike, +and if they find that he has not exercised good judgment, although there +may have been nothing intrinsically dishonest in the way he has managed, +his bondsmen frequently have to reimburse the stockholders for the loss +that his mistakes have brought upon them. It is the spirit of +carefulness behind such a precaution as this which goes to explain why +the Germans have the systematised police surveillance of railroad +property referred to. Much of this surveillance is in the hands of the +municipal police and rural constabulary, but the fact that the majority +of the railroad officials have police authority shows how much +protection was considered necessary to manage the properties carefully. + +In the United States the idea seems to have been that the engineers and +managers could be relied on to get out of railroad investments all the +profit that was in them, and that the assistance of policemen could be +dispensed with except as watchmen. It is true that, for a number of +years, railroad companies have had on their pay-rolls what are called +"railroad detectives," but up to a few years ago there was not a +well-organised railroad police force in the United States, and yet there +is no country in the world, at the present moment, where railroads are +more in need of such auxiliary departments. A great deal of money would +have been saved to investors, and not a few lives would have been +spared, had the American railroads seriously taken up this police matter +in the early days of their existence, and until they do, say what one +will about the luxuries to be found on American trains, and the speed at +which they run, American railroad properties, in this particular at +least, are inferior to those of Europe in management. + +The purpose of this last chapter is to call attention to the +inadequateness of the police arrangements now prevalent on nearly all +railroad systems in the United States, to show what has resulted from +this inadequateness, and to interest railroad men and the general public +in police organisations which will be equal to the work necessary to be +done. + +To bring out clearly the defects of the prevailing railroad police +methods in the United States, it seems appropriate to take a concrete +case, and describe the situation on a railroad which I have been over as +a passenger and as a trespasser. It employs about sixty men in its +police department, and is one of the most tramp-infested roads in the +country. The maintenance of the so-called detective force costs the +company about forty thousand dollars a year. + +By way of illustration, I will give a résumé of conversations that I had +respectively with a detective, a tramp, and a trainman that I +encountered on the property. Each of these men was representative of his +class, and spoke his mind freely. + +The detective had started out in life as a brakeman, but his eyesight +became faulty after a few years, and he got a position on the police +force. He had just passed his fiftieth year when I met him, and was +heavy, unwieldy, and inclined to be lazy. His beat consisted of forty +miles of track, and he generally went over it in a passenger train. + +I asked him whether he found many tramps on passenger trains. He was not +supposed to devote all of his time to watching trespassers, but they +were so obviously a nuisance on the property that it struck me as +peculiar that he did not ride on trains where they were more likely to +be found. + +"No," he replied, in a drawling voice, to my query, "I don't find many +tramps in passenger coaches; but I know where their camps are, and +several of us raid 'em every now and then." + +"I should think you would want to ride more on freight-trains," I went +on, "and catch the trespassers in the act, so to speak." + +"I'm too heavy to fool around freight-trains; besides, I don't want to +have a knife put into me. Some o' them tramps are mighty quick on their +feet, and if I went at 'em they'd have a razor cut in me before I could +turn round." + +I asked him why, in view of his age and heaviness, he did not try to +find employment in some other department of the road more suited to his +abilities. Railroad companies are often very lenient with employees of +long standing, and give them easy positions in their old age. + +"This is the easiest department the road's got," he returned. "Besides, +I'm my own boss." + +"Don't you have to make regular reports to any one?" + +"I go to the trainmaster's office every morning for orders, but he don't +know much about the business, and generally tells me to do as I think +best. We men haven't got a chief the way the regular railroaders have." + +"Who is responsible for what you do?" I inquired. + +"Nobody, I guess, but the pres'dent o' the road." + +"How do you spend your time?" + +"Well, I go to the trainmaster in the morning, and if he hasn't heard of +anything special, like a car robbery or an accident where there's likely +to be a claim for damages, I stay around the station a while, or go down +into the yards and see what I can see. Sometimes I spend the day in the +yards." + +"What do you do there?" + +"Oh, I loaf around, keep the kids away from the cars, chin-chin with the +switchmen 'n' the other men, keep my eyes open for fellows that there's +rewards for, eat my dinner, an' go to bed." + +"Why don't you try to break up the tramp camps?" + +"We do try it, but they come back again." + +"Don't you think you would probably be more successful if you raided +them oftener?" + +"Yes, I guess we would; but, you see, there ain't any one who's running +the thing. When an order comes from the superintendent to make raids we +make 'em, but he don't send in that order more'n once in three months, +an' the rest o' the time we do pretty much as we like." + +"How do you think things would go if you men were organised and had a +chief? Would better work be done?" + +"Better work would be done, I guess, but it would be a darned sight +harder work," and he smiled significantly. + +My tramp informant was an old roadster of about forty, who had "held +down" the railroad in question for a number of years. I asked him how +long it had been an "open" road,--one easy for trespassers to get over. + +"As long as the memory of man goes back," he replied, with a suggestive +flourish of his hand. + +"Are not some divisions harder to beat than others?" + +"Once in awhile a division'll get a little horstile, but only fer a few +weeks." + +"How many tramps are riding trains?" + +"I don't see all the trains, so I can't tell you; but I never seen a +freight yet that wasn't carryin' at least five bums, 'n' I've seen some +carryin' over a hundred In summer there's most as many bums as +passengers." + +"Is there much robbing of cars going on?" + +"Not so much as there might be. The blokes are drunk most of the time, +'n' they let chances go by. If they'd keep sober, 'n' look up good +fences, they could do a nice little business." + +"Do the police trouble you much?" + +"When they round up a camp they're pretty warm, but I don't see much o' +them 'cept then. 'Course you wants to look out fer 'em when a train +pulls into division yards, 'cause 'f yer handy they'll pinch you; but +they ain't goin' to run after you very far. I've heard that they have +orders to let the bums ride, so long as there ain't too much swipin' +goin' on. The company don't care, some people say." + +The trainman that I interviewed was a freight-train conductor who had +been in the employ of the company over twenty-five years. I asked him +whether he had instructions to keep trespassers off his trains. + +"I got the instructions all right enough," he said, "but I don't follow +them. I'm not a policeman for the road. I'm a conductor, and I only draw +a salary for being that, too. When I was green I used to try to keep the +bums off my trains, but I nearly got my head shot off one night and +stopped after that. It's the detectives' business to look after such +people." + +"Do you see much of the detectives?" + +"Once in awhile one of them shows up on my trains, but I've never seen +them make any arrests. One of them got on my train one day when I was +carryin' fifty tramps, and he never went near them." + +"What do you think ought to be done to keep tramps off trains?" + +"Well, what I'd like to have done would be for the United States +government to let all us trainmen carry revolvers and shoot every +galoot that got on to our trains. That'd stop the thing." + +"Do you think the company wants it stopped?" + +"I don't know whether they do or not, but I wish to God they'd do +something. Why, we men can't go over our trains at night any more, and +be sure that we ain't goin' to get it in the neck somewhere. It's a holy +fright." + +I have quoted these men because their testimony may be accepted as +expert. They know the situation and they know one another, and they had +no reason to try to deceive me in answering my questions. In addition to +their remarks, it is only necessary, so far as this particular road is +concerned, to emphasise the fact that the forty thousand dollars a year +which the company spends for protection of the property are not +protecting it, and are bringing in to the stockholders practically no +interest. The police force is entirely lacking in system; many of the +men are too old and indifferent, and the property is littered up with as +miscellaneous a collection of vagabonds and thieves as is to be found +in a year's travel. This is neither good management, nor good business, +and it is unfair to a community which furnishes a railroad much of its +revenue, to foist such a rabble upon it. + +A more or less similar state of affairs exists on the great majority of +the trunk lines in the United States. They are all spending thousands of +dollars on their "detective" forces, as they call them, and they are all +overrun by wandering mobs of ne'er-do-wells and criminals. There are no +worse slums in the country than are to be found on the railroads. +Reformers and social agitators are accustomed to speak of the congested +districts of the large cities as the slums to which attention should be +directed, but in the most congested quarters of New York City there are +no greater desperadoes nor scenes of deeper degradation than may be met +on the "iron highways" of the United States. A number of railroads are +recognised by vagrants and criminals as the stamping ground of +particular gangs that are generally found on the lines with which their +names are connected. + +Every now and then the report is given out that a certain railroad is +about to inaugurate a policy of retrenchment, and the newspapers state +that a number of employees have been discharged or have had their work +hours cut down. The best policy of retrenchment that a number of +railroad companies can take up would be to stop the robberies on their +properties, collect fares from the trespassers, and free their employees +from the demoralising companionship of tramps and criminals. To carry +out such a policy a well organised railroad police force is +indispensable, and as I have made use of a practical illustration to +indicate the need of reform, I will advance another to show how this +reform can be brought about. + +There is one railroad police organisation in the United States which is +conscientiously protecting the property in whose interests it works, and +I cannot better make plain what is necessary to be done than by giving a +short account of its organisation and performance. It is employed on +the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, and in inception and direction +is the achievement of the general manager of that system. + +As a division superintendent this gentleman became very much interested +in the police question, and organised a force for the division under his +immediate control. It worked so successfully that, on assuming +management of the entire property, he determined to introduce in all the +divisions the methods which he had found helpful in his division. There +was no attempt made, however, to overhaul the entire property at once. +The reform went on gradually, and as one division was organised, the +needs and peculiarities of another were studied and planned for. +Suitable men had to be found, and there was necessarily considerable +experimenting. The work was done thoroughly, however, and with a view to +permanent benefits rather than to merely temporary relief. To-day, after +six years of preparatory exercise, the "Northwest System" has a model +police organisation, and the "Southwest System" is being organised as +rapidly as the right men can be found. + +The force on the "Northwest System"--and it must be remembered that this +part of the property takes in such cities as Pittsburg, Cleveland, +Toledo, and Chicago, where there is always a riffraff population likely +to trespass on railroad property--is made up of eighty-three officers +and men. The chief of the force is the superintendent, whose +jurisdiction extends to the "Southwest System" also. He reports to the +general manager, and is almost daily in conference with him. For an +assistant to manage things when he is "out on the road," and to relieve +him of road duty when he is needed at headquarters, he has an inspector, +a man who has risen from the ranks and has demonstrated ability for the +position. Each division has a captain, who reports to the division +superintendent and to the chief of the police service. This captain has +under him one or more lieutenants and the necessary number of patrolmen +and watchman, who report to him alone. An order from the general +manager consequently reaches the men for whom it is meant through +official channels entirely within the police department, and the same is +true of statements and reports of the men to the general manager. + +Practically everything is run according to a well-understood system, and +this is the secret of the department's success. Day in and day out every +man on the force knows what he has to do, and expects to be called to +order if his work does not come up to what is desired. Hunting down +trespassers and thieves is but a part of the routine. The property is +patrolled almost exactly as a large city is, and the men are expected to +make reports about such matters as the condition of frogs and switches, +switch-lights, fences, and station-buildings, to do preliminary work for +the department of claims, to keep the property free from trespassers, to +protect the pay-car, look out for circus and excursion trains, and +generally make themselves useful. They are all picked men, and have to +come up to the requirements of the United States army as regards health +and physical strength. Their personal records are known for five years +previous to being employed on the force. They constitute for the general +manager an invaluable guardianship. He has but to press the button, so +to speak, and within a few hours the entire police force is carrying out +his instructions. Through it he can keep in touch with a thousand and +one matters which would otherwise escape his notice, and he can order an +investigation with the assurance that he will get an exact and +trustworthy report within a reasonable time. + +Such is the organisation. Its performance, up to date, has consisted in +cleaning up a property that, seven years ago, as I know from +observation, was so infested with criminals that it was notorious +throughout the tramp world as an "open" road. To-day that system is +noted for being the "tightest shut" line, from the trespasser's point of +view, in the country, and the company pays seventeen thousand dollars a +year less for its police arrangements than it did in 1893 for its +watchmen and detective force. These are facts which any one may verify, +and it is no longer possible for railroad companies to explain their +hesitation in taking up the police matter in earnest on the ground that +it would cost too much. It costs less, not only in the police +department's pay-rolls, but in the department of claims as well, than it +did when detached men, without any organisation and direction, were +employed, and the conditions at the start were very similar to those on +railroads now known to be "open." It is to be admitted that the rabble +which formerly infested this property has in all probability shifted to +other roads,--gangs of this character naturally follow the lines of +least resistance,--but it would have been impossible for it to shift had +other railroads taken a similar stand against it; it must have vanished. + +The time must come when this stand will be taken by all railroads. For a +number of years there has been no more valuable contribution to the +business of railroading in the United States than the demonstrated +success of a railroad police force, and it is difficult to believe that +the benefits it brings can be long overlooked. The question of methods +to be employed will naturally occasion considerable discussion, and it +will doubtless be found that an organisation which suits one railroad is +not available for another, but I believe that the general plan of the +police organisation described above is a safe one to follow. It is +founded on the principle that the men must be carefully selected, +thoroughly trained, systematically governed, and the scope of their work +sharply defined. No police force, railroad or municipal, can do really +good work unless due regard be given to these very important matters. + +For the benefit of railroad police forces which may be organised in the +future, the following suggestion seems to me to be worthy of +consideration. + +The title "detective" should not be given the men. They are not +detectives in the ordinary sense of the word, and to be so called hurts +them with the public and with their fellow employees. Railroading is a +business done aboveboard and in the public view, and its police service +should stand on a different footing from that of the detective force of +a large city, where, as all the world knows, secret agents are +necessary. They may be necessary at times on railroads also, but there +already exist reputable agencies for furnishing such service. + +The superintending officers of the force should be superior men. In +Germany a police patrolman has not the slightest hope of becoming so +much as a lieutenant until he has passed a very severe examination, +which practically implies a college education, and he consequently +realises that his superior officer is entitled to his position on other +grounds than mere "pull" or "seniority," and learns to have great +respect for him. A similar dignity should be attached to authoritative +positions in the railroad police, and to secure it able men must be +employed. + +The superintendent of the service should be as supreme in it as is the +superintendent of a division. If he has been chosen for the position on +account of his fitness for it, the supposition is that he knows how to +fill it, and there should be but one superior to whom he must answer. I +bring up this point because on most railroads the police arrangements +are, at present, such that almost every head of a department gives +orders to the "detectives." On some roads even station agents are +allowed to regulate the local police officer's movements. + +Whether an American railroad police can be organised on as broad lines +as in Germany, where practically all the railroad officials have police +authority, is a question which cannot yet be definitely decided. The +conditions in the United States are very different from those in +Germany, and it may be that the sentiment of the people would be against +giving so many persons police power; but I think it would be +advantageous to experiment with the track-walkers, crossing-watchmen, +and gatemen, and see whether they can be incorporated in the railroad +police. Great care must naturally be exercised in picking out the men to +possess patrolmen's privileges, but an examination, such as all German +railroad police officials have to pass, would seem to be a precaution +which ought to secure safe officers. If such an arrangement were made, +the railroad police would admirably supplement the municipal police and +the rural constabulary, and the requirements, physical, mental, and +moral, of the examinations to be gone through would have a tendency to +elevate the morale of the men, not only as patrolmen, but also as +railroaders. + +In conclusion, I desire to point out the opportunity of teaching by +example which I believe the railroad police of the United States are +going to have. Unlike the municipal police, they are free of the toils +of politics, and ought to become exemplary. Their methods and efficiency +will not remain unnoticed. The day that the railroad companies succeed +in ridding their properties of the vagrant class which now troubles +them, and thousands of this class begin to take up permanent quarters +in the cities because they are unable to travel afoot, the public is +going to make inquiries as to whence this undesirable contingent has +come. They will then learn what a police force can do when it is not +officered by political appointment and when it is made up of men who +have been trained for the task imposed upon them. + +A good thing cannot for ever go a-begging. Six years ago it seemed as +impossible that a railroad could be cleaned up morally, as the one I +have described has been, as it now seems that American cities can have +police departments independent of politics. The trouble was that no +railroad had taken the initiative. Ten years hence, I venture to +prophesy, the railroads of the United States will not be the avenues of +crime that they are at present. Some day a similar reform in police +methods will be attempted and carried through in one of our cities, and +if the railroad police have done their work well, and remained true to +honest principles, not a little of the credit will belong to them. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Notes of an Itinerant Policeman, by Josiah Flynt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES OF AN ITINERANT POLICEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 35040-8.txt or 35040-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/4/35040/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes of an Itinerant Policeman + +Author: Josiah Flynt + +Release Date: January 22, 2011 [EBook #35040] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES OF AN ITINERANT POLICEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Google +Print archive. + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"> +<img src="images/ill_001.jpg" width="447" height="600" alt="JOSIAH FLYNT." title="" /> +<span class="caption">JOSIAH FLYNT.</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>NOTES OF AN</h1> + +<h1>ITINERANT</h1> + +<h1>POLICEMAN</h1> + +<h3>By</h3> + +<h2>JOSIAH FLYNT</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "TRAMPING WITH TRAMPS"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 78px;"> +<img src="images/ill_002.jpg" width="78" height="100" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h4>BOSTON</h4> + +<h4>L. C. PAGE & COMPANY</h4> + +<h4><i>MDCCCC</i></h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1900</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By L. C. Page & Company</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>INSCRIBED</h4> + +<h4>TO</h4> + +<h4>WILLARD ROPES TRASK</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#NOTE"><b>NOTE.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#INTRODUCTORY"><b>INTRODUCTORY.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="NOTE" id="NOTE"></a>NOTE.</h2> + +<p>A number of the chapters in this book have appeared as separate papers +in the <i>Independent</i>, <i>Harper's Weekly</i>, the <i>Critic</i>, <i>Munsey's +Magazine</i>, and in publications connected with McClure's Syndicate; but +much of the material is new, and all of the articles have been revised +before being republished.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="INTRODUCTORY" id="INTRODUCTORY"></a>INTRODUCTORY.</h2> + +<p>For a number of years it had been a wish of mine to have an experience +as a police officer, to come in contact with tramps and criminals, as a +representative of the law. Not that I bore these people any personal +grudge, or desired to carry out any pet policy in dealing with them; but +I had learned to know them pretty intimately as companions in +lodging-houses and at camp-fires, and had observed them rather carefully +as prisoners in jails, and I was anxious to supplement this knowledge of +them with an inquiry in regard to the impression they make on the man +whose business it is to keep an official watch over them while they are +in the open. I desired also to learn more concerning the professional +offender than it had been possible for me to find about him in tramp +life. If one has the courage to go and live with professional criminals +as one of them, he can become even more intimate with them than in a +police force, but it is very difficult to associate with their class +long and not be compelled to take an active part in their criminal +enterprises, and my interest in them was not so great that I was +prepared to do this. I merely wanted to know how strong they are as a +class, in which sections of the country they are the most numerous, +whether they have peculiar characteristics differentiating them in +public thoroughfares from other types of outlaws, how they live, and +what is the general attitude toward them of our police and prison +authorities. Partial answers to these questions I had been able to get +in Hoboland, but I was anxious to fill them out and get any new facts +that would throw light on the general situation.</p> + +<p>During the spring and summer of last year (1899) it was possible for me +to have a police officer's experience. The chief of a large railroad +police force gave me a position as a patrolman, and, in company of two +other officers, I was put on a "beat" extending over two thousand miles +of railroad property. The work we were given to do was somewhat of an +innovation, but it afforded me an excellent opportunity to secure the +information I desired. For two months and a half, which was the extent +of my connection with the undertaking and with the force, we had to +travel over the property, protecting picnic trains, big excursions, +passengers travelling to and from towns where circuses were exhibiting, +and the ordinary scheduled traffic, whenever there was reason to believe +that pickpockets and other thieves were likely to put in an appearance.</p> + +<p>Early in the spring wandering bands of thieves start out on tours of the +railroads. They follow up circuses and picnics, and make it a point to +attend all big gatherings, such as county fairs, races, conclaves, and +congresses. Their main "graft," or business, is pocket-picking, but in a +well-equipped "mob" there are also burglars, sneak-thieves, and +professional gamblers. The pickpockets and gamblers operate, when they +can, on passenger trains, and they have become so numerous and +troublesome in a number of States that railroad companies are compelled +to furnish their own protection for their patrons.</p> + +<p>This protection, on the road for which I worked, has generally been +provided for by the stationary members of the force, and more or less +satisfactorily, but last year the chief wanted to experiment with "a +flying squadron" of officers, so to speak, who were to go all over the +property and assist the stationary men as emergency required, and we +three were chosen for this work. In this way it was possible for me to +come in contact with a large variety of offenders, to make comparisons, +and to see how extensively criminals travel. It was also easy for me to +get an insight into the workings of different police organisations along +the line, and to inspect carefully lock-ups, jails, workhouses and +penitentiaries.</p> + +<p>In the following chapters I have tried to give an account of my finding +in the police business, to bring out the facts about the man who makes +his living and keeps up a bank account by professional thieving, to tell +the truth in regard to "the unknown thief" in official life who makes it +possible for the known thief to prey upon the public, and to describe +some of the tramps and out-of-works who wander up and down the country +on the railroads. There is much more to be said concerning these matters +than will be found in this little book, but there are a great many +persons who have no means of finding out anything about any one of them, +and it is to such that my remarks are addressed. Until the general +public takes an interest in making police life cleaner and in +eliminating the professional offender and the dishonest public servant +from the problems which crime in this country brings up for solution, +very little can be accomplished by the police reformer or the +penologist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<h3>WHO CONSTITUTE OUR CRIMINAL CLASSES?</h3> + +<p>The first duty of a policeman, no matter what kind of a police force he +belongs to, is to inform himself in regard to the people in his +bailiwick who are likely to give him trouble. In a municipal force an +officer can only be required to know thoroughly the situation on his +particular beat; if he can inform himself about other districts as well, +he is so much more valuable to the department, but he is not expected to +do much more than get acquainted with the people under his immediate +surveillance. In a railroad police<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> force it is different, and it is +required of the officer that he study carefully the criminal situation +in all the towns and villages on the division on which he is stationed. +Some divisions are longer than others, but the average railroad +policeman's beat is not less than sixty miles, and in some cases nearly +two hundred. Mine, as I have stated, was over two thousand miles long, +and it took in five different States and nearly all the large cities in +the middle West. I was, consequently, in a position to acquaint myself +pretty thoroughly with the criminal classes in one of the most populous +and representative parts of the country. Offenders differ, of course, in +different localities, and one is not justified in drawing sweeping +conclusions concerning all of them from the study of a single type, but +my work was of such a nature that, in the course of my investigations, I +encountered, indoors and out, the most frequent offenders with whom the +policeman and penologist have to deal. It would take a large book merely +to classify and describe the different types, but there is a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> general +analysis that can be made without any great sacrifice of fact, and it is +this I desire to attempt in this chapter.</p> + +<p>There are six distinct categories of offenders in the United States to +which may be assigned, as they are apprehended and classified, the great +majority of our lawbreakers. They are: the occasional or petty offender, +the tramp, the "backwoods" criminal, the professional criminal, the +"unknown" thief, and what, for want of a better name, I call the +diseased or irresponsible criminal. All of these different types are to +be found on the railroads, and the railroad police officer must know +them when he sees them.</p> + +<p>The largest class is that of the petty offenders, and it is in this +category that are found the majority of the criminally inclined +foreigners who have emigrated to our shores. It is a popular notion that +Europe has sent us a great many very desperate evil-doers, and we are +inclined to excuse the increase of crime in the country on the ground +that we have neglected to regulate immigration; but the facts are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> that +we have ourselves evolved as cruel and cunning criminals as any that +Europe may have foisted upon us, and that the foreigners' offences are +generally of a minor character, and, in a number of instances, the +result of a misunderstanding of the requirements of law in this country, +rather than of wilful evil-doing. I hold no brief for the strangers in +our midst in this connection; it would be very consoling, indeed, to +know that we ourselves are so upright and honest that we are incapable +of committing crimes, and, this being proved, a comparatively easy task +to lessen the amount of crime; but there is no evidence to show that +this is the case. The majority of the men, women, and children that I +found in jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries, on my recent travels, +were born and brought up in this country, and they admitted the fact on +being arrested. If the reader desires more particular information +concerning this question, the annual police reports of our large cities +will be found useful; I have examined a number of them, and they +substantiate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> my own personal finding. In some communities the +proportion of foreign offenders to the general foreign population is +greater than that of native offenders to the general native population, +but I doubt whether this will be found to be the case throughout the +country; and even where it is, I think there is an explanation to be +given which does not necessarily excuse the crimes committed, but, in my +opinion, does tone down a little the reproach of wilfulness. The average +foreigner who comes to the United States looks upon the journey as an +escape; he is henceforth released, he thinks,—and we ourselves have +often helped to make him think so,—from the stiff rule of law and order +in vogue in his own land. He comes to us ignorant of our laws, and with +but little more appreciation of our institutions than that he fancies he +is for evermore "a free man." In a great many cases he interprets "free" +to mean an independence which would be impossible in any civilised +country, and then begins a series of petty offences against our laws +which land him, from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> time to time, in the lock-up, and, on occasions, +in jail. Theft is a crime in this country as well as elsewhere, and we +can make no distinction in our courts between the foreigner and native, +but I have known foreigners to pilfer things which they thought they +were justified in taking in this "liberal land;" they considered them +common property. Some never get over the false notions they have of our +customs and institutions, and develop into what may be termed occasional +petty thieves; they steal whenever the opportunity seems favourable. It +is this class of offenders, consisting of both natives and foreigners, +that is found most frequently in our police courts and corrective +institutions.</p> + +<p>I have put the tramp next to the occasional offender in numerical +importance, and I believe this to be his place in a general census of +the criminal population, but it is thought by some that his class is the +most numerous of all. Doubtless one of the reasons why he is considered +so strong is that he is to be found in every town and village in the +country. It must be remembered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> however, that he is continually in +transit, thanks to the railroads, and is now in one town and to-morrow +in another. In both, however, he is considered by the public to +represent two distinct individuals, and is included in the tramp census +of each community. In this way the same man may figure a dozen times, in +the course of a winter, in the enumeration of a town's vagabonds, but as +a member of the tramp population he can rightfully be counted but once. +It is furthermore to be remarked concerning this class that a great many +wanderers are included in it who are not actual vagabonds. The word +tramp in the United States is made to cover practically every traveller +of the road, and yet there are thousands who have no membership in the +real tramp fraternity. Some are genuine seekers of work, others are +adventuresome youths who pay their way as far as food and lodging are +concerned, and still others are simple gipsy folk. The genuine tramp is +a being by himself, known in this country as the "hobo." The experienced +railroad police officer can pick him out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> a general gathering of +roadsters nearly every time, and the man himself is equally expert in +discovering amateur roadsters. I will describe one of the first men I +learned to know in Hoboland; he is typical of the majority of the +successful tramps that I met during my experience as a police officer.</p> + +<p>His name was "Whitey,"—St. Louis Whitey,—and I fell in with him on the +railroad, as is the case in almost all hobo acquaintances. He was +sitting on a pile of ties when I first saw him. "On the road, Jack?" he +said, in a hoarse, rasping voice, sizing me up with sharp gray eyes in +that all-embracing glance which hoboes so soon acquire. They judge a man +in this one glimpse as well as most people can in a week's +companionship. I smiled and nodded my head. "Bound West?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"The through freight comes through here pretty soon. I'm goin' West, +too. This is a good place to catch freights." I sat down beside him on +the ties, and we exchanged comments on the weather, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> friendliness of +the railroad we were on, the towns we expected to pass through, some of +the tramps we had met, and other "road" matters, taking mental notes of +each other as we talked. I noticed his voice, how he was dressed, where +he seemed to have been, the kind of tramps he spoke most about, how he +judged whether a town was "good" or not, whether he bragged, and other +little things necessary to know in forming an opinion of all such men; +he observed me from the same view-point. This is the hobo's way of +getting acquainted, of finding out if he can "pal" with a man. There are +no letters of introduction explaining these things; each person must +discover them for himself, and a man is accepted entirely on the +impression that he makes. A few men have great names that serve as +recommendations at "hang-outs," but they must make their friends +entirely on their merits.</p> + +<p>Merely as a hobo there was nothing very peculiar about "Whitey." He +looked to be about forty years old, and knew American tramp life in all +its phases. His face<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> was weather-beaten and scarred, and his hands were +tattooed. He dressed fairly well, had read considerably, mainly in +jails, wrote a good hand, knew the rudiments of grammar, and almost +always had money in his pockets. He made no pretensions to be anything +but a hobo, but the average person would hardly have taken him for this. +He might have passed in the street as a sailor, and on railroads he was +often taken for a brakeman. I did not learn his history before becoming +a tramp,—it is not considered good form to ask questions about this +part of a man's life,—but from remarks that he dropped from time to +time I inferred that he had once been a mechanic. He was well informed +about the construction of engines, and could talk with machinists like +one of their own kind. He had been a tramp about eight years when I +first met him, and had learned how to make it pay. He begged for a +thing, if it was possible to be begged, until he got it, and he ate his +three meals a day, "set downs" he called them, as regularly as the time +for them came around.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> I was with him for two weeks, and he lived during +this time as well as a man does with $1,500 a year. His philosophy +declared that what other people eat and wear he could also eat and wear +if he presented himself at the right moment and in the right way, and he +made it his business to study human nature. While I travelled with him +he begged for everything, from a needle to a suit of clothes, and did +not hesitate to ask a theatre manager for free tickets to a play for +both of us, which he got.</p> + +<p>What made him a tramp, an inhabitant of Hoboland, was that he had given +up the last shred of hope of ever amounting to anything in decent +society. Every plan that he made to "get on" pertained exclusively to +his narrow tramp world, and I cannot recall hearing him even envy any +one in a respected position. I tried several times to sound him +concerning a possible return to respectable living, and tentatively +suggested work which I thought he could do, but I might as well have +proposed a flying trip. "It's over with me," was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> his invariable reply. +His fits of drunkenness—they came, he told me, every six weeks or +so—had incapacitated him for steady employment, and he did not intend +to give any more employers the privilege of discharging him. He had no +particular grudge against society, he admitted that he was his own worst +enemy; but, as it was impossible for him to live in society respectably, +he deemed it not unwise to get all he could out of it as a tramp. "I'm +goin' to hell anyhow," he said, "and I might as well go in style as in +rags." Being considerably younger than he, he once barely suggested that +perhaps I would better try to "brace up," but it was in no sense of the +word an earnest appeal. Indeed, he seemed later to regret the remark, +for it is out of order to make such suggestions to tramps. If they want +to reform, the idea is that they can do it by themselves without any +hints from friends.</p> + +<p>As a man, separate from his business, "Whitey" was what most persons +would call a good fellow. He was modest, always willing to do a favour, +and everybody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> seemed to like him. During our companionship we never had +a quarrel, and he helped me through many a strait. I have seen him once +again since the first meeting. He was not quite so well dressed as +formerly, and his health seemed to be breaking up, but he was the same +good fellow. In late years I have not been able to get news of him +beyond the rumour that he was dying of consumption in Mexico.</p> + +<p>The menace of the tramp class to the country seems to me to consist +mainly in the example they set to the casual working man,—the man who +is looking around for an excuse to quit work,—and in the fact that they +frequently recruit their ranks with young boys. It is also to be said of +them that they are often in evidence at strikes, and take part in the +most violent demonstrations. As trespassers on railroads they are +notorious; they are a constant source of trouble to the railroad police +officer. Strictly speaking, the majority of them cannot be called +criminals, although a great many of them are discouraged criminals, but +in the chapter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> dealing with "The Lake Shore Push" it will be seen how +ferocious some of them become.</p> + +<p>The next largest class is composed of what I call backwoods criminals. +Scattered over the country, in nearly every State of the Union, are to +be found districts where people live practically without the pale of the +law. These places are not so frequent in the East as in the West, in the +North as in the South, but they exist in New England as well as in +Western States. They are generally situated far away from any railroad, +and the inhabitants seldom come in touch with the outside world. The +offenders are mainly Americans, but of a degenerated type. They resemble +Americans in looks, and have certain American mental characteristics, +but otherwise they are a deteriorated collection of people who commit +the most heinous offences in the criminal calendar without realising +that they are doing anything reprehensible. I have encountered these +miniature "Whitechapels" mainly on my excursions in tramp life, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> I +had to be on the lookout for them during the police experience. In one +of the States which my "beat" traversed, I was told by my chief that +there was a number of such communities, and that they turned out more +criminals to the population in a year than the average large city. One +day, while travelling in a "caboose" with a native of the State in +question, I asked him how it came that it tolerated such nests of crime, +but he was too loyal to admit their existence. "We used to have a lot of +them," he explained, "but we've cleaned them up. You see, when we +discovered natural gas, it boomed everything, and we've been building +railroads and schools all over. No; you won't find those eyesores any +more; we're as moral a State to-day as any in the Union." It was a +pardonable pride that the man took in his State, but he was mistaken +about the matter in question. There are communities not over a hundred +and fifty miles from his own town where serious crimes are committed +every day, and no court ever hears of them because they are not +considered crimes by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> the people who take part in them. Not that these +people are fundamentally deficient in moral attributes, or unequal to +instruction as to the law of Mine and Thine, but they are so out of +touch with the world that they have forgotten, if indeed they ever knew, +that the things they do are criminal.</p> + +<p>It is impossible at present to get trustworthy statistics in regard to +this class, because no one knows all of its haunts, but if it were +possible, and the entire story about it were told, there would be less +hue and cry about the evil that the foreigners among us do. I refer to +the class without advancing any statistics, because it came within my +province as a police officer to keep track of it, and because it had +attracted my attention as an observer of tramp life; but it is well +worth the serious consideration of the criminologist.</p> + +<p>The professional criminal, or the habitual offender, as he is called by +some, comes next in numerical strength, but first of all, in my opinion, +in importance.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> I consider him the most important because he frankly +admits that he makes a business of crime, and is prepared to suffer any +consequences that his offences may bring upon him. It is he who makes +crime a constant temptation to the occasional offender, and it is also +he with whom we have the most trouble in our criminal courts; he is +almost as hard to convict as the man with "political influence." On my +"beat" he was more in evidence, in the open at least, than any of the +other offenders mentioned, except the tramp, but, as I stated, the warm +months are the time when he comes out of his hiding-places, and it was +natural that I should see a good deal of him.</p> + +<p>My fifth category is made up of what a friend calls "the unknown thief," +whom he considers the most dangerous and despicable of all. He means, by +the unknown thief, the man in official life, or in any position which +permits of it, who protects, for the sake of compensation, the known +thief. "If you will catch the unknown thief," he has frequently said to +me, "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> will contract to apprehend and convict the known," and he +believes that until we make a crusade against the former, the latter is +bound to flourish in spite of all our efforts. He sees no use, for +instance, in spending weeks and sometimes months in trying to capture +some well-known criminal, as long as it is possible for the man to buy +his freedom back again, and it is his firm belief that this kind of +bargaining is going on every day.</p> + +<p>Although there was no doubt that the unknown thief was to be located on +any "beat," if looked for, my instructions were not to disturb him +unless he seriously disturbed me, and as he made no effort to interfere +with my work I merely made a note of his case when we met, and doubtless +he also "sized me up" from his point of view. How strong his class is, +compared with the others, must remain a matter of conjecture, but I have +put his class fourth in my description because it is the quality of his +offences, rather than their quantity, which makes his presence in the +criminal world so significant. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> are those who believe that he is +to be found in every town and village in the United States, if enough +money is offered him as bait, but I have not sufficient data to prove, +or to make me believe, such a statement. The league between him and the +known thief—the man whose photograph is in the "rogue's gallery"—is so +close, however, that I have devoted special chapters to both offenders.</p> + +<p>Of the last category, the man whom I have called the irresponsible +criminal, there is not much of interest or value that I have to report. +While acting as police officer I practically never encountered him in +the open, and the few members of his class that I saw in prisons seemed +to me to have become irresponsible largely during their imprisonment. +Perhaps I take a wrong view of the matter, but I cannot get over the +belief that the majority of offenders, particularly those who are ranked +as "professionals," are <i>compos mentis</i> as far as the law need require. +In every department of the prisons that I visited, men were to be seen +who gave the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> impression of being at least queer, but they formed but a +very small part of the prison population, and may very possibly have +been shamming the eccentricities which seemed to indicate that they were +on the border line of insanity. For this reason, and, as I say, because +I met none in the open, it has seemed fair to put this class last.</p> + +<p>The foregoing classification is naturally not meant as a scientific +description in the sense that the professional criminologist would take +up the matter. I have merely tried to explain how the criminal situation +in the United States seems to the man whose business it is to keep an +official watch over it. I may have overlooked, in my classification, +offenders that some of my brother officers would have included, but it +stands for the general impression I got of the criminal world while in +their company. To attempt to estimate the numerical strength of these +classes as a whole would land one in a bewildering bog of guesses. It is +only recently that we have made any serious effort to keep a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> record of +offenders shut up in penal institutions, of crimes which have been +detected and of offenders who have been punished, and it is a fact well +known in police circles that there is a great deal of crime which is +never ferreted out. There is consequently very little use in trying to +calculate the number of the entire criminal population. The most that I +can say in regard to the question is that never before has this +population seemed to me to be so large, but I ought to admit that not +until my recent experience have I had such an advantageous point of view +from which to make observations.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<h3>THE PROFESSIONAL CRIMINAL.</h3> + +<p>In appearance and manner the professional criminal has not changed much +in the last decade. I knew him first over ten years ago, when making my +earliest studies of tramp life. I saw him again five years ago, while on +a short trip in Hoboland, and we have met recently on the railroads; and +he looks just about as he did when we first got acquainted.</p> + +<p>Ordinarily he would not be noticed in mixed company by others than those +accustomed to his ways. He is not like the tramp, whom practically any +one can pick out in a crowd. He dresses well, can often carry himself +like a gentleman, and generally has a snug sum of money in his pockets. +It is his face, voice, and habits of companionship that mark him for +what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> he is. Not that there is necessarily that in his countenance which +Lombroso would have us believe signifies that he is a degenerate, +congenitally deformed or insane, but rather that the life he leads gives +him a look which the trained observer knows as "the mug of a crook." He +can no more change this look after reaching manhood than can a genuinely +honest man, who has never been in prison, acquire it. I had learned to +know it, and had become practised in discovering it, long before I +became a policeman. It took me years to reach the stage when in merely +looking hurriedly at a criminal something instinctively pronounced him a +thief, but such a time certainly comes to him who sojourns much in +criminal environment. There are, of course, certain special features and +wrinkles that one looks for, and that help in the general summing up, +but after awhile these are not thought of in judging a man, at least not +consciously, and the observer bases his opinion on instinctive feeling. +Given the stylish clothes to which I have referred, a hard face, +suspicious eyes which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> seem to take in everything, a loitering walk, a +peculiar guttural cough, given by way of signal, and called the thief's +cough, and a habit of lingering about places where a "sporty" +constituency is usually to be found, and there is pretty conclusive +evidence that a professional thief is in view. All of this evidence is +not always at hand; sometimes there is only the cough to go by, but, the +circumstances being suspicious, any one of them is sufficient to make an +expert observer look quickly and prick up his ears.</p> + +<p>In New York City, for instance, there are streets in which professional +thieves can be met by the dozen, if one understands how to identify +them, and it is only necessary to pass a few words and they can be drawn +into conversation. Some are dressed better than others,—there are a +great many ups and downs in the profession,—and some look less typical +than the more experienced men,—it takes time for the life to leave its +traces,—but there they stand, the young and old, the clever and the +stupid, for any one who knows how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> to scrape acquaintance with them. +They are the most difficult people in the world to learn to know well +until one has mastered their freemasonry, and then they are but little +more fearful of approach than is the tramp.</p> + +<p>I devote a special chapter to their class, because I believe that they +are the least understood of all offenders, and also, as I stated in the +last chapter, because I consider them the real crux of the problem of +crime in this country. The petty offender is comparatively easy to +discourage, the backwoods criminal will disappear as our country +develops, the born criminal, the man who says that he cannot help +committing crimes, can be shut up indefinitely, but the professional +criminal, thanks to his own cleverness and the league he and the unknown +thief have entered into, baffles both the criminologist and the +penologist, and he probably does more financial harm to the country than +all the other offenders put together. He is the man that we must +apprehend and punish before crime in the United States will fail to be +attractive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> and at the present moment it is its attractiveness which +helps to make our criminal statistics so alarming.</p> + +<p>I have placed him fourth in numerical strength in my general +classification, and I believe this to be a correct estimate of the +number of those who really make their living by professional thieving. +If those are to be included who would like to succeed as professional +thieves and fail, and drop down sooner or later into the occasional +criminal's class, or into the tramp's class, the position I have given +the so-called successful "professional" would have to be changed; but it +has seemed best to confine the class to those who are rated successful, +and on this basis I doubt whether an actual census taking, if it were +possible, would prove them to be more numerous than I have indicated. +Seeing and hearing so much of them on my travels, I made every effort to +secure trustworthy statistics in regard to their number, and as the +majority of them are known to the police, it seemed reasonable to +suppose that, if I passed around enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> among different police +organisations, I ought to get satisfactory figures, but the fact of the +matter is that the police themselves can only make guesses concerning +the general situation, and I am unable to do any better.</p> + +<p>When putting queries concerning the number of the offenders in question, +my informants wanted me to differentiate and ask them about particular +kinds of professionals before they would reply. One very well informed +detective, for instance, said: "Do you mean the whole push, or just the +A Number One guns? If you mean the push, why you're safe in saying that +there are 100,000 in the whole country, but the most of 'em are a pretty +poor lot. If you mean the really good people, 10,000 will take 'em all +in."</p> + +<p>The cities which were reported to have turned out the greatest number +were New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo, +Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Chicago +was given the palm for being, at the present moment, the main stronghold +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> habitual criminals. Nearly every photograph I saw of a young +offender was said to represent one of Chicago's hopefuls, and the +pictures of the old men were generally described as the likenesses of +New York City "talent." Chicago's lead in the number of "professionals" +was explained by one man on the ground that it is a Mecca and Medina +"for young fellows who have got into some scrape in the East. They go to +Chicago, get in with the push, and then start out on the road. The older +men train them."</p> + +<p>A question that I was continually putting to myself when meeting the +"professional" was: What made him choose such a career? He is +intelligent, agreeable to talk to, pleasant as a travelling companion, +and among his kind a fairly good fellow, and why did he not put these +abilities and talents to a better use? To understand him well I believe +that one must make his acquaintance while he is still living at home, as +a boy, in some city "slum." He does not always come from a slum, but, as +a rule, this is where he begins<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> his criminal career. In every quarter +of this character there is a criminal atmosphere. The criminologists +have not given this fact sufficient prominence in their writings. They +make some mention of it, but it is seldom given its true significance in +their books. The best-born lad in the world can go wrong if forced to +live in this corrupt environment. Not that he is necessarily taught to +commit crimes, or urged to, although this sometimes happens; they become +spontaneous actions on his part. The very air he breathes frequently +incites him to criminal deeds, and practice makes him skilful and +expert. In another environment, in nine cases out of ten, he could be +trained to take an interest in upright living; in this one he follows +the lines of least resistance, and becomes a thief.</p> + +<p>Let me describe the childhood of a criminal boy who will serve as a type +for thousands.</p> + +<p>He was born in one of the slums of New York, not far from the Bowery, +and within a stone's throw of the clock of Cooper<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> Institute, and the +white spire of Grace Church. From the very start he was what is called +an unwelcome child. Not that there was any particular dislike toward him +personally, but his parents had all they could do, and more too, to care +for the half dozen other children who had come to them, and, when he +appeared, there was hardly any room in the house left. He grew up with +the sense of want always present, and when he got into the street with +the other children of the neighbourhood, it became even more oppressive. +Pretty soon he learned from the example of his playmates that begging +sometimes helps to quiet a boy's hunger, and that pilfering from the +grocer's sidewalk display makes the dinner at home more substantial. +These are bits of slum philosophy that every child living in slums +learns to appreciate sooner or later. The lad in question was no +exception. He was soon initiated into the clique, and played his own +part in these miniature bread riots. He did not appreciate their +criminal significance. All he knew was that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> his stomach was empty and +that he wanted the things he saw in the shops and streets. He was like a +baby who sees a pretty colour gleaming on the carpet, and, without +counting the cost or pains, creeps after it. He knew nothing of the law +of Mine and Thine, except as the thing desired was held fast in the fist +of its owner. Not that he was deformed in his moral nature, or naturally +lacking in moral power, but this nature and power had never been +trained. Like his body, they had been neglected and forgotten, and it is +no surprise that they failed to develop. Had somebody taken him out of +his "slum" environment, and taught him how to be respectable and honest, +his talents might have been put to good uses, but luck, as he calls +circumstances, was against him, and he had to stay in low life.</p> + +<p>In this life there is, as a rule, but one ideal for a boy, and that is +successful thieving. He sees men, to be sure, who find gambling more +profitable, as well as safer, and still others humble enough to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> content +themselves with simple begging, but as a lad truly ambitious and anxious +to get on rapidly, he must join the "crook's" fraternity. There is also +a fascination about crime which appeals to him. Men describe it +differently, but they all agree that it has a great deal to do in making +criminals. My own idea is that it lies in the excitement of trying to +elude justice. I know from experience as an amateur tramp that there is +a great deal of satisfaction in slipping away from a policeman just as +he is on the point of catching you, and I can easily understand how much +greater the pleasure must be to a man, who, in thus dodging the officer, +escapes not simply a few days in a county jail, but long years in a +penitentiary. It is the most exciting business in the world, and for men +equal to its vicissitudes it must have great attractions.</p> + +<p>In time it interested the boy I am describing. At first he thieved +because it was the only way he knew to still his hunger, but as he grew +older the idea of gain developed, and he threw himself body<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> and soul +into the thief's career. He had been brought up in crime, taught to +regard it as a profitable field of labour, full of exciting chase and +often splendid capture, and naturally it was the activity that appealed +to him. He knew that he had certain abilities for criminal enterprises, +that there was a possibility of making them pay, and he determined to +trust to luck. The reader may exclaim here: "But this boy must have been +a phenomenon. No lad wilfully chooses such a career so young." He was in +all respects an average slum boy in his ambitions and maturity, and if +he seems extraordinary to the reader, the only explanation I can give is +that low life develops its characters with unusual rapidity. Outcast +boys are in business and struggling for a place in the world long before +the respectable boy has even had a glimpse of it. This comes of +competition. They must either jump into the fray or die. The child in +them is killed long before it has had a chance to expand, and the man +develops with hothouse haste. It is abnormal, but it is true, and it all +goes to show<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> how the boy in question was registered so early in the +criminal calendar. He had to make his living, he had to choose a +business, and his precocity, if I may call it that, was simply the +result of being forced so early into the "swim." He ought to have been a +frolicsome child, fond of ball and marbles, but he had but little time +for such amusements. Money was what he wanted, and he rushed pell-mell +in search of it. I will leave him in the company of hardened tramps and +criminals, into which he soon drifted, and among whom he made a name for +himself.</p> + +<p>The resolution to be a "professional" comes later with some lads than +with others. Until well on into their teens, and sometimes even into +their twenties, there are those who merely drift, stealing when they can +and managing otherwise when they can't. Finally they are arrested, +convicted, and sent to state prison. Here there is the same criminal +atmosphere that they were accustomed to in the open, only more of it. Go +where they will in their world, they cannot escape it. In prison they +form<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> acquaintances and make contracts against the day when they will be +free again. They are eventually turned loose. What are they to do? The +"job," of course, that they have talked about with a "pal" in the "stir" +(penitentiary). They do it, and get away with two or three thousand. +This decides them. They know of more deals, and so do their cronies, and +they agree to undertake them and divide the plunder. So it goes on for +years, and finally they have "records;" they are recognised among their +fellows and in police circles as clever "guns;" they have arrived at +distinction.</p> + +<p>Only one who has been in the criminal world can realise how easy it is +for a boy to develop on these lines. He who studies prison specimens +only, and neglects to make their acquaintance while they are still young +and unhardened, naturally comes to look upon them as weird and uncanny +creatures, to be accounted for only on the ground that they are freaks +of nature; but they are really the result of man's own social system. If +there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> no slums in this country, no criminal atmosphere, and no +unknown thieves to protect the known, there would be comparatively few +professional offenders. The trouble at present is that when a boy gets +into this atmosphere, once learns to enjoy criminal companionship and +practice, he is as unhappy without them as is the cigarette fiend +without his cigarette. Violent measures are necessary to effect any +changes, and there comes a time when nothing avails.</p> + +<p>Before closing this chapter it seems appropriate to refer to some of the +peculiar characteristics of professional offenders. The most that can be +attempted in the space of one chapter is a short account of a few of +their traits as a class, but an interesting book might be written on +this subject.</p> + +<p>A peculiar caste feeling or pride is one of the most noteworthy +characteristics of professional offenders. They believe that, in +ostracising them from decent company, the polite world meant that they +should live their lives in absolute exile, that they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> should be denied +all human companionship, and in finding it for themselves among their +kind, in creating a world of their own with laws, manners, and customs, +free of every other and answerable only to itself, they feel that they +have outwitted the larger world, beaten it at its own game, as it were. +Their attitude to society may be likened to that of the boy who has been +thrown out of his home for some misdemeanour and who has "got on" +without paternal help and advice; they think that they have "done" +society, as the boy often thinks that he has "done" his father, and the +thought makes them vain. Individually, they frequently regret the deeds +which lost them their respectability, and a number, if they could, would +like to live cleaner lives, but, collectively, their new citizenship and +position give them a conceit such as few human beings of the respectable +sort ever enjoy. Watch them at a hang-out camp-fire gathering! They sit +there like Indian chiefs, proud of their freedom and scornful of all +other society, poking fun at its follies, picking flaws in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> its +morality, and imaginatively regenerating it with their own suggestions +and reforms. At the bottom of their hearts they know that theirs is a +low world, boasting nothing that can compare with the one which they +criticise and carp at, and that they are justly exiled; but the fact +that they have succeeded alone and unaided in making it their own puffs +them up with a pride which will not allow them to judge impartially.</p> + +<p>I remember talking with a Western criminal in regard to this matter, and +taking him to task for his loose and careless criticism, as I considered +it. He had tossed off bold judgments on all manner of inconsistencies +and immoralities which he claimed that he had found in respectable +society, and took his own world as a standard of comparison. Generosity +was a virtue which he thought much more prevalent in his class. He +listened to my objections, and seemed to accept some of the points made, +but he closed the argument with a passionate appeal to what he would +have called my class pride. "But think how we've fooled 'em, Cigarette," +he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> exclaimed. "Why, even when they put us in prison we've still got our +gang, just the same, our crowd,—that's what tickles me. I s'pose they +are better'n I am,—I'll be better when I'm dead,—but they ain't any +smarter'n I am. They wanted me to go off in the woods somewhere 'n' chew +up my soul all alone, 'n' I've fooled 'em,—we all have! That's what I'm +kickin' for, that they give in 'n' say, 'You ain't such Rubes as we +thought you were.' If one uv 'em 'ud jus' come to me 'n' say: 'Jack, +it's a fact, we can't ring in the solitary confinement act on +you.—d'you know, I believe I'd reform jus' to be square with 'im. What +I want 'em to do is to 'fess up that I ain't beholden to 'em for cump'y, +for my gang, 'n' that they ain't any smarter'n I am in findin' a gang. +I'm jus' as big a man in my crowd as they are in theirs, 'n' nothin' +that they can do'll make me any smaller. Ain't that right, eh?" And I +had to confess that from his point of view it was.</p> + +<p>Respectable, law-abiding people never realise what a comfort this caste +feeling is to thousands of men. I have met even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> educated men to whom it +has been a consolation. They have never been able to define exactly the +compensation it affords them, indeed they have often been ashamed to +admit the fact, but it has remained, nevertheless. I think the man I +have just quoted enunciates it as clearly as it is possible to be set +forth in words. His joy consisted in discovering that he was just as +"smart," just as full of resource, just as equal to a trying situation, +even in his disgrace and downfall, as the man who shunned his company, +who wanted him banished or sent to prison; he had revenged himself, so +to speak, on his avengers, a gratification which is more or less dear to +all human beings.</p> + +<p>Personal liberty and freedom in contra-distinction to class liberty and +freedom also count for a good deal in the outcast's life. Besides being +independent of other people, he is also more or less independent of his +own people, so far as laws and commands are concerned. He tolerates no +king, president, or parliament, and resents with vigour any +infringements upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> his privileges, either from society or his own +organisation. In fact, he leaves the organisation and lives by himself +alone, if he feels that its unwritten, but at times rather strict, laws +bear too heavily upon him. There are men who live absolutely apart from +the crowd, shunning all society, except that which supports them. They +are often called "cranks" by their less thoroughgoing companions, and +would probably impress every one as a little crotchety and peculiar, but +their action is the logical outcome of the life. The tendency of this +life is to make a man dislike the slightest conventionalism, and to live +up to his disliking is the consistent conduct of every man in it. He +hates veneer about him in every particular and only as he throws off +every vestige of it does he enjoy to the full his world.</p> + +<p>In a lodging-house in Chicago, some years ago, I met a tramp who was a +good example of the liberty-loving professional offenders. We awoke in +the morning a little earlier than the rest, and, as it was not yet time +to get up, fell to talking and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> "declaring ourselves," as tramps do +under such circumstances. After we had exchanged the usual cut and dried +remarks which even hobo society cannot do entirely without, he said to +me, suddenly, and utterly without connection with what had gone before: +"Don't you love this sort o' life?" at the same time looking at me +enthusiastically, almost as if inspired. I confessed that it had certain +attractive features, and showed, for the sake of drawing him out, an +enthusiasm of my own. "I don't see," he went on, "how I have ever lived +differently. I was brought up on a farm, but, my goodness, I wouldn't +trade this life if you'd give me all the land in the wild West. Why, I +can do just as I please now—exactly. When I want to go anywhere, I get +on a train and go, and no one has the right to ask me any questions. +That's what I call liberty,—I want to go just where I please," and he +brought out the words with an emphasis that could not have been stronger +had he been stating his religious convictions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p> + +<p>I have often been asked whether tramps and criminals have class +divisions and distinctions like those in society proper. "Are there +aristocrats and middle class people, for instance," a number of persons +have said to me, "and does position count for much?" Most certainly +there are these distinctions, and they constitute one of the most +notable features of the life. There is just as much chance to climb high +and fall low, in the outcast world, there are just as many prizes and +praises to win, as in the larger world surrounding it, and the +investigator will find, if he observes carefully enough, the identical +little jealousies, criticisms, and quarrels that prevail in "polite +society."</p> + +<p>A man acquires position in pretty much the same way that it is acquired +elsewhere,—he either works hard for it, or it is granted him by common +consent on account of his superior native endowment. There is as little +jumping into fame in this world as in any other; one must prove his +ability to do certain things well, have a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> record of preparation +consistent with his achievements, before he can take any very high place +in the social order. The criminal enjoys, as a rule, the highest +position; he is the aristocrat of the entire community. Everybody looks +up to him, his presence is desired at "hang-out" gatherings, boys +delight to shake his hand, and men repeat his remarks like the wise +sayings of a prophet. He feels his importance, works for it, and tries +to live up to it, just as determinedly as aristocrats in other spheres +of activity, and if he loses it and falls from grace, the disappointment +is correspondingly keen.</p> + +<p>The tramp may be said to belong to the middle class of the outcast +world, and, like other middle class people, he often finds life a little +nicer in a class socially above him. He enjoys associating with +criminals, being able to quote them on matters of interest to the +"hang-out," and giving the impression that he is <i>au courant</i> with their +business. If he can do all this well it makes him so much the more +important among his fellows. His own particular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> class, however, also +has advantages and attractions, and there are men who seek his company +nearly as much as he seeks the criminals. There is an upper middle class +as well as a lower, and the line of separation is sharply drawn. The +"old stagers," the men who have been years "on the road," and know it +"down to the ground," as they say, constitute the upper middle class. +They can dictate somewhat to the tramps not so experienced as they are, +and their opinions are always listened to first. If they say, for +instance, that a certain town is "hostile," unfriendly to beggars, the +statement is accepted on its face, unless some one has absolute evidence +to the contrary, and even then the under class man makes his demurrer +very modestly. I have never succeeded in getting as far as this during +my tramp experiences, and had to remain content in the lower division, +but even there I had a significance denied to men less experienced than +I was. A newcomer, for instance, a "tenderfoot," was expected to show me +deference, and if I happened in at a "hang-out," where only<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> newcomers +were present, I was cock of the walk. Even these "tenderfeet" have a +class pride, too, for at the bottom of all this social arrangement there +are men and women who have been turned out of every class, the outcast +of the outcasts. They are called "tomato-can-stiffs" and "barrel +dossers" by the people above them, terms which indicate that they have +reached the last pitch of degradation. They realise their disgrace +nearly as much as their counterparts who have been turned out of +respectable society, and often look with longing upon the positions they +once enjoyed, but their lot is not entirely without its consolations, as +I learned one day in talking with one of them. "Well, at any rate," he +said, "I ain't got to keep thinkin' all the while 't I'm goin' to fall +and lose my posish the way you have to. There's no place for me to fall +to, I've come to the end o' my rope. You've got to keep lookin' out fer +yerself ev'ry step you take—keep worryin' about gettin' on, 'n' I don't +have them worries any more, 'n' it's a big relief, I tell you. You feel +the way you do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> when you get out o' prison." This thought is a little +fanciful, and not entirely sincere, but I can nevertheless appreciate +the man's point of view, for, with all the independence and liberty of +this world, there is, just as he said, considerable worry about holding +one's place, and I can imagine a time when it would be pleasant to be +relieved of it all.</p> + +<p>The financial profits in a professional offender's career are not easy +to determine, but they must be taken into consideration in all accounts +of his life, no matter how short. I saw more of the pickpocket, during +my police experience, than of any other professional thief, and it was +possible for me to learn considerable in regard to his winnings.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<h3>THE BUSINESS OF PICKING POCKETS.</h3> + +<p>Next to the tramp, who is more of a nuisance on American railroads, +however, than a criminal offender, the pickpocket is the most +troublesome man that a railroad police officer has to deal with. He has +made a study of the different methods by which passengers on trains can +be relieved of their pocketbooks, and unless he is carefully watched he +can give a railroad a very bad name. The same is true of a circus, in +the wake of which light-fingered gentry are generally to be found. +Circuses, like railroads, hire policemen to protect their properties and +patrons, and there are certain "shows" which one can attend and feel +comparatively safe; but in spite of the detectives which they employ, +many of them are exactly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> what the owner of a circus called them in my +presence—"shake-downs." Everybody is to be "shaken down" who is "green" +enough to let the pickpockets get at him, and, if pocketbooks are lost, +the proprietor will not be held responsible.</p> + +<p>A railroad company, on the other hand, is severely criticised, and +justly, if pickpockets are much in evidence on its trains, and as they +are the most numerous of all habitual offenders, the railroad police +officer is kept very busy during the summer season.</p> + +<p>The origin of the pickpocket takes one too far back in history to be +explained in detail here, but the probability is that his natural +history is contemporaneous with that of the pocket. When pockets were +sewed into our clothes, and we began to put valuables into them, the +pickpocket's career was opened up; to-day he is one of the most expert +criminal specialists. In the United States he has frequently begun life +as a newsboy, who, if he is dishonest, soon learns how to take change +from the "fob" pocket of men's coats. If he becomes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> skilled at this +kind of "grafting," and attracts the attention of some older member of +the pickpocket's guild, he is instructed in the other branches of the +art, or trade, as one pleases; I call it a business. An apt pupil can +become an adept before he is in his teens; indeed, some of the most +successful pickpockets in the country to-day are young boys. There are a +number of reasons why so many criminals make pocket-picking a specialty. +In the first place, it brings in hard cash, which does not have to be +pawned or sold, and which it is very difficult to identify. The +"leather," or pocketbook, is "weeded" (the money is taken out) and then +thrown away, and unless some one has actually seen the pickpocket take +it he cannot be convicted. Another reason is that it requires no +implements or tools other than those with which nature has provided us. +Two nimble fingers are all that is necessary after the victim has once +been "framed up," and the ease with which victims are found constitutes +still another attraction of the profession. We all think<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> we take great +care of our pocketbooks in crowded thoroughfares, and on street cars, +but the most careful persons are "marks" for the pickpocket, if he has +reason to believe that the plunder will pay him for the necessary +preparations. It is usually the unwary farmer from the country who makes +the easiest victim, but there are knowing detectives who have been +relieved of their purses.</p> + +<p>A fourth reason, and the main one, is that a practised hand at the +business takes in a great deal of money. Twenty-five dollars a "touch" +is not considered a phenomenal record if there is much money in the +crowd in which the pickpocket is working, and five or six touches in a +day frequently only pay expenses. An "A Number One grafter" is after +hundreds and thousands, and it is the ambition of every man in the +business to be this kind of pickpocket.</p> + +<p>Some men operate on the "single-handed" basis; they travel alone, +arrange their own "frame-ups" (personally corner their victims), and +keep all the profits.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> There are a few well-known successful pickpockets +of this order, and they are rated high among their fellows, but the more +general custom is for what is called a "mob" of men to travel together, +one known as the "tool" doing the actual picking, and the others +attending to the "stalling." A stall is the confederate of the +pickpocket, who bumps up against people, or arranges them in such a way +that the pickpocket can get at their pockets. Practically any one who +will take a short course of instruction can learn how to stall, but +there are naturally some who are more expert than others. A tool who +hires his stalls and makes no division of spoils with them will +sometimes have to pay as much as $5 a day for skilled men. When he +divides what he gets, each man in the mob may get an equal share or not, +according to a prearranged agreement, but the tool is the man who does +the most work.</p> + +<p>Of first-class tools, men who are known to be successful, there are +probably not more than 1,500 in the United States.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> Practically every +professional offender has a "go" at pocket-picking some time in his +career, but there are comparatively few who make a success of it as +actual pickpockets; the stalls are numberless. Among the 1,500 there are +some women and a fair portion of young boys, but the majority are men +anywhere from twenty to sixty years old. The total number of the +successful and unsuccessful is thirty, forty, or fifty thousand, as one +likes. All that is actually known is that there is an army of them, and +one can only make guesses as to their real strength.</p> + +<p>It is an interesting sight to see a mob of pickpockets at work. It +equals football in exercise and tactics, and fencing in cunning and +quickness. At the railroad station one of the favourite methods is for +the mob to mix with the crowd, pushing and tugging on and near the steps +of the coaches. It was my duty to watch carefully on all such occasions, +and I was finally rewarded by seeing some pickpockets at work. We were +three officers strong at the time, and we had concentrated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> at the +middle of the train, where the pushing was worst. One of the officers +was a man who has made a lifelong study of grafts and grafters. He and I +were standing close together in the crowd, and suddenly I saw him dart +like a flash toward the steps of one of the cars. I closed in also, as +best I could, and there on the steps were two big stalls blocking the +way, one of them saying to the people in front of him: "Excuse me, but I +have left my valise in this car." His confederate was near by, also +pushing. Between the two was the tool and his victim, and my companion +had slipped in among them just in time to shove his arm in between the +tool's arm and the victim's pocket, and the "leather" was saved.</p> + +<p>In the aisle of a car, when the passengers are getting out, another +popular procedure is for one stall to get in front of the victim, +another one behind him, and the tool places himself so that he can get +his hand into the man's pocket. The stall behind pushes, and the one in +front turns around angrily, blocking the way<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> meanwhile, and says to the +innocent passenger: "Stop your pushing, will you? Have you no manners?" +The man makes profuse apologies, but the pushing continues until the two +stalls hear the tool give the thief's cough or make a noise with his +lips such as goes with a kiss, which is a signal to them that the +leather has come up, and is safely landed; it has been passed in +lightning fashion to a confederate in the rear; the tool never keeps it +if he can help it. On reaching the station platform the front stall begs +pardon for the harsh words he has spoken to the passenger, and in the +language of the story-teller, all ends happily.</p> + +<p>Still another trick, and one that can happen anywhere, is to tip the +victim's hat down over his eyes, and then "nick" him while he is trying +to get his equilibrium again. A veteran justice of the peace whom I met +on my travels, and who was the twin brother in appearance of the poet +Whittier, has an amusing story to tell of how this trick was played on +him. We had called on him—my two brother officers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> and I—to find out +whether he would enforce the local suspicious character ordinance if we +brought pickpockets before him that we knew were in town. It was circus +day, and a raft of them had followed the show to the town, and we were +afraid that they might attempt to do work on our trains.</p> + +<p>"Pickpockets! Enforce the suspicious character ordinance!"—screamed the +squire. "You just bring the slickers in, an' see what I'll do with them. +Why, gol darn them, they got $36 out o' me the night the soldier boys +came home."</p> + +<p>"How did it happen?"</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you. All I know is that I was coming down that stairway +over there across the street, my hat fell over my eyes, and I stumbled. +I didn't think anything about it at the time, but when I got down to +Simpson's, where I was going to buy some groceries for my wife, I found +that my wallet was gone."</p> + +<p>"Did you notice any one on the stairway?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, there was a well dressed looking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> stranger coming down behind me, +and there may have been another man, coming down behind him, but I +couldn't 'a' sworn that they took my wallet. Some boys found it down the +street the next day."</p> + +<p>For the benefit of those who have to travel much, and we are all on the +cars a little, it seems worth while to describe the "raise" and "change" +tricks. When a victim is to be raised, one stratagem is for a stall to +go to him and ask whether a valise in the seat behind him is his,—it +always is,—and if so will he kindly shift it. If passengers are getting +into the car, and there is considerable crowding going on, the man will +be relieved of his pocketbook while he is reaching down for his valise.</p> + +<p>To "change" a man is to shift him from one car to another on the plea +that the one he is in is to be taken off at a junction. While he is +changing and going down the aisle, his "roll" or wallet disappears, and +the pickpockets take another train at a junction. It is all done in a +flash, and is as simple as can be to those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> who are in the business, but +a great many "leathers" would be saved if people would only be careful +and not crowd together like sheep. At circuses I have seen them push and +shove like mad, and all the while the pickpockets were at work among +them.</p> + +<p>An interesting story is told of an Illinois town where a mob of +pickpockets had been led to believe that they had "squared" things +sufficiently with the authorities to be able to run "sure thing" games +at the show grounds with impunity,—pickpockets dabble occasionally in +games,—but they swindled people so outrageously that the authorities +got scared and prohibited the games. The men had paid so heavily for +what they had considered were privileges, that they were going to be +losers unless they got in their "graft" somehow, so they turned +pickpockets again, and, as one man put it, "simply tore the crowd open." +When it dispersed, the ground was literally covered with emptied +pocketbooks.</p> + +<p>The easiest way for the police officer to deal with the pickpocket is to +know him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> whenever he appears, and to let him understand that he is +"spotted" and would better keep away. Some officers are born +thief-catchers, and can seemingly scent crime where it cannot even be +seen, and, whether they know a man or not, can pick out the real +culprit. The average officer, however, must recognise his man before he +can touch him, unless he catches him red-handed, and it is he who knows +a great many offenders and can call the "turn" on them, give their names +and records, that is the great detective of modern times. The sleuth of +fiction, who catches criminals by magic, as it were, is a snare and a +delusion.</p> + +<p>During my police experience I carried with me a pocket "rogue's gallery" +of the most notorious pickpockets of the section of the country in which +I had to travel. For a time I saw so many of these gentry in the flesh, +and was shown so many pictures, that a bewildering composite picture of +all formed in my mind. It seemed to me, sometimes, as if everybody I saw +in the streets resembled a pickpocket that I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> to be on the lookout +for. I finally determined to commit to memory a picture a day, or every +two or three days as was necessary, and learn to differentiate, and the +method proved successful. To-day there are about fifty pickpockets that +I shall know wherever I see them. The majority of them I have met +personally, but a number are known to me by photograph only.</p> + +<p>To illustrate the usefulness of photographs in the police business, and +incidentally my method, I must tell about a pickpocket whom I +identified, one morning, in a town where a circus was exhibiting. He had +tried to take a watch from a fellow passenger on a trolley-car, and had +nearly succeeded in unscrewing it from the chain when he was discovered. +He was a desperate character, and drew a razor, with which he frightened +everybody off the car, including the motorman. He attempted to escape by +running the car himself, but on seeing that it was going to take him +back to the town, he deserted it, appropriated a horse and buggy, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> +made another dash for liberty. He was eventually driven into a fence +corner by some of the young men of the town, and kept at bay until the +police arrived, when he was taken to the lock-up, where, in company with +my two companions, I saw him. He was brought out of his cell for our +inspection, and, as luck would have it, it was his photograph in my book +that I had elected to commit to memory a few days before. I knew him the +minute I saw him, and he was identified beyond a possible doubt. In +return he gave me the worst scolding I have ever had in my life, and +threatened to put out "my light" when he is free again, but this is a +<i>façon de parler</i> of men of his class; after he has served his five or +ten years he will have forgotten me and his threat.</p> + +<p>The amount of money which pickpockets take in annually is probably +greater than that of any of the other specialists in crime. It would be +idle to say how large it is, but it is a well-known fact that thousands +of dollars are stolen by them at big public gatherings to which they +have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> access. It was reported, for instance, that at the recent +Confederate Soldiers' Reunion in the South $30,000 were stolen by +pickpockets, and almost every day in the year one reads in the +newspapers of a big "touch" reaching into the thousands. I think it is a +conservative statement to say that in a lifetime the expert pickpocket +steals $20,000. Multiply this figure by 1,500, which I have given as the +number of the first-class tools in the country, and the result reaches +high up into the millions. Like other professional thieves, the +pickpocket throws away his money like water, and very seldom thinks of +saving for old age, but practically all successful mobs have "fall +money" (an expense fund for paying lawyers, etc., when they get +arrested) of from $3,000 to $5,000 each, carefully banked, and I know of +one pickpocket who is the owner of some very valuable real estate. A +good illustration of the rapidity with which they recoup themselves +financially after a period of rest, or a term in prison, is the story +told about one of them who returned to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> this country penniless after a +pleasure trip in Europe. The man related the incident to a friend of +mine. "Didn't have a red," he said. "I tackled a saloon keeper I knew +for a couple of thousand. How long do you think I was paying him back? +Three weeks!"</p> + +<p>If the pickpocket knew how to save his money, and could invest it well, +his children might some day be but millionaires.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<h3>HOW SOME TOWNS ARE "PROTECTED."</h3> + +<p>Speaking generally, there are two methods in vogue in American police +circles for dealing with crime, and they may be called the compromising +and the uncompromising. The latter is the more honest. In a town where +it is followed, the chief of police is known to be a man who will not +allow a professional thief within the city limits, if he can help it, +and he is continually on watch for transient offenders. He will make no +"deal" with criminals in any particular, and he takes pride in securing +the conviction and punishment of all whom his men apprehend. He is +naturally not liked by offenders, although they respect his consistency, +and there is a local element of rowdies who consider him "an old fogey," +but he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> is the kind of officer that makes Germany, for instance, and +England, too, in a measure, so free of the class of criminals that in +this country are so bold. There are some chiefs of police in the United +States of this character, and they become known throughout the criminal +world, but there ought to be more of them.</p> + +<p>The compromising policeman is a man of another stripe. He knows about +the uncompromising "copper," has read about him and thought about him, +but he excuses his disinclination to accept him as a model on the ground +that, if he did, the thieves would "tear his town open."</p> + +<p>"Why, if I should antagonise this class, as you suggest," he will say to +the protesting citizens, "they would come here some night and steal +right and left, just out of revenge. I haven't enough men to protect the +city in that way. The Town Council only give me so much to run the +entire force, and I have to manage the best way I can. If you'll give me +more men, I'll try to drive all the thieves out of the city."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>In certain instances his argument has truth in it; it sometimes happens +that he has not enough men to take care of the city from the +uncompromising policeman's point of view. The trouble is, however, that +because he is thus handicapped he thinks that he can go a step farther, +and is justified in reasoning thus: "Well, I had to pay to get this +position, and if the people don't want the town protected as it ought to +be, it isn't my fault, and I'm going to get out of the job all that's in +it," and then begins a miserable conniving with crime.</p> + +<p>To illustrate what a professional thief can accomplish with such a +police officer, let it be supposed that the thief is happily married, as +is sometimes the case, has a family, and wants to live in a certain +town. The chief of police knows him, however, and can disgrace his +family, if he is so inclined. The thief wants his family left alone, he +takes a pride in it, so he visits the chief at "Headquarters," and they +have a talk. "See here, chief," he says, "I'll promise you not to do any +work in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> your town, if you'll promise to leave me and mine alone. Now, +what's it going to cost me?"</p> + +<p>Sometimes it costs money, not necessarily handed over the desk, and not +always to the chief personally, but in a manner that is satisfactory to +all concerned. In other cases the matter is arranged without money, and +the thief may possibly promise to "tip off" to the chief some well-known +"professional" when he comes to town, so that the chief can get the +benefit of an advertisement in the newspapers; they will say that such +and such a man has been captured, "after a long and exciting chase ably +conducted by our brilliant chief." The chase generally amounts to a +quiet walk to the hotel or saloon where the visiting thief is quietly +reading a newspaper or drinking a glass of beer, and the capture +dwindles down to a request on the part of the chief or his officer that +the man shall go to the "front office," which he does, wondering all the +while who it was that "beefed" on him (told the chief who he was). A +number of the "fly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> catches," as they are called in police parlance, +which create so much comment in the press, can be explained in some such +way as this. Meanwhile, however, what has become of the protected thief? +He may keep his word, a number of thieves do, and commit no theft in the +town where he is allowed to live; it depends on how much money he needs +to meet his various expenses, how dear his family is to him, and what +temptations he encounters. If he does break his word, however, and there +are no hall-marks on his theft, by which it can be definitely traced to +him, all he has to say, when asked by his protector as to who did it, +is: "It must have been outside talent." In other words, he can "work" +with almost absolute safety in the town, and the innocent public is +paying taxes all the while for a police force that ought to be able to +apprehend him.</p> + +<p>To prove that this case is not hypothetical but actual, I would say that +I have recently been in at least two cities where I know that +professional thieves live with impunity, for I saw as many as ten in +each,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> and they were not afraid to do criminal work in either. The +police of both places claimed that in giving the thieves a domicile they +were protecting their towns, but any one who knows either city well is +aware that professional crime is prevalent.</p> + +<p>One of the worst features of the policy under consideration is its +selfishness. A chief who says to a professional thief, "I will leave you +alone if you will leave me alone," practically says to him: "Go to +another town when you want to steal." An amusing story is told in this +connection about two chiefs who aired their different notions in regard +to the matter, at one of the annual conferences of the chiefs of police. +One of them had said tentatively, so the story goes, that he had heard +that in some cities criminals were protected, and that he considered the +practice a bad one. Another chief, who was thought to favour such a +policy, got up and said that he did not know much about the question in +hand, but he did know that his town was particularly free of crime. +"That may be, Bill," retorted the first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> speaker, "but I'll tell you +what your thieves do—they come down to my town to steal and go back to +yours, where they are left alone, to live." I give the anecdote merely +as gossip, but it illustrates splendidly one of the worst results of +compromise with crime.</p> + +<p>It sometimes happens that an entire municipal administration, or, at any +rate, the most powerful officials in it, favour the policy of +compromise, and then it is utterly impossible to punish the criminal +adequately. I have been in such communities. Not long ago I was in a +town of about ten thousand inhabitants where a "mob" of New York +pickpockets were caught in the act of attempting to pick a pocket. On +being charged with the crime by the officers who had discovered them, +they admitted their guilt and profession, and said: "But what are you +going to do about it?" If the town authorities had been trustworthy the +pickpockets could have been sent to the penitentiary; because there was +practically no hope of securing their conviction in the local courts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> on +account of their ability to bribe, or to give a purely nominal bail and +then run away, they were let go.</p> + +<p>One of the best illustrations of how a town's officials sell themselves +is embodied in the vile character known as "the fixer." I know this man +best as a circus follower. Connected with nearly all shows, sometimes +officially and sometimes not, are men who have games of chance with +which they swindle the public. In late years it has become necessary for +these men, in order to run their games, to pay for what are called +"privileges," and the man who secures these is called "the fixer." He +goes to the mayor or the chief of police of a town, as necessity +requires,—sometimes to both,—assures them that the games are harmless +(which they know is a lie), and hands them $25, $50, or $100, as +circumstances may require. In association with the men who have the +games are pickpockets and other professional thieves,—indeed the +gamesters themselves can frequently change clothes with the pickpockets +and let the thieves attend to the games<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> while they pick pockets. It is +not necessarily understood that the "crooks" are to be protected by the +authorities to the extent that the gamesters are, but "the fixer," who +stands in with the thieves also, is supposed to be able to get them out +of any serious trouble, or, at least, to warn them if he knows that +trouble is brewing.</p> + +<p>It was once my duty to run a race with a "fixer," and try to get the ear +of a mayor of a town before he did. Two other officers and myself had +assured ourselves that a "mob" of pickpockets was following up a circus +which was being transported over the railroad we were protecting, and we +knew that in one town, at least, "the fixer" had "squared" things with +the authorities. The circus was on its way to another town on our lines, +the mayor and police of which we believed we could swing our way if we +got to them before "the fixer" did, and we travelled there ahead of him. +We were particularly anxious to have the pickpockets arrested if they +put in an appearance, and we told the mayor who they were, what +protection they were getting, and explained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> to him how he would be +approached by "the fixer." The mayor listened to us, nodded his head +from time to time, and then said: "Well, there'll be no fixing done in +this town, and if you will point out the pickpockets, when they come in, +you may rest assured that they will be arrested. I can't understand what +the citizens of a town can be thinking of when they elect to office men +such as you describe." The pickpockets as well as "the fixer" must have +got wind of what we had done, for the former did not appear, and the +latter made no call on the mayor. We learned, however, that he arranged +things satisfactorily to all concerned in the town where the circus +exhibited on the following day.</p> + +<p>How many towns in this country can be "fixed" in this manner is a +question I would not attempt to answer, but I do know that in the +district where I was on duty as a police officer a great deal of tact +exercise was necessary to beat "the fixer" in a town where it was to his +interests to buy up the local authorities; and I ask in wonderment, as +did the mayor whom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> I have quoted: What are the citizens of a town +thinking of, when they allow such corrupt officials to manage things? Is +it because they are ignorant of what goes on, or merely because they are +indifferent? A friend in the police business, but a man who has +understood how to remain honest in spite of it, answers the question by +saying: "The world is a graft; flash enough boodle under nine noses out +of ten, and you can do as you like with them. Take New York, for +instance. I could clean up that city in a week if the people would stand +by me. They wouldn't do it. Enough would tumble down in front of some +fixer to queer everything that I might do. You can't do anything worth +while in the police business unless you've got the people behind you, +and they are as fickle as a cat. Why, if I were chief of police in New +York, and I should clean up the city thoroughly, there is a class of +business men who would come to me and say that I was taking away some of +the main attractions of the city, and that they were going to make a +kick about it. Heaven knows that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> police are corrupt, but I tell you +that the public is corrupt, too. See how things are up in Canada! I have +just come back from there, and I can assure you that there is no such +sneak work going on up there as there is with us. Their police courts +are as dignified almost as is our Supreme Court, and if a crook gets +into one of them they settle him. How many crooks get what they ought to +in this country? About one in ten, and he could get off with a light +sentence, if he had money enough to square things."</p> + +<p>Perhaps this is true, and we are indifferent to corruption as a people. +Certainly the police business makes one think so, but I have not been in +it long enough to hold to this pessimistic notion. It is my opinion that +the majority of the people in this country do not realise what goes on +about them, and I can take my own experience as an example. I have seen +more of criminal life, perhaps, than the average person, and it would +seem that I ought to have been able to learn considerable about the +corruption in the country, but I must admit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> that, until this experience +in a police force, I had no idea that it was as widespread as it is. It +is not unreasonable to suppose that people who have never had occasion +to look into such matters at all must be even more ignorant of the +situation than I was. There is a great deal of wrong-doing that is +apparent to any one who takes an active part in municipal politics, and +the newspapers are continually reporting things which can but make it +obvious to all who read that there is a strong criminal class in the +United States; but one seldom takes such matters seriously until he is +brought in close contact with them, and the general public is not thus +influenced.</p> + +<p>Take the Mazet Committee, which recently investigated New York. So far +as the police are concerned, I cannot see that the committee brought to +light much that was new, and it was difficult for me to take an interest +in this part of the investigation. If they had subpœnaed a few +successful professional thieves located in New York, however, and +persuaded them to tell what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> they know, the situation would have been +much clearer to me and to the general public. More interest and +indignation would also have been aroused if New York is "protected" in +the way that I have indicated in the case of other towns. The police are +not going to help investigate themselves, and the public is not likely +to be permanently affected by what they say. A very definite effect +would be made upon me, however, if a thief would get up and tell on what +basis he is allowed to live in New York, what it costs him, if anything, +to "square" things when he is arrested, what his annual winnings are, +and what, in general, he thinks of the criminal situation in the city. +He is a specialist entitled to speak with authority, and I would accept +his statements as trustworthy.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, to be replied to all this that it is very difficult to +persuade a thief to talk, but the point I would make is that the public +seldom gets the truth in regard to such matters as are under +consideration. It hears in an indefinite way that corruption is rampant, +and then there is an investigation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> but the average citizen rarely +realises what is going on until some personal business brings him in +contact with the suspected officials. Let a man have his pocket picked, +or his home robbed, and go to the police about it, and he will begin to +see how things are managed. If everybody could have this experience, +meet both detective and thief, and all could have a talk together, there +would be an awakening in public sentiment that would be very beneficial.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile all that I can recommend is to hunt down the unknown thief, +and punish him hard. There are different methods by which he can be +apprehended, but I know of none better than to catch the known thief and +through him find out the other. The police and court proceedings, if +carefully followed, are bound to develop the facts, and, these once +secured, the public is to blame if the unknown thief is not punished.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h3>A PENOLOGICAL PILGRIMAGE.</h3> + +<p>One of the advantages that the itinerant policeman has over the +stationary officer is that he can inspect a large number of penal +institutions, and find out who, among the people he has to keep track +of, are shut up. The municipal officer may know that a certain +"professional" is out of his bailiwick, but unless he can place him +elsewhere he is never sure when or where he may turn up again. The +itinerant officer, on the other hand, can follow a man, and if he gets +into prison the officer knows it immediately. This is a very definite +gain in the police business, and it would be well if police forces +generally were given the benefit of it. There is a National Bureau of +Identification to which officers who are members may apply for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> +information in regard to any offender of whom there is a record, and the +institution is to be recommended to those who are connected with police +life, but voluntary information in regard to convicts sent to police +chiefs by prison wardens would also be helpful.</p> + +<p>My interest in the lock-ups, jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries that +I visited on my travels was, in a measure, professional, but I was +mainly concerned in getting information in regard to their condition and +management, and in finding out to what extent they have a deterrent +effect on crime. All told, I inspected about thirty-five places of +detention and penal institutions, and they represent the best and worst +of their kind in the country. In criticising them I would not have it +understood that I hold the officials in charge necessarily responsible +for their condition—the taxpayers decide whether a community shall have +a truly modern prison or not; my purpose is merely to report what I saw, +and to comment objectively on my finding.</p> + +<p>I visited more lock-ups than anything<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> else. On reaching a town, I went +as soon as possible to the "calaboose" to see who were held there. +Sometimes the little prison was empty, and then again every cell would +be occupied, but in a week I generally saw from thirty to fifty inmates. +Mature men predominated, but women and boys were also to be found. The +women were invariably separated from the men by at least a cell wall, +but the boys, and I saw some not over ten years old, were thrown in with +the most hardened criminals. They were allowed to pass about among the +men in the lock-up corridor, and at night were shut up with them in the +cells. This is the worst feature of the lock-up system in the United +States. Very little effort is made in the smaller towns to separate the +young from the old, the hardened from the unhardened, and even in the +lock-ups of large cities a much more careful classification of the +inmates is necessary. The officials in charge of these places excuse the +policy now in vogue on the ground that there is not room enough to give +the boys better attention, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> taxpayers say that there is not +money enough in the community to build larger lock-ups. There is always +a reason of some sort for every blunder that is made, but as long as we +make our lock-ups "kindergartens of crime," as I once heard a criminal +call them, there is no excuse whatever to wonder why there are so many +offenders. It is a fashion, nowadays, to run to "the positive school" of +Italy and France for an explanation concerning the origin of the +criminal, to ask Signor Lombroso to diagnose the situation, but in this +country we need but make a round of our lock-ups to discover where the +fresh crop of offenders comes from. They generally get to the lock-up +from the "slum," where they may or may not have shown criminal +proclivities, but once in the lock-up and allowed to associate with the +old offenders, very few of them, indeed, escape the contaminating +influences brought to bear upon them.</p> + +<p>The county jail may be described as the public school of crime. There +are some county jails in which a thorough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> classification of the inmates +is secured, but there is a very small number of these jails compared +with the hundreds in which young and old, first offenders and habitual +criminals, are all jumbled together. I can write from a full experience +in regard to our county jails, because I have not only had to visit them +as a police officer, but I have also had to "serve time" in them as a +tramp, and I know whereof I speak. Practically any boy, no matter what +his training has been, can be made a criminal if handed over to skilled +jail instructors, and every day in the year some lad, who, after all is +said, is really only mischievous, is committed by a magistrate or +justice of the peace to a county prison. There is no other place for the +magistrate to send the boy, if his parents demand his incarceration, and +the sheriff is not prepared to take him to the reform school +immediately, and so he is tossed into the general rag-bag of offenders +to take his chances. He is eventually sent to the reform school or house +of correction, where it is theoretically supposed that he is going to be +reformed;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> but it is a fact that the majority of professional offenders +in this country have generally spent a part of their youth in just such +institutions, where they were no more reformed than is a confirmed +jailbird on his release from a penitentiary. It is an extremely +difficult task to change any boy who goes to a reform school after a +long sitting in a county jail, and the wonder to me is that our +reformatories accomplish what they do. The superintendent of a +reformatory school in Colorado took me to task some years ago for making +the statement in public, in regard to tramps, that I have just made +about professional criminals,—that the majority of them have +experienced reform-school discipline,—and he said that it was a +thoroughly established fact that tramps keep out of such places. Of +course they keep out of them as full-grown men, as do also grown-up +thieves, but they are sent to them as youngsters, if apprehended for +some offence, whether they like it or not, and any one who is acquainted +with tramps and criminal life knows this to be true.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>I make so much mention of boys in this paper because they are to be the +next generation of offenders, unless we succeed in rescuing them from a +criminal life while they are still susceptible to good influences; and +we are not doing this, or even seriously thinking about it, when we give +them professional thieves and convicted murderers as associates in +jails.</p> + +<p>Various suggestions have been made by which the county jail system can +be improved, and I favour the one which recommends that the county +institution be abolished entirely, and that two or three well-equipped +houses of detention be made to suffice for an entire State. Such an +arrangement would not only be a great deal cheaper than the present +practice, but it would permit of a careful division of all the inmates. +Some of our workhouses are already run on this basis, several counties +contributing toward the support and maintenance of each. It would, of +course, be necessary to make a county's contributions toward the support +of a jail proportionate to its population, but there ought not to be any +great difficulty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> in arranging a satisfactory contract; and it is time, +anyhow, that we throw over some of our commercial notions about making +corrective and penal institutions pay their way. The thing to do is to +make them effective in checking crime, and if they are successful in +this very important particular, we can well afford to put a little money +in them without worrying about the financial returns.</p> + +<p>I visited but one reformatory during my pilgrimage, but it was +representative of the latest of these institutions. I refer to the +Elmira, N. Y. type. The old and hardened "professional" calls these +places the high schools of crime, the next grade after the county jail, +but I do not agree with him in this classification. It is true, as he +says, that a number of offenders are committed to these institutions, +who ought to have been sent to the penitentiary, and it is particularly +disgusting to him to see educated men, with "pull" and friends, who have +been convicted of crimes for which less favoured offenders would receive +sentences to the State prison, relieved of the disgrace<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> of going to +prison by being sent to the "kids' pen," as the reformatory is also +sometimes called; but, admitting all this, I believe that the modern +reformatory, when well managed, represents the best penological notions. +As in all prisons, however, where the inmates work on the association +basis, a great deal can be taught that is not in the curriculum of the +institution, and it is consequently no surprise to meet, in the open, +criminals who have "served time" in reformatories. In the reformatory +that I visited, it was a disappointment to me to find that men whose +faces, manner, and bearing proved them to be, if not actual +professionals, at least understudies of men who are, were mixed up in +the workshops with young fellows whom any one would have picked out; for +comparatively innocent offenders. I believe in the principle of +association in certain corrective institutions also, but I do not +approve of indiscriminate companionship. A natural reply to my criticism +is that it is hard to tell who are the old offenders, but a prison +official who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> knows his business, and has learned how to read faces and +to interpret actions, ought to be able to separate the "crook" from the +beginner in crime. It is a false notion to think that the former is +going to be helped by association with the latter. A prison is a prison, +no matter what euphemistic name it is called, and the old offender is +not going to allow any "mother's boy" fellow prisoner to set him an +example. In the criminal world, as in the larger world on which it +lives, the law of the survival of the fittest is operative, and the +fittest, as a rule, are those who are the most hardened; in prison and +out, it is they who really run things.</p> + +<p>Another mistake made in the reformatory in question, according to my +view, is the age limit by which admission into the institution is +regulated. When a young man has reached his twenty-first year, and +commits a crime which calls for a prison sentence, I say let him have +it, no matter whose son he may be, provided the penitentiary authorities +observe the classification referred to above. If it can be proved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +beyond a reasonable doubt that the young man is mentally deficient, and +not accountable for his actions, it is obvious that the State prison is +no place for him; but, otherwise, it is my observation that more good +than harm is done, if he is made to suffer the punishment that the law +demands. I realise that I am on debatable ground in taking this view of +such cases, but they are debatable largely because the different +opinions held in regard to them are the result of different +observations. Mine have been made mainly in the outdoor criminal world, +and I have not had a wide experience with the offender in confinement, +but I have met the pampered young criminal so often, and it has been so +plain that it was light punishment which trained him to stand the more +severe, that I have come to believe that a quick checking-up at the +start would have been more beneficial.</p> + +<p>Of penitentiaries I saw two, each in a different State. One contained +about two thousand five hundred inmates, and the other about one +thousand eight hundred.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> It is not easy even for a police officer to +explore these institutions freely. I know of one warden who refuses to +let the police have photographs of criminals in his charge; he says that +"it is not nice to pass them around,"—but I managed to see a good deal +that I could not possibly have seen as an ordinary visitor, hurried +through by a guard.</p> + +<p>As a general statement, it may be said that a penitentiary reflects the +warden's personality. There are rules to be observed and work to be +done, which have been arranged and planned for by the board of +directors, but the warden is the man with whom the prisoners have to +deal, and they look up to him as the principal authority in every-day +matters. His main anxiety is to get good conduct out of his charges, and +he has to experiment with various methods. Some wardens favour one +method and some another. One, for instance, will think that leniency and +kindness work best, while another will recommend whipping, the dungeon, +electricity, hot water, etc., for recalcitrant inmates. The idea of each +warden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> is that he wants things to go smoothly, and if they do not, he +has to straighten them out as best he can. All this is very interesting +from the warden's point of view, and it interested me also somewhat when +visiting the two penitentiaries; but my main endeavour was to try to +find out to what extent these institutions were lessening the number of +criminals in the communities which they served. A man may be as gentle +as a lamb while in durance, and the warden may pride himself on the good +conduct he is getting out of him, but how is he going to be when he has +his liberty once more? The cleverest criminal is usually the most docile +prisoner, and yet he takes up crime again as his profession after his +time has expired, and the penitentiary has been in his case merely a +house of detention. Excepting the death penalty, however, imprisonment +in a penitentiary is the final form of punishment that we have in this +country, and if it fails to check crime, either our criminals are +increasing out of proportion to our means for taking care of them, or we +do not administer the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> proper chastisement. From what I have been able +to see of our penitentiaries as a visitor, and have heard about them as +a fellow traveller with tramps, and incidentally with criminals, I am +inclined to accept the second conclusion. Crime has increased in this +country faster than the population, but in the older States there are +enough penal institutions to take care of the offenders, if they were +made to have the discouraging effect on criminals that similar +institutions have in Europe.</p> + +<p>The late Austin Bidwell, an American offender who had a long experience +in an English prison, and who was a competent judge of the kind of +punishment that is the most deterrent, once said to me that he believed +that a short imprisonment, if made very severe, accomplished more than a +long imprisonment with comforts. And he added that he thought that in +the United States a mistake was made in giving criminals long sentences +to easy prisons. I hold more or less to the same view. Penologically, I +think that the punishment in vogue in Delaware, for certain offences, +is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> wiser and more to the point than that in any other State in the +Union. Punishment in prison ought not to be wholly retributive,—it has +been well called expiatory discipline,—but it ought to check crime, and +up to date there is no satisfactory evidence that our prisons are +achieving this end. In many of them the discipline is too lenient. At +one of the prisons I visited, two Sundays of the month are given up to a +lawn festival, which the prisoners' friends may attend. They bring lunch +baskets and join the prisoners in the prison garden, where they chat, +eat ice-cream, and drink lemonade, sold at a booth presided over by one +of the prisoners, and generally amuse themselves. It seemed to me that I +was attending a picnic. In a talk with the warden in regard to the +affair, he said that he found that such favours made the prisoners more +tractable.</p> + +<p>In my humble opinion, a prison is not a place where favours of this +character need be expected or shown, and if good conduct can only be got +out of them by being "nice" to them after this fashion, they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> would +better be shut up in their cells until they can learn to obey.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I desire to put two queries: Why is it that the cleverest +criminals in our prisons are frequently to be found taking their ease in +the prison hospitals and "insane wards," and how does it come that men +who belong to the class of prisoners who ought to wear the "stripes" are +allowed the clothes which ordinarily are only given to prisoners who +have passed the "stripe" period of their incarceration? In one +penitentiary I found a politician and rich physician favoured in the +latter particular, and in the hospital and insane ward of another, +enjoying themselves in rocking-chairs and a private garden, I found more +professional thieves than in any other part of the institution. I ask +the questions in all innocence, but there are those who claim that +correct answers to them would disclose some very bad practices in prison +management.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h3>A NEW CAREER FOR YOUNG MEN.</h3> + +<p>Up till the present time the police business in the United States has +remained almost exclusively in the hands of a particular class. From +Maine to California one finds practically the same type of man +patrolling a beat, and there is not much difference among the superior +officers of police forces. They all have about the same conceptions of +morality, honesty, and good citizenship, and they differ very little in +their notions of police policy and methods. The thing to do, the +majority of them think, is to keep a city superficially clean, and to +keep everything quiet that is likely to arouse the public to an +investigation. Nearly all are politicians in one form or another, and +they feel that the security of their positions depends on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> the turn that +politics may take. If they have a strict chief, one who tries to be +honest according to his best light, they are more on their good +behaviour than when governed by an easy-going man, but even under such +circumstances there may be found, in large forces, a great deal of +concealed disobedience. Their main friends and acquaintances are +saloon-keepers, professional politicians, and employees in other +departments of the municipal government. In small towns they mix with +the citizens more than in large cities, but the best of them acquire in +time a caste feeling which impels them to find companionship mainly +among their own kind. Not all are dishonest or lazy, but the majority +have a code of honour suggested by their life and business. Once in the +life, and accustomed to its requirements, it is very difficult for them +to change to another. They have learned how to arrest men, to make +reports, to keep their eyes open or shut according to necessity, to rest +when standing on their feet, and to appreciate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the benefits of a +regularly drawn salary, and their intelligence and general training +correspond with such an existence. A few develop extraordinary ability +in ferreting out crime, and become successful detectives, and others +keep their records sufficiently clean, or secure enough "pull," to rise +to superior posts, and in certain cases these exceptional men would fit +into exemplary police organisations. As a general thing, however, they +are men who would have received much less responsible positions in other +walks of life. This is as true of the commanding officers as of the +patrolmen. The captain of a precinct is frequently as poorly educated as +the patrolman serving under him, and his gold braid and brass buttons +are all that really differentiate him from the men he orders about. The +chief, in some instances, is a man of demonstrated ability, but there +are chiefs and chiefs, and the way their selection is managed it is +largely a matter of luck whether a town gets a good or bad one. +Occasionally the citizens of a town will become indignant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> and remove +from office a disreputable chief, choosing in his place some highly +respected citizen who has consented to take the position on a "reform +platform" and for awhile the town has a man at the head of its police +force who is accepted as an equal in society and is recognised as an +influential man in municipal affairs, but before long the professional +politicians get hold of the reins of government again, things get back +into the old rut, and the conventional chief returns.</p> + +<p>It is this precariousness of the life, and the slavery to politicians, +that have probably deterred educated young men from making police work +their life business. They have seen no chance of holding prominent +police positions long, and they have possibly dreaded the companionship +which a policeman's life seems to presuppose. The young man just out of +college and casting about for a foothold in the world practically never +includes the police career in the number of life activities from which +he must make a choice. It is the law, medicine, journalism, or +railroading which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> generally attracts him, and he leaves unconsidered +one of the most useful callings in the world. There are few men who are +given more responsible positions, and who have better opportunities of +doing something worth while, than the police officer, and I think that I +ought to add, the prison official. In Germany this fact is recognised, +and men train for police and prison work as deliberately and diligently +as for any other profession; in this country very little training is +done, and the result is that comparatively inferior men get the +important posts, and our cities are not taken care of as they ought to +be, and could be.</p> + +<p>There is nothing sufficiently promising as yet in the state of public +opinion to justify one in saying that the time is particularly opportune +for young men to begin to consider the police career as a possible +calling, but I doubt whether there ever will be until the young men take +the matter into their own hands and give public notice of their +determination to enter the profession. Numerous obstacles will be put in +their way, and hundreds will get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> discouraged, but for those who +"stick," a great career will open up. The beginners must necessarily be +the pioneers and fight the brunt of the battle, but, the battle once +fought, there will be some positions of splendid opportunity.</p> + +<p>For the benefit of those who may care to consider seriously the +possibilities of the career, it will not be inappropriate, perhaps, to +describe the kind of men they may expect to have to associate with while +going through their apprenticeship, to explain some of the difficulties +that will be encountered, and to make a few suggestions in regard to the +training necessary for a successful performance of duty. I can write of +these matters only as a beginner, but it is the would-be beginner that I +desire to reach.</p> + +<p>In all police organisations supported by cities there are two distinct +kinds of officers, the uniformed men and the detectives. Among these the +beginner will have to pick out his friends, and until he knows well the +work of both classes of men he will be in a quandary as to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> he +desires to ally himself with. There are things in the detective's life +which make it more attractive to some men than the policeman's, and +<i>vice versa</i>. The two officers have different attitudes toward the +criminal world, and the beginner will probably be decided in his choice +according to the impression the different attitudes make upon him. The +uniformed officer, or "Flatty," as he is called in the thief's jargon, +if he remains upright and honest, arrests a successful professional +criminal with the same <i>sang-froid</i> and objectivity that are +characteristic of him when arresting a "disorderly drunk." It is a +perfunctory act with him; the offender must be shut up, no matter who he +is, and he is the party paid to do it.</p> + +<p>The officer in citizen's clothes, the "Elbow," is a different kind of +man. He realises as well as the "Flatty" that it is his business to try +to protect the community which employs him, but he handles a prisoner, +especially if the latter is a nicely dressed and well known thief, in a +different way from the ostentatious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> manner of arrest characteristic of +the ordinary policeman. It almost seems sometimes as if he were showing +deference to his prisoner, and the two walk along together like two old +acquaintances. The fact of the matter is that a truly successful +professional thief is a very interesting man to meet, and he is all the +more interesting to the officer if he has been able to catch him +unawares and without much trouble. Realising what a big man he has +got,—and thieves themselves have no better opinion of their ability +than that which the detective has of it,—he likes to ask him about +other big men, to get "wise," as the expression is. If it has been a +hard chase, he also likes to go over the details of it, and find out who +has doubled the most on his tracks. In time, if he keeps steadily at the +business and learns to know a number of what are called "good guns" +(clever thieves), he develops into a recognised successful +thief-catcher; but he has spent so much of his time in fraternising with +"guns," in order to learn from them, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> he comes to think that his +moral responsibility is over after he has located them. Technically, I +suppose this is true; it is his business to catch, and the State must +prosecute and convict. The point I would bring out, however, is that he +is inclined to be lenient with his prisoner. To him the struggle has +been merely one of intelligence and shrewdness; he has had to be quick +and alert in capturing the "gun," and the latter has exercised all of +his ingenuity in trying to escape. Moral issues have not been at stake; +the thief has not stolen from the officer, and why should the latter not +be friendly when they meet?</p> + +<p>In defence of this attitude toward crime it may be said that criminals +are much more tractable in the custody of an officer of the kind under +consideration than when arrested by some blustering "Flatty," who shows +them up in the street as they walk along, and it is natural for a +detective to try to do his work with as little friction as possible. The +question, however, that I was continually putting to myself as a +beginner in the business was, whether I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> should not eventually drift +into a very easy-going policeman if I learned to look upon the thief +merely as a whetstone, so to speak, on which my wits were to be +sharpened. It seemed to me that to do my full duty it was necessary to +have moral ballast as well as shrewd intelligence, really to believe in +law, and that lawbreakers must be punished. I would not have it +understood that there are no police officers who keep hold of this +point, but I am compelled to say that the detective—and he is the man +to whom we shall have to go before professional crime in this country +can be seriously dealt with—is too much inclined to overlook it.</p> + +<p>The beginner in the profession must take sides, one way or another, in +regard to this kind of officer, and as he chooses for him or against him +he will find himself in favour or not with the class—and it is a large +one—to which the man belongs. It is unpleasant to have to begin one's +career by immediately antagonising a number of daily companions, and a +series of exasperating experiences follow such a policy, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> in the +case in question I believe it will be found best to nail up one's +colours instanter and never to take them down. The officer who does this +gets the reputation of being at least consistent even among his enemies, +and he is also relieved of being continually approached by criminals +with bribes.</p> + +<p>Once started on his course, and his policy defined, the worst difficulty +that he will encounter for a number of months will be a reluctance, +natural to all beginners, to make an arrest. It seems easy enough to +walk up to a man, put a hand lightly on his shoulder, and say: "You're +my prisoner," but one never realises how hard it is until he tries it. +During my experience I had no occasion to make an arrest single-handed, +but it did fall to my lot to have a prisoner beg and beseech me to let +him go after he had been turned over to my care, and to the beginner +this is the hardest appeal to withstand. The majority of persons +arrested are justly taken into custody, and the bulk of the "hard luck" +stories they tell are fabrications, but it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> takes a man who has been +years in the service to listen to some of their tales of woe without +wincing.</p> + +<p>This squeamishness conquered, the beginner will have to be careful not +to become hard and pessimistic. There is a good deal to be said in +excuse of a police officer who develops these traits of character,—the +life he leads is itself often hard,—but if they dominate his nature he +learns to look upon the world in general merely as a great collection of +human beings, any one of whom he may have to arrest some day. He sees so +much that is "crooked" that he is in danger of thinking that he sees +crime and thieves wherever he turns, and unless he is very cautious he +will drift into a philosophy which permits him to be "crooked" also, +because, as he thinks, everybody else is.</p> + +<p>If the beginner has lived in a society where courtesies and kindnesses, +rather than insults and scoldings, have prevailed, he will also find it +hard for awhile to appreciate the fact that a police officer is a +peacemaker, and not an avenger. Wherever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> he goes, and no matter what he +does, he is a target for the nasty slings of rowdies and a favourite +victim of the "roastings" of thieves. In tramp life I have had to take +my share of insults, and until I experimented with the police business I +thought that as mean things had been said to me as a man ought to stand +in an ordinary lifetime, but on no tramp trip have I been berated by +criminals as severely as during my recent experience as a railroad +police officer, and yet it was my duty not to answer back if a quarrel +was in sight.</p> + +<p>Not all, however, in the policeman's life is exasperating and +discouraging. But few men have so many opportunities of doing good, and +of keeping track of people in whom they have taken an interest. Nothing +has pleased me more in my relations with the outcast world than the +chance I had as a railroad patrolman to help in sending home a penitent +runaway boy. He had left Chicago on the "blind baggage" of a passenger +train to get away from a tyrannical stepfather, and he fell into our +hands as a trespasser and vagrant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> several hundred miles from his +starting-point. It was a pitiful case with which no officer likes to +deal according to the requirements of the law, but we had to arrest him +to rescue him from the local officers of the town where he had been +apprehended; if he had been turned over to them the probability is that +he would have been put on the stone-pile with the hardened tramps, and +when released would have drifted into tramp life. We took him to +headquarters on the train, and the general manager of the railroad gave +him a pass home, where he has remained, sending me a number of weekly +accounts about himself. I report the incident both to show the +opportunities in a policeman's life, and to give a railroad company +credit for a kind deed which has probably preserved for the country a +bright lad who would otherwise have been an expense and trouble to it as +a vagabond and criminal.</p> + +<p>A word, before closing this chapter, in regard to how a young man, +desirous of following the police career, can best get a start. I chose a +railroad police force for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> my preliminary experience, and I would +recommend a similar choice to other beginners if the opportunity is +favourable. As long as a man does his work well in a railroad police +organisation he is not likely to be disturbed, but under existing +conditions the same cannot be said of a municipal force. A railroad +officer also has the advantage of being able to travel extensively and +to acquaint himself with different communities. If he can rise to the +top there is no reason, so far as I can see, why he should not be an +eligible candidate for the superintendency of a municipal police force. +The chief that I had, if he were able to gather the right men about him, +could protect a large city as successfully as he now protects a big +railroad system. If it is impossible for a would-be beginner to find +lodgment in any police force at the start, my suggestion is that he +experiment with the work of a police reporter on a newspaper. It is +difficult at present for a police reporter to tell all that he learns, +and it is to be hoped that he will some day be able to give the readers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +of his paper full accounts of his investigations; but the young man who +is training for police work can make the reporter's position, in spite +of its present discouraging limitations, a stepping-stone to a position +in a police organisation. It helps him to get "wise," as the detective +says, and it is when he has become "wise" in the full sense of the word +that he is most valuable in the police business.</p> + +<p>A guard's position in a penitentiary makes a man acquainted with a great +many criminals, and is helpful in teaching one in regard to the +efficiency of different kinds of punishment. It is, perhaps, to be +recommended to the beginner as the next best position to try for, if, +after the reporter experience, there is still no opening in a police +force. The beginner may not be sure whether he desires to become a +police officer or to take part in the management of a prison, and the +guard's post helps him to come to a decision.</p> + +<p>All three of the recommended preparatory positions will be found useful, +if the young man has the patience and time to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> go through the drudgery +which they involve, and he will find that when he finally succeeds in +getting into a large police force he has a great advantage over men who +have not had his thorough training.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h3>"GAY-CATS."</h3> + +<p>Scattered over the railroads, sometimes travelling in freight-cars, and +sometimes sitting pensively around camp-fires, working when the mood is +on them, and loafing when they have accumulated a "stake," always +criticising other people but never themselves, seldom very happy or +unhappy, and almost constantly without homes such as the persevering +workingman struggles for and secures, there is an army of men and boys +who, if a census of the unemployed were taken, would have to be included +in the class which the regular tramps call "gay-cats." They claim that +they are over five hundred thousand strong, and socialistic agitators +sometimes urge that there are more than a million of them, but they +probably do not really number over one hundred thousand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<p>Not much is known about them by the general public, except that they are +continually shifting from place to place, particularly during the warm +months. In the winter they are known to seek shelter in the large +cities, where they swell the ranks of the discontented and complaining, +and accept benefits from charitable societies. They certainly are not +tramps, in the hobo's sense of the word. His reason for derisively +calling them "gay-cats" is that they work when they have to, and tramp +only when the weather is fine.</p> + +<p>Many of them really prefer working to begging, but they are without +employment during several months in the year, and are constantly +grumbling about their lot in the world. They think that they are the +representative unemployed men of the country, and are gradually +developing a class feeling among themselves. They always speak of their +kind as "the poor," and of the people who employ them as "the rich," and +they believe that their number is continually increasing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>As a railroad policeman it was my duty to keep well in touch with this +class of wanderers. Although they do not belong to the real tramp +fraternity, and are disliked by the hoboes proper, they follow the +hobo's methods of travel, and are constantly trespassing on railroad +property. The general manager of the railroad by which I was employed +asked me to gather all the facts that I could in regard to their class.</p> + +<p>"The attitude of the company toward this class of trespassers," he said, +in talking to me about the matter, "must necessarily be the same as +toward the tramps, as long as they both use the same methods of travel, +but I have often wondered whether there are enough of those who claim to +be merely unemployed men to justify railroad companies in experimenting +with a cheap train a day, somewhat similar in make-up to the fourth +class in Germany and Russia. At present the trouble is that we can't +tell whether they would support such a train, and I personally am not +convinced that all of them are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> as honest out-of-works as they say they +are, when arrested for stealing rides. If you can gather any data +concerning them which will throw light on this matter, I should be glad +to have it."</p> + +<p>All told, I have met on the railroads about one thousand men and boys +who claimed to be out-of-works and not professional vagabonds and +tramps. In saying that I have met them, I mean that I have talked with +them and learned considerable about their history, present condition, +and plans and hopes for the future. They talked with me as freely as +with one of their own kind; indeed, they seemed to assume that I +belonged among them.</p> + +<p>The most striking thing about them is that the majority are practically +youths, the average age being about twenty-three years, both West and +East. Of my one thousand out-of-works, fully two-thirds were between +twenty and twenty-five years old; the rest were young boys under +eighteen and mature men anywhere from forty to seventy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p> + +<p>Youths of all classes of society have their <i>Wanderjahre</i>, and so much +time during this period is taken up with mere roaming that it is easy to +understand how many of them must be without work from time to time. It +is also true that young men are more hasty than their elders in giving +up positions on account of some real or supposed affront; life is all +before them, they think, anyhow, and meanwhile they do not intend to +knuckle down to any overbearing employer. In certain parts of the +country, on account of crowded conditions, it must be stated, +furthermore, that it is difficult for a number of young men to get +suitable employment.</p> + +<p>There is a sociological significance, however, about the present +strikingly large number of young men who are "beating" their way over +the country on the railroads. There is gradually being developed in the +United States a class of wanderers who may be likened to the degenerated +<i>Handwerksburschen</i> of Germany. They are not necessarily apprentices in +the sense that the <i>Handwerksburschen</i><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> usually are, although the great +majority of them have trades and make some effort, in winter at least, +to work at them, but they are almost the exact counterpart of the +<i>Burschen</i> in their migratory habits. Years ago the travelling +apprentice was a picturesque figure in German life, and it was thought +quite proper that he should pack up his tools every now and then, get +out his wheelbarrow, and take a jaunt into the world. He had to take to +the highways in those days, and there was no such inducement, as there +is now, to make long, unbroken trips. A few miles a day was the average +stint, and at the end of a fortnight, or possibly a month, he was ready +and glad to go to work again.</p> + +<p>This is not the case to-day. The contemporary <i>Handwerksbursch</i> works +just as little as he can, and travels in fourth-class cars as far as the +rails will carry him. In a few years, unless there is some home +influence to bring him back, he generally wanders so far afield that he +becomes a victim of <i>Die Ferne</i>, a thing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> of romance and poetry to his +sturdier ancestors of Luther's time, which for him has become a snare +and a delusion. German vagabondage is largely recruited from German +apprentices. It is the same love of <i>Die Ferne</i>, the desire to get out +into the world and have adventures independent of parental care and +guidance, which accounts largely for the presence of so many young men +in the ranks of the unemployed in this country. As I have said, they are +not tramps or "hoboes," but neither are they victims of trusts, +monopolists or capital.</p> + +<p>Great public undertakings, like the World's Fair at Chicago, the recent +war with Spain, a new railroad and the attractions of places like the +Klondike, have a tendency to increase the number of these youthful +out-of-works. The World's Fair stranded many thousands, and there are +already signs that the war with Spain has brought out a fresh crop of +them. They have taken to travelling on the railroads because they have +become inoculated with <i>Wanderlust</i> and because they think that it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> is +only by continually shifting that they are likely to get work. The same +thing took place, only on a larger scale, after the Civil War, and our +present tramp class is the result. Some of the young men who took part +in the Spanish war, and when mustered out joined the wanderers on the +railroads, will eventually develop into full-fledged tramps; it is +inevitable. At present they are merely out-of-works, and at times +honestly seek work.</p> + +<p>Let me tell the story of one of my young companions for a few days on a +railroad in Ohio. He was a plumber by trade and had left a job only a +fortnight before I met him. The weather had got too warm to work, he +said (it was in June), and he had enough of a "stake" to keep him going +for several weeks "on the road." He was on his way to the Northwest.</p> + +<p>"The West is the only part o' this country worth much, I guess," he +said, "'n' I'm goin' out there to look around. Here in the East +ev'rything is in the hands o' the rich. There's no chance for a young +fellow here in Ohio any more."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> I asked him whether he was not able to +make a good living when he remained at work. "Oh, I can live all right," +he replied, "but this country's got to give me somethin' more'n a +livin', before I'll work hard month in and month out. I ain't goin' to +slave for anybody. I got as good a right's the next man to enjoy myself, +'n' when I want to go off on a trip I'm goin'." I suggested that this +was hardly the philosophy of men who made and saved a great deal of +money. "Well, I ain't goin' to work hard all my life 'n' have nothin' +but money at the end of it. I want to live as I go along, 'n' I like +hittin' the road ev'ry now and then."</p> + +<p>"How long do you generally keep a job?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>"If I get a good one in the fall I generally keep it till spring, but +the year round I guess I change places ev'ry two or three months."</p> + +<p>"How much of a loaf do you have between jobs?"</p> + +<p>"It depends. Last year I was nearly four months on the hog +once,—couldn't get anything. As a general thing, though, I don't have +to wait over six weeks if I look hard."</p> + +<p>"Are you going to look hard out West?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm goin' to size up the country, 'n' if I like it, why, I guess +I'll take a job for awhile. I got enough money to keep me in tobacco 'n' +booze for a few weeks, 'n' it don't cost me anything to ride or eat."</p> + +<p>"How do you manage?"</p> + +<p>"I hustle for my grub the way hoboes do,—it's easy enough."</p> + +<p>"I should think a workingman like yourself would hate to do that."</p> + +<p>"I used to a little, but I got over it. You got to help yourself in this +world, 'n' I'm learnin' how to do it, too."</p> + +<p>The nationality of the "gay-cats" is mainly American. A large number +have parents who were born in Europe, but they themselves were born in +this country, and there are thousands whose families have been settled +here for several generations.</p> + +<p>What I have said in regard to the unemployed young men applies also, in +a measure, to the old men; the latter, in many cases, are as much the +victims of <i>Wanderlust</i> as are their youthful companions: but there are +certain special facts which go to explain their vagabondage. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> older +men are more frequently confirmed drunkards than are the younger men. +Occasionally during the past year I have met an aged out-of-work who was +a "total abstainer," but nine-tenths of all the mature men were by their +own confession hard drinkers. Whether their loose habits are also +answerable for their love of carping and criticising, and their notion +that they alone know how the world should be run, it is impossible for +me to say; but certain it is that their continual grumbling and scolding +against those who have been more persevering than they is another of the +causes which have brought them to their present unfortunate state. Men +who are unceasingly finding fault with their lot, and yet make no +serious attempt to better it, cannot "get on" very far in this country, +or in any other.</p> + +<p>This type of out-of-work exists everywhere, in Germany, Russia, England, +and France as well as in the United States, but I am not sure that our +particular civilisation, or rather our form of government, has not a +tendency to develop it here a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> little more rapidly than in any other +country which I have explored.</p> + +<p>It is a popular notion in the United States that every American has the +right to say what he thinks, and my finding is that the love of speaking +one's mind is exceedingly strong among the uneducated people of the +country. Agitators, who go among them, are partly to blame for this, and +I have observed that a number of the expressions used by the "gay-cats" +are the stock phrases of socialistic propagandists, but there is +something in the air they breathe that seems to incite them to +untempered speech. In Germany, where there is certainly far more +governmental interference to rant about, and among an equally +intelligent class of out-of-works who are not allowed for an instant the +freedom of movement permitted the same class in America, there is no +such wild talk as is to be heard among our unemployed. I have met scores +of old men on the railroads whom long indulgence in unconsidered +language has incapacitated for saying anything good about any one of our +institutions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> as they conceive them, and they begrudge even their +companions a generous word. Such men, it seems to me, must necessarily +go to the wall, and although a few, perhaps, can advance evidence to +show that circumstances over which they had no control brought them low, +the majority of those that I know have themselves to blame for their +present vagabondage.</p> + +<p>It is furthermore to be remarked concerning these aged out-of-works that +pride and unwillingness to take work outside of their trades have also +been causes of their bankruptcy. The same is true, to some extent, of +all sorts of unemployed men, young and old, but it is particularly true +of "gay-cats" who have passed their thirty-fifth year. I have known them +to tramp and beg for months rather than accept employment which they +considered beneath their training and intelligence.</p> + +<p>It has been a revelation to me to associate with these men and see how +determined they are that the employing class shall have no opportunity +to say: "Ah, ha!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> we told you so!" Many of them have given up their +positions in a pet, and taken to the "road," with the idea that if they +cannot get what they want they will make the world lodge and feed them +for nothing. To bring out clearly their point of view, I will describe a +man whom I travelled with in Illinois. He had been without employment +for over eight months when I met him, and had just passed his +forty-second year. He expected to get work again before long, and was +passing the time away, until the position was ready for him, travelling +up and down the Illinois Central Railroad. He was a carpenter by +profession, and claimed that for over five years he had never worked at +any other occupation, when he worked at all.</p> + +<p>"I put in three hard years learnin' to be a carpenter," he said, "an' I +ain't goin' to learn another trade now. For awhile I used to take all +kinds o' jobs when I got hard up, but I've got over that. It's +carpenterin' or nothin' with me from now on. You got to put your foot +down in this country or you won't get on at all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If I was married 'n' had kids, o' course I'd have to crawl 'n' take +what I could get, but, seein' I ain't, I'm goin' to be just as stuck up +as any other man that's got somethin' to sell. That's what all men like +us in this country ought to do. The rich have got it into their heads +that they can have us when they want us, 'n' kick us out when they don't +want us, 'n' that's what they've been doin' with the most of us. They +ain't goin' to play with me any more, though. Ten years ago I was better +off than I am now, 'n' I'd be in good shape to-day if it hadn't been for +one o' them trusts."</p> + +<p>"Are you not at all to blame for your present condition?" I asked, +knowing that the man was fond of whiskey. He thought a moment, and then +admitted that he might have squandered less money on "booze," but he +believed that he was entitled to the "fun" that "booze" brings.</p> + +<p>"'Course we workingmen drink," he explained, "'n' a lot of us gets on +our uppers, but ain't we got as much right to get drunk 'n' have a good +time as the rich?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> I'm runnin' my own life. When I want work I'll work, +'n' when I don't I won't. What we men need is more independence. What +the devil 'ud become o' the world if we refused to work? Couldn't go on +at all. That's what I keep tellin' my carpenter pals. 'Don't take +nothin' outside o' your trade,' I tell 'em, 'n' then the blokes with no +trades'll have a better chance.' But you know how it is,—you might as +well tell the most of 'em not to eat. I have had a little sense knocked +into me. You don't catch me workin' outside o' my trade. I'd rather +bum."</p> + +<p>And, unless he got the job he expected, he is probably still "on the +road."</p> + +<p>Enough, perhaps, has already been said to indicate the general trend of +the philosophy of the "gay-cats," but this account of them will fail to +do them justice if I do not quote them in regard to such matters as +government, religion, and democracy. It has never been my privilege to +hear them contribute anything particularly valuable to a better +understanding of the questions they discuss, but it seems fitting to +report<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> upon some of their conclaves, if only to show how they pass away +much of their time. They have an unconquerable desire to express +themselves on all occasions and on all subjects, and it is no +exaggeration to say that two-thirds of their day passes in talk.</p> + +<p>In regard to the government under which we live, the favourite +expression used to characterise it was the word "fake."</p> + +<p>"Republic!" I heard a man exclaim one day; "this ain't no republic. It's +run by the few just as much as Russia is. There ain't no real republic +in existence. You and I are just as much slaves as the negroes were."</p> + +<p>Not all stated their opinions so strongly as this, and there were some +who believed that on paper, at least, we have a democratic form of +government, but the prevailing notion seemed to be that it was only on +paper. The Republican party is considered as derelict as the Democratic +by these critics. Neither organisation, they contend, is trying to live +up to what a republic ought to stand for, and they see no hope, either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> +for themselves or anybody else, in any of the existing political +parties. When quizzed about our Constitution and the functions of the +various departments of the government, they all show deplorable +ignorance, but it avails nothing to take them to task on this ground. +"They guessed they knew the facts just about as well as anybody else," +and that was supposed to end the matter.</p> + +<p>Religion, which the majority of the men with whom I talked took to be +synonymous with the word church, was another favourite topic of +discussion. Indeed, as I look back now over my conversations with the +"gay-cats," it seems to me that there was more said on this subject than +any other, and I have observed its popularity as a topic of conversation +among unemployed men in other countries as well. There is something +about it which is very attractive to men who are vagrants, as they +think, because of circumstances over which they had no control, and they +sit and talk by the hour about what they think the church ought to do, +and wherein<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> it fails to accomplish that which it is supposed to have +for a purpose. The men that I met think that the reason that the church +in this country is not more successful in getting hold of people is +because it neglects its duties to the poor.</p> + +<p>"Here you and I are," a young mechanic remarked to me, as we sat in the +cold at a railroad watering-tank, "and what does any church in this town +care about us? Ten chances to one that, excepting the Catholic priest, +every clergyman we might go to for assistance would turn us down. Is +that Christianity? Is that the way religion is going to make you and me +any better? Not on your life. I tell you, the church has got to take +more interest in me before I am going to go out of my way to take much +interest in it."</p> + +<p>"But the church is not a public poor-house," I remonstrated. "You and I +are no more excused than other people from earning our living. If the +church had to take care of all the people who think they're poor, it +would go bankrupt in a day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It's bankrupt already, so far as having any influence over the men that +you and I meet," he replied. "I don't see a man more than once in six +months who goes near a church, and he's generally a Catholic. There's +something wrong, you can bet, when things have got to that pass. If the +church can't interest fellows like us, it's going to have its troubles +interesting anybody."</p> + +<p>There were others who expressed themselves equally strongly, but I was +unable to get any satisfactory suggestion from any of them as to how the +church may be made either more religious or effective. They all had +their notions concerning its defects and shortcomings, but they seemed +unable to tell how these were to be supplanted by merits and virtues. +Many of them impressed me as men who would be capable, under different +conditions, of religious feeling, and there was something pathetic, I +thought, in the way they loved to linger in conversation on the subject +of religion, but in their present circumstances the most inspired church +in the world<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> could not do much with them. They are victims of the +passion for indiscriminate criticism, and I doubt whether they would +know whether a church was doing its duty or not.</p> + +<p>Naturally a never-failing subject for talk was the labour question, and, +under this general head, in particular the importation of foreign labour +by the big corporations. I cannot recall an allusion to their present +circumstances that did not bring this point prominently to the fore, and +on occasions the mere mention of the word "foreigner" was sufficient to +bring out the most violent invectives. In a number of instances they +claimed that they knew absolutely that they had been forced out of +positions to make room for aliens who would work for less money.</p> + +<p>"An American don't count for what he used to in this country," an old +man said to me in Chicago. "The corporations don't care who a man is, so +long as he'll work cheap. 'Course a Dago can live cheaper'n I can, 'n' +so he beats me. I don't blame the Dago, 'cause he's doin'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> better'n he +did in Italy, anyhow, but I do blame them corporations, 'n' they're +goin' to get it in the neck some day, too. I won't live to see it, +perhaps, but you will. I tell you, Jack, there's goin' to be a +revolution in this country just as sure as this city is Chicago. It's +comin' nearer every day. Just wait till there's about a million more men +on the road, 'n' then you'll see somethin'. It'll beat that French +revolution bang up, take my tip for that."</p> + +<p>This same man, if his companions told the truth, had had a number of +opportunities to succeed, and had let them slip through his hands. Like +hundreds of others, however, he could not bear to admit that he was to +blame for his own defeat in life, and he made the foreigner his +scapegoat. It is, perhaps, true that some foreigners in this country +have ousted some Americans from their positions, but one needs but to +make a journey on any one of the railroads frequented by "gay-cats" to +realise how small a minority of them are tramping because foreigners +have got their jobs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> Corporations and trusts may or may not be +beneficial, according to the way one considers them, but, in my opinion, +they are innocent of dealing unfairly by the thousand "gay-cats" that I +have recently interviewed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h3>THE LAKE SHORE PUSH.</h3> + +<p>Previous to my experience in a railroad police force, I was employed by +the same railroad company in making an investigation of the tramp +situation on the lines under their management. The object of the +investigation was to find out whether the policy pursued by the company +was going to be permanently successful in keeping tramps and +"train-riders" off the property, and to discover how neighbouring roads +dealt with trespassers. Incidentally, I was also to interview tramps +that I met, and ask their opinion of the methods used by the railroad +for which I worked. The first month of the investigation was given up to +roads crossing and recrossing the lines in which I was particularly +interested, and I lived and travelled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> during this period like a +professional tramp. While on my travels I made the acquaintance of a +very interesting organisation of criminal tramps, which is continually +troubling railroads in the middle West. As I also had to keep watch of +it while on duty as a patrolman, an account of my experience with some +of its members seems to fall within the scope of this book.</p> + +<p>One night, after I had been out about a week on the preliminary +investigation for the railroad, I arrived at Ashtabula, Ohio, on the +Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, in company with a little +Englishman, who, when we registered at the police station where we went +to ask for shelter, facetiously signed himself, George the Fourth. There +are four "stops," as the tramp says, in Ashtabula, three police stations +and the sand-house of the Lake Shore Railroad, and after we had used up +our welcome in the police stations we went to the sand-house. Later, +when we were sure that the police had forgotten us, we returned to the +"calabooses," and made another round of them, but we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> also spent several +nights at the sand-house. On our first night at the sand-house we +arrived there before the other lodgers had finished their hunt for +supper, and on the principle of "first come first served" we picked out +the best places in the sand. It was early in April, and in Ashtabula at +this season of the year the sand nearest the fire is the most +comfortable. During the evening other men and boys came in, but they +recognised that our early arrival entitled us to the good places, and +they picked out the next best. About ten o'clock we all fell asleep, +leaving barely enough room for the sand-house attendant to move about +and attend to his duties. A little after midnight I was awakened by loud +voices scolding and cursing, and heard a man, whom I could not see, +however, say:</p> + +<p>"Kick the fellow's head off. It's your place right 'nough, teach 'im a +lesson."</p> + +<p>Somebody struck a match then, and I saw two burly men standing over the +little Englishman. They were the roughest-looking customers I have ever +seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> anywhere. More matches were struck in different parts of the +sand-house, and I heard men whispering to one another that the two +disturbers were "Lake Shore Push people," and that there was going to be +a fight.</p> + +<p>"Get up, will ye?" one of them said, in a brutal voice to my companion. +"It's a wonder ye wouldn't find a place o' yer own."</p> + +<p>"Hit 'im with the poker," the other advised. "Stave his slats in."</p> + +<p>Then the first speaker made as if he were going to kick the Englishman +in the head with his big hobnailed boot. The Englishman could stand it +no longer, and jumping to his feet and snatching up an empty +sand-bucket, he took a defensive position, and said:</p> + +<p>"Come on, now, if you blokes want a scrap. One o' ye'll go down."</p> + +<p>The crowd seemed only to need this exhibition of grit on the part of the +Britisher to make them rally to his side, and one of them set a ball of +newspapers afire for a light, and the rest grabbed sand-buckets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> and +pieces of board and made ready to assist the Britisher in "doing up" the +two bullies. The latter wisely decided that fifteen to two was too much +of a disadvantage, and left, threatening to come back with the "push" +and "clean out the entire house," which they failed to do, however, that +night or on any other night that the Englishman and I spent at the +sand-house.</p> + +<p>After they had gone, the crowd gathered around the Englishman, and he +was congratulated on having "put up such a good front" against the two +men. Then began a general discussion of the organisation, or "push," as +it was called, which I could only partially follow. I had been out of +Hoboland for a number of years previous to this experience, and the +"push" was a new institution to me. It was obvious, however, that it +played a very prominent part in the lives of the men at the sand-house, +for each one present had a story to tell of how he had been imposed upon +by it, either on a freight-train or at some stopping-place, in more or +less the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> same way as the Englishman had been. Had it not been that +questions on my part would have proven me to be a "tenderfoot," which it +was bad policy for one in my position to admit as possible, I should +have made inquiries then and there, for it was plain that the "push" was +an association that ought to interest me also; but all that I learned +that night was that there was a gang of wild characters who were trying +to run the Lake Shore Railroad, so far as Hoboland was concerned, +according to their own wishes and interests, and that there were +constant clashes between them and such men as were gathered together in +the sand-house. There was no mention made of their strength or identity; +the conversation was confined to accounts of their persecutions and +crimes, and to suggestions as to how they could be made to disband. One +man, I remember, said that the only thing to do was to shoot them, one +at a time, on sight, and he declared that he would join a "push" which +would make this task its object as an organisation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> "They're the +meanest push this country has ever seen," he added, "an' workin' men as +well as 'boes ought to help do 'em up. They hold up ev'rybody, an' it's +got so that it's all a man's life's worth to ride on this road."</p> + +<p>The following morning, while reading the newspaper, a week or so old, in +which a baker had wrapped up some rolls which I had purchased of him, I +came across a paragraph in the local column, which read something like +this: "A middle-aged man was found dead yesterday morning, lying in the +bushes near the railroad track between Girard and Erie. His neck was +broken, and it is thought that he is another victim of the notorious +'Lake Shore gang.' The supposition is that he was beating his way on a +freight-train when the gang overtook him, and that, after robbing him, +they threw him off the train."</p> + +<p>After reading this paragraph, I strolled down the Lake Shore tracks to +the west, until I came to the coal-chutes, where tramp camps are to be +found the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> year round. As many as fifty men can be seen here on +occasions, sitting around fires kept up by the railroad company's coal, +and "dope" from the wheel-boxes of freight-cars. I found two camps on +the morning in question, one very near the coal chutes, and the other +about a quarter of a mile farther on. There were about a dozen men at +the first, and not quite thirty at the second. I halted at the first, +thinking that both were camps where all roadsters would be welcome. I +had hardly taken a seat on one of the ties, and said, "How are you?" +when a dirty-looking fellow of about fifty years asked me, in sarcasm, +as I afterward learned, if I had a match. "S'pose y' ain't got a piece +o' wood with a little brimstone on the end of it, have ye?" were his +words. I replied that I had, and was about to hand him one, when a +general grin ran over the faces of the men, and I heard a man near me, +say, "Tenderfoot, sure." It was plain that there was something either in +my make-up or manner which was not regular, but I was not left long in +suspense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> as to what it was. The dirty man with the gray hair explained +the situation. "This is our fire, our camp, an' our deestrict," he said +in a gruff voice, "an' you better go off an' build one o' yer own. Ye've +got a match, ye say?" the intonation of his voice sneeringly suggesting +the interrogation. There was nothing to do but go, and I went, but I +gave the camp a minute "sizing up" as I left. The men were having what +is called in tramp parlance a "store-made scoff." They had bought eggs, +bread, butter, meat, and potatoes in Ashtabula, and were in the midst of +their breakfast when I came upon them. In looks they were what a tramp +companion of mine once described as "blowed in the glass stiffs." It is +not easy to explain to one who has never been in Hoboland and learned +instinctively to appraise roadsters what this expression signifies, but +in the present instance it means that depravity was simply dripping off +them. Their faces were "tough" and dirty, their clothes were tattered +and torn, their voices were rasping and coarse,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> and their general +manner was as mean as human nature is capable of. To compare them to a +collection of rowdies with which the reader is acquainted, I would say +that they resembled very closely the tramps pictured in the illustrated +edition of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper." Their average age +was about thirty-five years, but several were fifty and over, and others +were under twenty. The clever detective would probably have picked them +out for what they were, "hobo guns,"—tramp thieves and "hold-up" +men,—but the ordinary citizen would have classified them merely as +"dirty tramps," which would also have been the truth, but not the whole +truth.</p> + +<p>I learned more definitely about them at the second camp, where a welcome +was extended to everybody. "Got the hot-foot at the other camp, I +guess?" a young fellow said to me as I sat down beside him, and I +admitted the fact. "Those brutes wouldn't do a favour to their own +mothers," he went on. "We've jus' been chewin' the rag 'bout goin' over +an' havin'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> a scrap with 'em. There's enough of us this mornin' to lay +'em out."</p> + +<p>"Who are they?"</p> + +<p>"Some o' the Lake Shore gang. They jump in an' out o' here ev'ry few +days. There's a lot more o' them down at Painesville. They're scattered +all along the line. Las' night some of 'em held up those two +stone-masons settin' over there on that pile o' ties. Took away their +tools, an' made 'em trade clothes. Caught 'em in a box-car comin' East. +Shoved guns under their noses, an' the masons had to cough up."</p> + +<p>A few nights after this experience, and again in company with my friend, +George the Fourth, I applied for lodging at the police station at +Ashtabula Harbour. We made two of the first four to be admitted on the +night in question, and picked out, selfishly, it is true, but entirely +within our rights, two cells near the fire. We had made up our beds on +the cell benches out of our coats and newspapers, and were boiling some +coffee on the stove preparatory to going to sleep, when four newcomers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +whom I had seen at the "push's" camp, were ushered in. They went +immediately to the cells we had chosen, and, seeing that our things were +in them, said: "These your togs in here?" We "allowed" that they were. +"Take 'em out, then, 'cause these are our cells."</p> + +<p>"How your cells?" asked George.</p> + +<p>"See here, young fella, do as yer told. See?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't see. You're not so warm." And George drew out his razor. +The men must have seen something in his eyes which cowed them, for they +chose other cells. I expected that they would maul us unmercifully +before morning, but we were left in peace.</p> + +<p>One more episode: One afternoon George and I decided that it was time +for us to be on the move again, and we boarded a train of empty cars +bound West. We had ridden along pleasantly enough for about ten miles, +taking in the scenery through the slats of the car, when we saw three +men climb down the side of the car. George whispered "Lake Shore Push" +to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> me the minute we saw them, and we both knew that we were to be "held +up," if the fellows ever got at us. It was a predicament which called +for a cool head and quick action, and George the Fourth had both. He +addressed the invaders in a language peculiar to men of the road and +distinctive mainly on account of its expletives, and wound up his +harangue with the threat that the first man who tried to open the door +would have his hand cut off. And he flashed his ubiquitous razor as +evidence of his ability to carry out the threat. The engineer +fortunately whistled just then for a watering-tank, and the men +clambered back to the top of the car, and we saw them no more.</p> + +<p>So much for my personal experience with the "Lake Shore Push" as a +possible victim; they failed to do me any harm, but it was not their +fault. They interested me so much that I spent two weeks on the Lake +Shore Railroad in order to learn the truth concerning them. I reasoned +that if such an organisation as they seemed to be was possible on one +railroad property,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> it might easily develop on another, and I deemed it +worth while to inform myself in regard to their origin, strength, and +purpose. Nearly every other newspaper that I came across, while +travelling in this district, made some reference to them, but always in +an indefinite way which showed that even the police reporter had not +been able to find out much about them. They were always spoken of as the +"infamous" or "notorious Lake Shore gang," and all kinds of crimes were +supposed to have been committed by them, but there was nothing in any of +the newspaper paragraphs which gave me any clue as to their identity. In +the course of my investigations I ran across a man by the name of Peg +Kelley, who had known me years before in the far West, and with whom I +had tramped at different times. We went over in detail, I romancing a +little, our experiences in the interval of time since our last meeting, +and he finally confessed to me that he was a member of the "Lake Shore +Push," and added that he was prepared to suggest my name for membership. +From him I got what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> he claims are the facts in regard to the "push." To +the best of my knowledge, never before in our history has an association +of outlaws developed on the same lines as has the "Lake Shore Push," and +it stands alone in the purpose for which it now exists.</p> + +<p>In the early seventies, some say in 1874, and others a little earlier, +there lived in a row of old frame houses standing on, or near, the site +of the present Lake View Park in Cleveland, Ohio, a collection of +professional criminals, among whom were six fellows called New Orleans +Tom, Buffalo Slim, Big Yellow, Allegheny B., Looking Glass Jack, and +Garry. The names of these particular men are given, because Peg Kelley +believes that they constituted the nucleus of the present "Lake Shore +Push." They are probably all dead by this time; at any rate, the word +"push" was not current tramp slang in their day, and they referred to +themselves merely as the "gang." Cleveland was their headquarters, and +it is reported that the town was a sort of Mecca for outlaws throughout<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +the neighbouring vicinity. The main "graft," or business, of the gang, +was robbing merchandise cars, banks, post-offices, and doing what is +called "slough work," robbing locked houses. The leader of the company, +if such men can be said to have a leader, was New Orleans Tom, who is +described as a typical Southern desperado. He had been a sailor before +joining the gang, and claimed that during the Civil War he was captured +by Union soldiers and sailors, while on the <i>Harriet Lane</i>, lying off +Galveston. The gang grew in numbers as the years went on, and there is a +second stage in its development when Danny the Soldier, as he was +called, seems to have taken Slim's place in leadership. By 1880, +although still not called "The Lake Shore Push," the gang had made a +name for itself, or, rather, a "record," to use the word which the men +themselves would have preferred, and had become known to tramps and +criminals throughout northern Ohio and southern Michigan. The police got +after them from time to time, and there were periods when they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> were +considerably scattered, but whenever they came together again, even in +twos and threes, it was recognised that pals were meeting pals. When +members of the gang died or were sent to limbo, it was comparatively +easy to fill their places either with "talent" imported from other +districts, or with local fellows who were glad to become identified with +a mob. There has always been a rough element in such towns as Cleveland, +Toledo, Erie, and Buffalo, from which gangs could be recruited; it is +composed largely of "lakers," men who work on the lakes during the open +season, and live by their wits in winter time. This class has +contributed its full share to the criminal population of the country, +and has always been heavily represented in mobs and gangs along the lake +shore.</p> + +<p>Opinions differ, Peg Kelley claims, as to when the name "Lake Shore +Push" was first used by the gang, as well as to who invented it, but it +is his opinion, and I have none better to offer, that it was late in the +eighties when it was first suggested,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> and that it was outsiders, such +as transient roadsters, who made the expression popular. He says, in +regard to this point:</p> + +<p>"The gang was known to hang out along the lake shore, an' mainly on the +Lake Shore Road, an' 'boes from other States kep' seein' 'em an' hearin' +about 'em when they came this way. Well, ye know how 'boes are. If they +see a bloke holdin' down a district they give 'im the name o' the place, +an' that's the way the gang got its monikey (nickname). The 'boes kep' +talkin' about the push holdin' down the Lake Shore Road, an' after +awhile they took to callin' it the 'Lake Shore Push.'</p> + +<p>"Ev'ry 'bo in the country knows the name now. Way out in 'Frisco, 'f +they know 't ye've come from 'round here they'll ask ye 'bout the push, +if it's what it's cracked up to be, an' all that kind o' thing. It's got +the biggest rep of any 'bo push in the country."</p> + +<p>The story of how the "push" got its "rep" is best told by Peg, and in +his own words. I have been at considerable pains<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> to verify his +statements, and have yet to discover him in wilful misrepresentation. He +admits that the "push" has done some dastardly deeds, and appreciates +perfectly why it is so hated by out-of-works who have to "beat" their +way on trains which run through its territory, but he believes that it +could not have been otherwise, considering the purpose for which the +"push" was organised.</p> + +<p>"Ye can't try to monopolise anythin', Cigarette," he said to me, +"without gettin' into a row with somebody, an' that's been the +'xperience o' the push. When there was jus' that Cleveland gang, nobody +said nothin', 'cause they didn't try to run things, but the minute the +big push came ev'rybody was talkin', an' they're chewin' the rag yet."</p> + +<p>"Who first thought of organising the big push?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know 't any one bloke thought of it. It was at the time that +trusts an' syndicates an' that kind o' thing was beginnin' to be +pop'lar, an' the blokes had been readin' 'bout 'em in the newspapers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> I +was out West then,—it was in '89,—an' didn't know 'bout the push one +way or the other, but from what the blokes tell me the idea came to all +of 'em 'bout the same time. Ye see, that Cleveland gang had kep' growin' +an' growin' an' spreadin' out, an' after awhile there was a big mob of +'em floatin' up an' down the road here. Blokes from other places had got +into it, an' they'd got to be the biggest push on the line. There was no +partickler leader, the way the James and Dalton gangs had leaders, an' +there never has been. 'Course the newspapers try to make out that this +fella an' that fella runs the thing, but they don't know what they're +talkin' 'bout. The bigger the gang got, the more room it wanted, an' +pretty soon they began to get a grouch on against the gay-cats that kep' +comin' to their camps. Ye know how it is yourself. When ye've got +'customed to a push, ye don't want to have to mix with a lot o' +strangers, an' that's the way the gang felt, an' they got to drivin' the +gay-cats away from their camps. That started 'em to wonderin' why they +shouldn't have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> the Lake Shore Road all to themselves. As I was tellin' +ye, trusts an' syndicates was gettin' into the air 'bout that time, an' +the push didn't see why it couldn't have one too; an' they begun to have +reg'lar fights with the gay-cats. I came into the push jus' about the +time the scrappin' began. I ain't speshully fond o' scrappin', but I did +like the idea o' dividin' up territory. There's no use talkin', Cig, if +all the 'boes in the country 'ud do what we been tryin' to do, there'd +be a lot more money in the game. Take the Erie Road, the Pennsy, the +Dope,<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> an' the rest of 'em. Ye know as well as I do, 't if the 'boes +on those lines 'ud organise an' keep ev'ry bum off of 'em 't wasn't in +the push, an' 'ud keep the push from gettin' too large, they'd be a lot +better off. 'Course there's got to be scrappin' to do the thing, but +that don't need to interfere. See how the trusts an' syndicates scrap +till they get what they want, an' see how many throats they cut. We've +thrown bums off trains, I won't deny it, an' we hold up ev'ry one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> of +'em 't we can get hold of, but ain't that what the trusts are doin', +too?"</p> + +<p>I asked him whether the "push" distinguished or not in the people it +halted.</p> + +<p>"If a reg'lar 'bo, a fella 't we know by name," he went on, "will open +up an' tell us who he is, an' his graft, we'll let 'im go, but we tell +'im that the world's gettin' smaller 'n' smaller, 'n' 't he'd better get +a cinch on a part of it, too. That don't mean 't he can join the push, +an' he knows it. He understan's what we're drivin' at. He can ride on +the road 'f he likes, but he'll get sick o' bein' by himself all the +time, an' 'll take a mooch after awhile. 'Course all don't do it, ye've +seen yerself that there's hunderds runnin' up an' down the line 't we +ain't got rid of, an' p'r'aps never will. I ain't so dead sure that the +thing's goin' to work, but the coppers'll never break us up, anyhow. +They've been tryin' now for years, an' they've got some of the blokes +settled, but we can fill their places the minute they've gone."</p> + +<p>"How many are in the push?"</p> + +<p>"'Bout a hunderd an' fifty. Sometimes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> there's more an' sometimes +there's less, but it aver'ges 'bout that."</p> + +<p>"Do all the fellows come from around here?"</p> + +<p>"No, not half of 'em. There's fellas from all over; a lot of 'em are +Westerners."</p> + +<p>"What is the main graft?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we're diggin' into these cars right along. We got plants all +along the road, from Buffalo to Chi. I can fit ye out in a new suit o' +clothes to-morrow, 'f ye want to go up the line with me."</p> + +<p>"Don't the railroad people trouble you?"</p> + +<p>"O' course, they ain't lookin' on while we're robbin' 'em, but they +can't do very much. We got the trainmen pretty well scared, an' when +they get too rambunctious we do one of 'em up."</p> + +<p>"Do you ever shift to other roads?"</p> + +<p>"Lately we've branched out a little over on the Dope an' the Erie, but +the main hang-outs are on the Shore. We know this road down to the +ground, an' we ain't so sure o' the others. Most o' the post-office +work, though, is done off this road."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What kind of work is that?"</p> + +<p>"Peter-work,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> o' course, what d'ye think?"</p> + +<p>"Pan out pretty well?"</p> + +<p>"Don't get much cash, but the stamps are jus' about as good. Awhile ago +I was payin' fer ev'rythin' in stamps. Felt like one o' the old +fourth-class postmasters."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't the government get after you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's settled some of us, but as I was tellin' ye, there's always +fellas to take the empty places."</p> + +<p>"Got much fall money?"</p> + +<p>"No, not a bit. We don't save anythin', it all goes fer booze an' grub. +I've seen a big box o' shoes go fer two kegs o' beer, an' ye can't get +much fall money out o' that kind o' bargaining. We have a good time, +though, an' we're the high-monkey-monks o' this road."</p> + +<p>Later he introduced me to some of his companions. They were the same +kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> of men with whom the Englishman and I had had the disagreeable +encounters,—rough and vicious-looking. "They're not bad fellas, are +they?" Peg asked, when we were alone again. "You'd tie up to them, Cig, +'f ye was on the Shore, I know ye would."</p> + +<p>It was useless to argue with him, and we separated, he to join a +detachment of the "push" in western New York, and I to continue on my +way westward. Since the meeting with Peg I have been back several times +in the "push's" territory, and have continued to make acquaintances in +it. In the tramp's criminal world it stands for the most successful form +of syndicated lawlessness known up to date, and, unless soon broken up +and severely dealt with, it will serve as a pattern for other +organisations. Whether it is copied or not, however, when the history of +crime in the United States is written, and a very interesting history it +will be, the "Lake Shore Push" must be given by the historian a +prominent place in his classification of criminal mobs.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h3>HOW TRAMPS BEG.</h3> + +<p>It is a popular notion that tramps have a mysterious sign-language in +which they communicate secrets to one another in regard to professional +matters. It is thought, for instance, that they make peculiar chalk and +pencil marks on fences and horse-blocks, indicating to the brotherhood +such things as whether a certain house is "good" or not, where a +ferocious dog is kept, at what time the police are least likely, or most +likely, to put in an appearance, how late in the morning a barn can be +occupied before the farmer will be up and about, and where a convenient +chicken-coop is located.</p> + +<p>Elaborate accounts have been written in newspapers about the amount of +information they give to one another in this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> way, and many persons +believe that tramps rely on a sign-language in their begging.</p> + +<p>It is well to state at the outset that this is a false conception of +their methods. They all have jargons and lingoes of their own choosing +and making, and they converse in them when among themselves, but the +reported puzzling signs and marks which are supposed to obviate all +verbal speech are a fabrication so far as the majority of roadsters are +concerned. Among the "Blanket Stiffs" in the far West, and among the +"Bindle Men," "Mush Fakirs," and "Turnpikers," of the middle West, the +East, and Canada, there exists a crude system of marking "good" houses, +but these vagrants do not belong to the rank and file of the tramp army, +and are comparatively few in numbers.</p> + +<p>It is furthermore to be said that the marking referred to is occasional +rather than usual. Probably one of the main reasons why the public has +imagined that tramps use hieroglyphics, in their profession is that when +charity is shown to one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> of them the giver is frequently plagued with a +visitation from a raft of beggars.</p> + +<p>This phenomenon, however, is easily explained without recourse to the +sign-language theory. Outside of nearly all towns of ten thousand +inhabitants and more the tramps have little camps or "hang-outs," where +they make their headquarters while "working" the community. Naturally +they compare notes at meal-time, and if one beggar has discovered what +he considers an easy "mark,"—a good house,—he tells his pals about it, +so that they may also get the benefit of its hospitality. The finder of +the house cannot visit it himself again until his face has been +forgotten, at any rate he seldom does visit it more than once during a +week's stay in the town; but his companions can, so he tells them where +it is, and what kind of a story they must use.</p> + +<p>Although the hoboes do not make use of the marks and signs with which +the popular fancy has credited them, they have a number of interesting +theories about begging and a large variety of clever ruses to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> deceive +people, and it is well for the public to keep as up-to-date in regard to +these matters as they keep in regard to the public's sympathies. Not all +tramps are either clever or successful; the "road" is travelled by a +great many more amateurs than professionals, but it is the earnest +endeavour of all at least to make a living, and there are thousands who +make something besides.</p> + +<p>Roughly estimated, there are from sixty to seventy-five thousand tramps +in the United States, and probably a fifth of all may be classified as +"first-class" tramps. There is a second and a third class, and even a +fourth, but it is the "A Number One men," as they call themselves, who +are the most interesting.</p> + +<p>The main distinction between these tramps and the less successful +members of the craft is that they have completely conquered the +amateur's squeamishness about begging. It seems comparatively easy to go +to a back door and ask for something to eat, and the mere wording of the +request is easy,—all too easy,—but the hard part of the transaction is +to screw up courage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> enough to open the front gate. The beginner in +tramp life goes to a dozen front gates before he can brace himself for +the interview at the back door, and there are men to whom a vagrant life +is attractive who never overcome the "tenderfoot's" bashfulness.</p> + +<p>It was once my lot to have a rather successful professional burglar for +a companion on a short tramp trip in the middle West. We had come +together in the haphazard way that all tramp acquaintanceships are +formed. We met at a railroad watering-tank. The man's sojourn in +trampdom, however, was only temporary; it was a good hiding-place until +the detectives should give up the hunt for him. He had "planted" his +money elsewhere, and meanwhile he had to take his chances with the +"'boes."</p> + +<p>He was not a man who would ordinarily arouse much pity, but a tramp +could not have helped having sympathy for him at meal-time. At every +interview he had at back doors he was seized with the "tenderfoot's" +bashfulness, and during<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> the ten days that our companionship lasted he +got but one "square meal." His profession of robber gave him no +assistance.</p> + +<p>"I can steal," he said, "go into houses at night, and take my chances in +a shootin' scrape, but I'll be —— if I can beg. 'Taint like swipin'. +When ye swipe, ye don't ask no questions, an' ye don't answer none. In +this business ye got to cough up yer whole soul jus' to get a lump +(hand-out). I'd rather swipe."</p> + +<p>This is the testimony of practically all beginners in the beggar's +business; at the start thieving seems to them a much easier task. As the +weeks and months pass by, however, they become hardened and discover +that their "nerve" needs only to be developed to assert itself, and the +time comes when nothing is so valuable that they do not feel justified +in asking for it. They then definitely identify themselves with the +profession and build up reputations as "first-class" tramps.</p> + +<p>Each man's experience suggests to him how this reputation can best be +acquired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> One man, for example, finds that he does best with a "graft" +peculiarly his own, and another discovers that it is only at a certain +time of the year, or in a particular part of the country, that he comes +out winner. The tramp has to experiment in all kinds of ways ere he +understands himself or his public, and he makes mistakes even after an +apprenticeship extending over years of time.</p> + +<p>In every country where he lives, however, there is a common fund of +experience and fact by which he regulates his conduct in the majority of +cases. It is the collective testimony of generations and generations of +tramps who have lived before him, and he acts upon it in about the same +way that human beings in general act upon ordinary human experience.</p> + +<p>Emergencies arise when his own ingenuity alone avails and the "average +finding" is of no use to him, and on such occasions he makes a note on +the case and reports about it at the next "hang-out" conclave. If he has +invented something of real value, a good begging story, for instance, +and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> is generally accepted as good, it is labelled "Shorty's Gag," or +"Slim's," as the man's name may be, and becomes his contribution to the +general collection of "gags."</p> + +<p>It is the man who has memorised the greatest number of "gags" or "ghost +stories," as they are also called, and can handle them deftly as +circumstances suggest, that is the most successful beggar. There are +other requirements to be observed, but unless a man has a good stock of +stories with which to "fool" people, he cannot expect to gain a foothold +among "the blowed in the glass stiffs." He must also keep continually +working over his stock. "Ghost stories" are like bonnets; those that +were fashionable and <i>comme il faut</i> last year are this year out of +date, and they must be changed to suit new tastes and conditions, or be +replaced by new ones. Frequently a fresh version of an old story has to +be improvised on the spot, so to speak.</p> + +<p>The following personal experience illustrates under what circumstances +"gags" are invented. It also shows how even the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> professionals forget +themselves and their pose on occasions.</p> + +<p>One morning, about eight years ago, I arrived in a small town in the +Mohawk valley in company with a tramp called Indianapolis Red. We had +ridden all night in a box-car in the hope of reaching New York by +morning, but the freight had been delayed on account of a wreck, and we +were so hungry when we reached the town in question that we simply had +to get off and look for something to eat. It was not a place, as we well +knew, where tramps were welcome, but the train would not stop again at a +town of any size until long after breakfast, so we decided to take our +chances.</p> + +<p>We had an hour at our disposal until the next "freight" was due. The +great question was what story we should tell, and we both rummaged +through our collections to find a good one. Finally, after each of us +had suggested a number of different stories and had refused them in +turn, on the ground that they were too old for such a "hostile" place, +Red suggested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> that we try "the deef 'n' dum' gag." There are several +"gags" of this description, and I asked him which one he meant.</p> + +<p>"Let's work it this way," he said, and he began to improvise. "I'm your +deef 'n' dum' brother, see? An' we're on our way to New York, where I'm +going to get a job. I'm a clerk, and you're seein' me down to the city +so's't nothin'll happen to me. Our money's given out, an' we've simply +got to ask fer assistance. We're ter'bly hungry, an' you want to know if +the lady o' the house'll be good enough to help yer brother along. See?"</p> + +<p>I "saw" all right, and accepted the proposition, but the odds seemed +against us, because the town was one of the most unfriendly along the +line. We picked out a house near the track. As a rule such houses have +been "begged out," but we reasoned that if our story would go at all it +would go there, and besides the house was convenient for catching the +next freight-train.</p> + +<p>As we approached the back door I was careful to talk to Red on my +fingers, thinking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> that somebody might be watching us. A motherly old +lady answered our knock. I told her Red's story in my best manner, +filling it out with convincing details. She heard me out, and then +scrutinised Red in the way that we all look at creatures who are +peculiar or abnormal. Then she smiled and invited us into the +dining-room where the rest of the family were at breakfast. It turned +out to be a Free Methodist clergyman's household. We were given places +at the table, and ate as rapidly as we could, or rather Red did; I was +continually being interrupted by the family asking me questions about my +"unfortunate brother."</p> + +<p>"Was he born that way?" they asked, in hushed voices. "How did he learn +to write? Can he ever get well?" and other like queries which I had to +answer in turn. By the time I had finished my meal, however, I saw by a +clock on the wall that we had still fifteen minutes to catch our train, +and gave Red a nudge under the table as a hint that we ought to be +going. We were about to get up and thank our hostess<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> for her kindness +when the man of the house, the clergyman, suggested that we stay to +family prayers.</p> + +<p>"Glad to have you," he said; "if you can remain. You may get good out of +it." I told him frankly that we wanted to catch a train and had only a +few minutes to spare, but he assured me that he would not be long and +asked me to explain the situation to Red. I did so with my fingers, +telling the parson afterward that Red's wiggling of his fingers meant +that he would be delighted to stay, but a wink of his left eye, meant +for me alone, said plainly enough to "let the prayers go."</p> + +<p>We stood committed, however, and there was nothing to do but join the +family in the sitting-room, where I was given a Bible to read two +verses, one for Red and one for myself. This part of the program +finished, the parson began to pray. All went well until he came to that +part of his prayer where he referred to the "unfortunate brother in our +midst," and asked that Red's speech and hearing be restored.</p> + +<p>Just then Red heard the whistle of our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> freight. He forgot everything, +all that I had said and all that he had tried to act out, and with a +wild whoop he sprang for the door, shouting back to me, as he went out:</p> + +<p>"Hustle, Cigarette, there's our rattler."</p> + +<p>There was nothing to do but follow after him as fast as my legs would +carry me, and I did so in my liveliest manner. I have never been in the +town since this experience, and it is to be hoped that the parson's +family have forgiven and forgotten both Red and me.</p> + +<p>Besides studying the persons of whom he begs, and to whom he adapts his +"ghost stories" as their different natures require, the tramp also has +to keep in mind the time of the day, the state of the weather, and the +character of the community in which he is begging. I refer, of course, +to the expert tramp. The amateur blunders on regardless of these +important details, and asks for things which have no relation with the +time of the day, the season, or the locality.</p> + +<p>It is bad form, for instance, to ask early<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> in the morning for money to +buy a glass of whiskey, and it is equally inopportune to request a +contribution toward the purchase of a railway ticket late at night. The +"tenderfoot" is apt to make both of these mistakes; the expert, never. +The steady patrons of beggars, and all old hands at the business have +such, seldom realise how completely adjusted to local conditions "ghost +stories" are. They probably think that they have heard the story told to +them time and again and in the same way, but if they observe carefully +they will generally find that, either in the modulation of the voice, or +the tone of expression, it is different on rainy days, for instance, +from what it is when the sun shines. It takes a trained ear to +discriminate, and expert beggars realise that much of their finesse is +lost even on persons who give to them; but they are artists in their +way, and believe in "art for art's sake." Then, too, it is always +possible that they will encounter somebody who will appreciate their +talent, and this is also a gratification.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>Speaking generally, there is more begging done in winter than in summer, +and in the East and North than in the South and West; but some of the +cleverest begging takes place in the warm months. It is comparatively +easy to get something to eat and a bed in a lodging-house when the +thermometer stands ten degrees below zero. A man feels mean in refusing +an appeal to his generosity at this time of the year. "I may be cold and +hungry some day myself," he thinks, and he gives the beggar a dime or +two.</p> + +<p>In summer, on the other hand, the tramp has no freezing weather to help +him out, and has to invent excuses. Even a story of "no work" is of +little use in the summer. This is the season, as a rule, when work is +most plentiful, and when wages are highest, and the tramp knows it, and +is aware that the public also understands this much of political +economy. Nevertheless, he must live in summer as well as in winter, and +he has to plan differently for both seasons.</p> + +<p>The main difference between his summer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> and winter campaigns is that he +generally travels in summer, taking in the small towns where people are +less "on to him," and where there are all kinds of free "dosses" (places +to sleep), in the shape of barns and empty houses. In November he +returns to the cities again to get the benefit of the cold weather +"dodge," or goes South to Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.</p> + +<p>Probably fifteen thousand Eastern and Northern tramps winter in the +South every year. Their luck there seems to be entirely individual; some +do well and others barely live. They are all glad, however, to return to +the North in April and go over their old routes again.</p> + +<p>An amusing experience that I had not long ago illustrates the different +kind of tactics necessary in the tramp's summer campaign. So far as I +know, he has never made use of the story that did me such good service, +and that was told in all truthfulness, but it has since occurred to me +that he might find it useful, and I relate it here so that the reader +may not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> be taken unawares if some tramp should attempt to get the +benefit of it.</p> + +<p>I was travelling with some tramps in western Pennsylvania at the time, +and we were "beating" our way on a freight-train toward a town where we +expected to spend the night. Noontime found us all hungry, and we got +off the train at a small village to look for lunch. It was such a small +place that it was decided that each man should pick out his particular +"beat," and confine his search to the few houses it contained. If some +failed to get anything, those who were more successful were to bring +them back "hand-outs."</p> + +<p>My "beat" was so sparsely settled that I hardly expected to get so much +as a piece of bread, because the entire village was known to hate +tramps; but an inspiration came to me as I was crossing the fields, and +I got a "set-down" and a "hand-out" at the first house I visited.</p> + +<p>The interview at the back door ran thus:</p> + +<p>"Madam,"—she was rather a severe-looking woman,—"I have exactly five<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> +cents in my pocket and I am awfully hungry. I know that you don't keep a +boarding-house, but I have come to you thinking that you will give me +more for my nickel than the storekeeper will over in the village. I +shall be obliged to you if you will help me out."</p> + +<p>A look of surprise came into the woman's face. I was a new species to +her, and I knew it, and she knew it.</p> + +<p>"Don't know whether we've got anything you want," she said, as if I were +a guest rather than a wayfarer.</p> + +<p>"Anything will do, madam, anything," I replied, throwing into my words +all the sincerity of which a hungry man is capable. She invited me into +the dining-room, and gave me a most satisfying meal. There were no +conversational interruptions. I ate my meal in silence and the woman +watched me. The new species interested her.</p> + +<p>Just as I was finishing, she put some sandwiches, cake, and pie into a +newspaper. I had made a good impression.</p> + +<p>"There," she said, as I was about to go. "You may need it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>I held out my nickel and thanked her. She blushed, and put her hands +behind her back.</p> + +<p>"I don't keep a hotel," she said, rather indignantly.</p> + +<p>"But, madam, I want to pay you. I'm no beggar."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't have got it if you had been. Good-bye."</p> + +<p>The tramps' methods of begging, as has been said, are largely regulated +by circumstances and experience, but even the amateurs have theories +about the profession, and they are never more interesting than when +sitting around some "hang-out" camp-fire, discussing their notions of +the kind of "ghost stories" that go best with different sorts of people. +Indeed, the bulk of their time is passed in conferences of this +character. Each man, like the passionate gambler, has a "system," and he +enjoys "chewing the rag" about its intricacies. The majority of the +systems are founded on the tramp's knowledge of women. Taking the +country by and large, he sees more of women on his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> begging tours than +of men, and it is only natural that his theoretical calculations should +be busied mainly with women. Some tramps believe that they can tell to a +nicety what a blonde woman will give in excess of a brunette, or vice +versa, and the same of a large woman in contra-distinction to a small +one. Much of their theorising in these matters is as futile as is the +gambler's estimate of his chances of luck, but certain it is that after +a long apprenticeship they become phenomenally accurate in "sizing up" +people; and it is he who can correctly "size up" the greatest number of +people at first glance and adapt himself to their peculiarities, that +comes out winner in the struggle.</p> + +<p>Next in importance to the ability to appraise correctly the generous +tendencies of his patrons, and to modulate his voice and to concoct +stories according to their tastes, come the tramp's clothes and the way +he wears them. It probably seems to most persons that the tramp never +changes his clothes, and that he always looks as tattered and torn as +when they happen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> to see him, but the expert has almost as many +"changes" as the actor. Some days he dresses very poorly; this is +generally the case in winter; and on other days he looks as neat and +clean as the ordinary business man. It all depends on the weather and +the "beat" he has chosen for the day's work. Every morning, before he +starts out on his tour, he takes a look at the weather and decides upon +his "beat." The "beat" selected, he puts on the "togs" which he thinks +suit the weather, and away he goes for better or worse. In New York city +there are probably a hundred scientific beggars of this character, and +they live as well as does the man with a yearly income of $2,000.</p> + +<p>Sunday is the most dismal day in the week to the average tramp,—the +beggar who is content with his three meals a day and a place to lie down +in at night. But few men who go on tramp for the first time expect that +Sunday is going to be any different from any other day in the week. They +usually reach "the road" on a week-day after a debauch, and they find<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +that their soiled clothes and general unkempt condition differentiate +them in public thoroughfares very little from hundreds of workingmen. No +policeman worries them with suspicious glances, and in large cities they +pass unchallenged even in the dead of night. Indeed, they receive so +little notice from any one that they wonder how they had ever imagined +that outcasts were such marked human beings.</p> + +<p>Then comes their first Sunday. They get up out of their hayloft, or +wherever it may be that they lay down the night before, prepared to look +for their breakfast just as they did on the previous day, and after +brushing off their clothes and washing themselves at some pump or public +faucet, they start out. In a small town they feel that something is +wrong before they have gone a block, and by nine o'clock in large towns +they decide to go without their breakfast if they have not yet got it. A +change has come over the earth; they seem out of place even to +themselves, and they return through back streets to their lodging-houses +or retreats on the outskirts<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> of the town, sincerely regretting that +they are travellers of "the road."</p> + +<p>A number of men in the world have to thank this Sunday nausea that they +are to-day workers and not tramps. The latter feel the effects of it to +the end of their days; it is as unescapable as death, but like certain +seafaring men who never get entirely free of seasickness and yet +continue as sailors, so old vagabonds learn to expect and endure the +miserable sensations which they experience on the first day of the week. +These sensations are due to the remnant of manhood which is to be found +in nearly all tramps. The majority of them are for all practical +purposes outcasts, but at breakfast-time, on Sunday morning, they have +emotions which on week-days no one would give them credit for.</p> + +<p>It was my fate, some years ago, to be one of a collection of wanderers +who had to while away a Sunday in a "dugout" on a bleak prairie in +western Kansas. We had nothing to eat or drink and practically nothing +to talk about except our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> dismal lot. Toward nightfall we got to +discussing in all earnestness the miserableness of our existence, and I +have always remembered the remarks of a fellow sufferer whom we called +"West Virginia Brown." He was supposed to be the degenerate scion of a +noble English family, and was one of the best educated men I have ever +met in Hoboland. He took little part in the general grumbling, but at +last there was a lull in the conversation, and he spoke up.</p> + +<p>"I wonder," he said, "whether the good people who rest on Sunday, go to +church, and have their best dinner in the week, realise how life is +turned upside down for us on that day. There have always been men like +us in the world, and it is for us as much as for any one, so far as I +know, that religion exists, and yet the day in the week set apart for +religion is the hardest of all for us to worry through. Was it, or +wasn't it, the intention that outcasts were to have religion? The way +things are now, we are made to look upon Sunday and all that it means +with hatred, and yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> I don't believe that there's any one in the world +who tries to be any squarer to his pals than we do, and that's what I +call being good."</p> + +<p>The last "the road" knew of Brown, he was serving a five years' sentence +in a Canadian prison. His lot cannot be pleasant, but methinks that on +Sundays, at least, he is glad that he is not "outside."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h3>THE TRAMP'S POLITICS.</h3> + +<p>As a political party the tramps cannot be said to amount to much. +Counting "gay-cats" and hoboes, the two main wings of the army, they are +numerous enough, if concentrated in a single State, or in a city like +New York, to cast, perhaps, the determining vote in a close election, +but they are so scattered that they never become a formidable political +organisation. They are more in evidence in the East than in the West, +and in the North than in the South, but they are to be met in every +State and Territory in the Union. On account of their migratory habits +very few of them are legally entitled to vote, and the probability is +that only a small fraction of them actively take part in elections. In +large cities like New<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, +and during fiercely fought political struggles even in some of the +smaller towns, they are collected into colonies by unscrupulous +electioneering specialists, and paid to vote as they are told, but +otherwise they make very little effort to have their voices count in +political affairs. Two of their number, Indiana Blackie and Railroad +Jack, have achieved some notoriety as stump speakers, and Blackie was a +man who might have secured political preferment,—a consulship, +perhaps,—if he had understood how to keep sober, but he broke down +during a campaign in West Virginia, and was drowned not long after in +the Ohio River. In Wheeling, West Virginia, I heard him make one of the +wittiest political speeches I have ever heard anywhere, and his hearers +listened to him as attentively as a few evenings before they had +listened to a famous politician. The speech was no sooner ended, +however, than Blackie went off on a terrible "jag," and I saw him at +noon the next day, looking for a wash-boiler.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> He was splattered all +over with mud, and did not know whether he was in West Virginia or +Indiana. He finally concluded from the colour of the mud that he was out +in Wyoming.</p> + +<p>Although the tramps have no comprehensive political organisation, and +take but little interest in voting, except when their ballots bring in +hard cash, they are great talkers on political questions of the day, and +are continually championing the cause of some well-known political +leader. As a class, they may be called <i>Geister die stets +verneinen</i>,—they are almost invariably in opposition to the party in +power. Since the last presidential election Mr. William Jennings Bryan +has been their hero, and they expect of him, if his ambition to be +President is ever gratified, a release from all the troubles which they +think are now oppressing the country, and particularly themselves. They +have, without doubt, misconstrued a great deal that Mr. Bryan has said +in his speeches and writings; they have pinned their faith to him +without carefully considering his promises;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> but in something that he +has said or done, or in his personality, they have discovered, they +think, the elements of leadership, which, for the nonce, at any rate, +they admire. There is not a man in the country at the present moment, +for whom they would shout as much, and in whose honour they would get so +drunk, as for Mr. Bryan. They know very little concerning his theories +about silver, beyond the expression, "The Cross of Gold," and they are +very scantily informed in regard to his notions about expansion and +imperialism, but he represents for them, as probably no other political +leader ever did, upheaval and revolution, and it is on such things that +they expect to thrive.</p> + +<p>The place to hear them talk and to get acquainted with their political +views is at the "hang-out." Practically any nook or corner where they +can lie down at night is a "hang-out" to them, but as most of their life +is spent on the railroads their main gathering points are little camps +built alongside the track. Here they sleep, eat, wait for trains, and +"chew the rag."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> Much of their conversation is confined to purely +professional matters, but every now and then, at some large camp, a +roadster will make a slurring remark about this or that political +leader, or a paragraph in a newspaper in regard to a "burning" question +of the hour will be read aloud, and the confab begins. The topic that +started it is soon smothered under a continually accumulating pile of +fresh ones, but that does not matter, the "hang-out" never settles +anything; it takes up one thing after the other in rapid succession, as +fancy dictates, and one must listen carefully merely to catch the drift +of what is said. The sentences are short and broken, and a word often +suffices to kill what promised to be a lengthy discussion. The old men +speak first, the young men next, and the boys are supposed to keep quiet +and listen. Sometimes, when "booze" accompanies the talk, the age +distinctions are temporarily overlooked, and all speak together; but +this kind of a conclave finally ends in a free fight, to which politics +and everything else are subordinated.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>The burden of practically all the palavers is "the way the country is +going to the dogs." It comes as natural to the average tramp to declare +that the United States is in dire peril as it does to the German +socialist to say that Germany is a miserable <i>Polizei-Staat</i>. He does +not honestly believe all that he says, and it needs but a scurrilous +remark about our country from some foreign roadster to startle him into +a pugnacious patriotism; but in the bosom of his "hang-out" he takes +delight in explaining what a bad plight the country is in. This is +really his political creed. Free trade, protection, civil service +reform, the currency question, pensions, and expansion are mere side +issues in his opinion. The real issue is what he considers the frightful +condition of our "internal affairs." From Maine to California the tramps +may be heard chattering by the hour on this topic, and they have singled +out Mr. Bryan as their spokesman because they think that he voices their +pessimism better than any other man in public view.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>It came as a surprise to me, when first getting acquainted with tramps, +to find that they were such grumblers and critics,—such <i>Nörgler</i>, as +Kaiser Wilhelm says. I had pictured them as a class which managed to +live more or less successfully whether any one else got on or not, and +had imagined that they were, comparatively speaking, at peace with the +world. That they troubled themselves with public questions and political +problems was a thought that had not occurred to me. The fact is, +however, that they are as fierce political partisans as the country +contains, and in talking with them one must be careful not to let an +argument go beyond what in polite society would be considered rather +narrow bounds. They are quick to resort to fists in all discussions, and +in my intercourse with them it has paid best to let them do most of the +talking when politics has been the topic of conversation.</p> + +<p>It would take a book, and a large one at that, to report all the +evidence that they advance at "hang-out" conferences in support<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> of +their statements concerning the evils from which they believe the +country is now suffering, but no account of their political notions, no +matter how short, should fail to take note of their rantings against +capital, and what they consider the political corruption of the country. +Nearly every conversation they have on politics begins with some wild +assertion in regard to one of these topics, and Mr. Bryan's name is +invariably dragged into the discussion. They believe that he hates the +man who has saved money and understands how to make it earn more, quite +as much as they do, and they will be very much disappointed in him, in +case he is ever elected President, if he does not suggest legislation by +which the rich man can be made "to shell out his coin." On no subject do +the tramps use such violent language as on this one of the capitalist. +They think that it is he who has imported all the foreign labour in the +country,—another eyesore in their opinion; who has made England the +real "boss" of things on this side of the Atlantic,—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> notion which +they claim to have dug out of Mr. Bryan's speeches; who has reduced the +wages of the "poor workingman" and increased the cost of living; and, +worst of all, who is now trying to take away from them what they +consider their inalienable railway privileges.</p> + +<p>They hold him answerable also for the trusts and syndicates, agitation +against which they require from any political party in which they take +an interest. They have thought seriously over these matters about as +much as a ten-year-old child has, but that does not matter. They do not +propose to think hard about anything. Mr. Bryan is for the present doing +all the thinking which they consider necessary, and they are content +merely to repeat in their own jargon statements which he has made, or +which they think he has made. He has become for them an infallible +oracle, who understands them and their position, and whom they +understand. In the bottom of their hearts they know that they are +deserving of precious little championship, that they lead despicable +lives,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> and commit some very reprehensible deeds; but it is a +consolation to them which they cannot let go, to think that Mr. Bryan +includes them in his classification of victims of the "gold bugs," so +they try to make propaganda for him.</p> + +<p>The time was when many of them shouted for Henry George and "General" +Coxey as vociferously as they now shout for Bryan. They expected from +George and Coxey the same overthrow of their imaginary oppressors and +general upheaval of things that they now look forward to from Mr. Bryan. +They were once also enamoured of Mr. Blaine, but for a different reason. +They admired the way he championed the cause of Americans who got into +trouble in foreign parts. When he was Secretary of State it was a +temporary fad among them to scold about the way Americans were treated +abroad, and on one occasion, the details of which I have forgotten, Mr. +Blaine pleased them immensely by insisting on the release of an American +who had been falsely arrested in some foreign port.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>They are particularly entertaining when talking about the corruption in +the country. They discuss this question with all the seriousness of +professional moralists and reformers, and it seems never to occur to +them that there is any inconsistency in their attitude toward the +matter. An amusing instance of their lack of perception in this +particular came to my notice in Columbus, O., where I was temporarily on +duty as a railroad police officer. One morning, word came that Mr. Bryan +was expected to arrive about noon. He was to give a talk to his local +admirers. There were about two hours between the time I received notice +of his coming and the hour of his arrival, and I put them in strolling +about the streets, seeing whether there were any light-fingered gentry +in the town whom I knew. In the course of my wanderings I dropped into a +saloon in one of the side streets where a man, whom I recognised as a +"hobo gun,"—a tramp pickpocket,—was holding forth in loud language on +the "poleetical c'rupshun" in the country,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> and in Ohio in particular. +He made the usual platitudinous remarks about this matter, to which his +drunken hearers listened with approval, and wound up his harangue with a +eulogy on Mr. Bryan, who was "the one honest man in the land." When Mr. +Bryan arrived at the railroad station, my companions and I had to be on +watch to see that his pockets as well as those of the people crowding +about him were not picked, and whom should I find prowling about +suspiciously in the throng, but the loud-mouthed reformer of the saloon! +He was looking hard for a pocket to "nick," but some one must have +"tipped off" the "fly cops" to him, for he disappeared before long as +mysteriously as he had appeared, and without any plunder, for no +"leather" was "lifted" on that occasion.</p> + +<p>Not all of the tramps' political talk is merely negative and critical; +some of it is also positive and constructive. They think that they know +what they want in the way of government, as well as what they do not +want. Speaking generally, they favour a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> crude kind of state socialism, +to be prefaced, however, by a general cataclysm, in which existing +conditions are to be entirely revolutionised, and out of which the poor, +and more particularly the outcast, are to come victorious. They make no +attempt to elaborate in conversation the details either of the +convulsion, or of the new order of things which is to follow; +generalities alone interest them, and they scorn inquiries as to how +their theories are to be put into practice. That Mr. Bryan is in +sympathy with their notions of the extensive powers that the government +ought to have is proved for them by the fact that he believes that +silver can be given its rightful place in our monetary system merely by +an enactment of Congress, or by command of the President. They recognise +no laws in politics other than those which man makes. That there are +natural laws and economic facts, over which man has no control, is a +matter which they have never taken into consideration. I refer to the +rank and file of the tramp army. There are individual men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> who do not +subscribe to what I have given as the political philosophy of the +majority of the tramps,—men, indeed, who laugh at the thought of a +tramp having any political notions at all,—but they are exceptions. The +average roadster considers himself as justified in stating his political +beliefs, and working for them, if he is so inclined, as does the +workingman,—even more, because he thinks that he has time to formulate +his ideas, whereas the workingman is kept busy merely earning his bread.</p> + +<p>As agitators and propagandists the tramp is mainly in evidence at big +strikes. In the last fifteen years there has not been a notable railroad +strike in the country in which he has not taken part either as a helper +in destroying property, or as a self-elected "walking delegate." The +more damage the strikers achieve, the more he is pleased, because he +believes, as said above, that it is only upon ruins that the government +he desires can be founded. When a train of cars is derailed or burned, +he considers the achievement a contribution<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> to the general downfall of +the rich and favoured classes. He also has the antiquated notion of +political economy, that when a thing has been rendered useless by +breakage or incendiarism the workingman is benefited, because the thing +must be replaced, and labour must be employed to do it,—hence it pays +the poor to effect as much destruction as possible. It would be unjust +to Mr. Bryan to say that the tramp has got this notion from him, but the +trouble is that Mr. Bryan preaches from texts so easily misunderstood by +the class of people to which tramps and criminals belong, that he does a +great deal of harm to the country, and materially hurts his own cause. +Not only the tramp, but thousands of workingmen expect of him, in case +he is successful in his ambition, things which he can no more give than +can the humblest of his admirers; yet both the tramp and the workingman +believe that they have promises from him which justify them in expecting +what they do. He is a victim of his own "gift of gab," as the tramp dubs +his oratory. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> has talked so much and so loosely that the tramp has +read into his words assurance of changes which he can never bring about. +Of course it is not to be expected that he or any other man in his +position should put much store by what such a constituency as the tramps +thinks of him, but the tramp's exaggerated notions of his policy are +symptomatic of the man's influence on people. What the tramp +particularly likes about him is his doctrine of discontent; they would +drop him like a hot coal if he should admit that the country was in a +proper condition. A great many other people, who are not tramps, tie to +him for the same reason. He is the idol <i>par excellence</i> of persons who +have nothing to lose whether he succeeds or fails. He has promised them +great benefits if they will help him to office, and as in the case of +the tramp, it costs them nothing to shout and vote for him.</p> + +<p>His tramp admirers, however, he can hold only so long as he represents +what they deem to be the most radical doctrines going. If another man +like "General"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> Coxey should appear, with more attractive propositions, +they would flock to him as readily as they now rally around Mr. Bryan. +They are a volatile people. Just before war had been declared with +Spain, while everybody was discussing our chances in the approaching +struggle, a great many of the tramps were sure that the United States +was going to get the "licking" of its life. One tramp was so positive of +this that he declared that "Spain had forgotten more than we ever knew +about naval warfare, or ever would know." To-day the same man, as well +as the majority of those who sided with him, believe that the United +States can "knock out" any nation in existence, and they are +dissatisfied because we don't do it. So it will probably go with Bryan, +so far as they are concerned. At the next presidential election, if he +is defeated again, the majority of them will look around for some other +man for whom they can talk. Even successful leadership bores them after +awhile. They love change, and are continually seeking it in their +every-day life as well as in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> politics. It is this trait of theirs +which would defeat any attempt at permanent organisation among them.</p> + +<p>Two friends were recently discussing the relative power and influence of +the man who writes and the man who organises and leads. The late George +William Curtis was cited as a man who must have wielded great power with +his pen, and Richard Croker was set over against him as an organiser and +leader. The argument ran on for some time, and one of the friends +finally made this statement: "I wouldn't care if they were nothing +better than tramps, provided a thousand of them would follow my +directions in everything that was undertaken. Why, I could be king of a +ward with such a following. Take the East Side, for instance. The man +over there who can vote solid a thousand men on all occasions, beats any +writer in the country in influence." Perhaps he does, but no man in the +country, be he writer or organiser, could hold a thousand tramps +together in politics. For one election they might be kept intact, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> a +defection would take place before the second one was due. As men to +manipulate and direct, they could be made to do most in battle, and I +have always regretted that a regiment of them did not go to Cuba during +the late war. With a regiment of regulars behind them to have kept them +from retreating, and some whiskey to inspire them, a regiment composed +of fellows such as are to be found in "The Lake Shore Push," for +instance, would have charged up San Juan Hill with a dash that even the +Rough Riders would have had trouble to beat. They are not good political +philosophers, or conscientious citizens, but in desperate circumstances +they can fight as fiercely as any body of men in the world.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h3>WHAT TRAMPS READ.</h3> + +<p>In a superficial way tramps read practically everything they can get +hold of. As a class they are not particularly fond of books when there +is something more exciting to engage their attention, such as a +"hang-out" conference, for instance, but they get pleasure out of both +reading and writing. They have generally learned how to read as boys, +either at home with their parents or in some institution for truants and +"incorrigibles." Dime novels and like literature amuse them most at this +stage in their career, and the same is true of tramp boys who are found +in Hoboland, but they learn to laugh over the fascination that such +books had for them, as do more highly cultivated readers. As a rule, +however, it is not until they have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> served a term in prison that they +take a definite interest in the books that appeal to educated people. In +all large prisons there are libraries from which the inmates can draw +books at stated intervals, and the majority of the truly professional +tramps generally serve at least one sentence in these institutions. As +youths, it was their ambition to be successful thieves, crack burglars, +pickpockets, and "Peter-men" (safe thieves), and they have usually +experimented with the thief's profession long enough to get a year or +two in a penitentiary. Some take a longer time than others to become +convinced that they lack criminal wit, and are fitted, so far as their +world is concerned, for nothing higher than tramping, but the majority +of tramps in the United States arrive at this conclusion sooner or +later, and degenerate into what may be called discouraged criminals. In +the process of getting discouraged they have access to prison libraries, +and can pick and choose their books as they like. In some prisons the +wardens keep track of the kinds of books their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> charges call for, and I +have seen interesting reports in which an attempt has been made to read +the characters of the men from their different bookish preferences; but +it is easy to make mistakes in such calculations. I know of prisoners, +for instance, who have called for nothing but religious books in the +hope that the "Galway" (the prison priest) would be so impressed with +their reformation that he would recommend their cases to the Board of +Pardons for reconsideration. Indeed, prisoners in general are such +<i>poseurs</i>, in one respect or another, that not much faith can be put in +conclusions as to their literary tendencies deduced from their selection +of books in prison libraries. One must observe them in the open, and see +what they read when they are free of the necessity of making an +impression, to discover their real preferences.</p> + +<p>In summer they are almost constantly "in transit," and read very little +except newspapers, but in winter they flock to the large cities and +gather around the stoves and radiators in public libraries,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> and it is +then that one can learn what kind of reading they like best. The library +in Cooper Union, for example, is one of their favourite gathering-places +in New York City during the cold months, and I have seen the same tramps +reading there day after day. Novels and books of adventure appeal to +them most, and it would surprise a great many people to see the kind of +novels many of them choose. Thackeray and Dickens are the favourite +novelists of the majority of the tramps that I have happened to talk +with about books, but the works of Victor Hugo and Eugene Sue are also +very popular. The general criticism of the books of all of these +writers, however, is that they are "terribly long drawn out." A tramp +who had just finished reading Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" once said to me: +"Why the devil didn't he choke it off in the middle, an' leave out all +the descriptions? It's a good book all right enough, but it's as +long-winded as a greyhound." Robert Louis Stevenson, on the other hand, +is admired by a Western tramp acquaintance of mine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> on account of his +"big mouthfuls of words."</p> + +<p>Detective stories like "Sherlock Holmes" and the books of Gaboriau are +read widely by both tramps and criminals, and the ingenuity of their +authors is often admired; but the tramp cannot understand, and no more +can I, why the writers of such stories prefer to give their own +conception of a detective to the "Hawkshaw" of real life. He believes, +and I agree with him, that much more interesting detective tales could +be written if the truth about police life were told; and there awaits +the writer who is prepared and willing to depict the "fly cop" as he +really is in Anglo-Saxon countries, a remunerative and literary success. +No mistake has been made in portraying him as the King of the Under +World, but some one ought to tell what a corrupt king he has been, and +still is, in a great many communities.</p> + +<p>Popular books, such as "Trilby," "David Harum," and "Mr. Dooley," almost +never reach the tramps until long after their immediate success is over. +The tramps have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> no money to invest in books of the hour, and the +consequence is that while the public is reading the book of some new +favourite author, they are poring over books that were popular several +years back. There are roadsters who are to-day reading for the first +time the earliest books of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and other well-known +authors, and the next crop of vagabonds will probably read the works of +writers who are now in the foreground. In Chicago I met, one day, a +tramp who had just discovered Bret Harte, and he thought that +"Tennessee's Partner" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" were recent +stories. "I tell ye, Cigarette," he declared, enthusiastically, "those +stories'll make that fella's fortune. Jus' wait till people get to +talkin' about 'em, an' you'll see how they'll sell." He had read the +tales in a sailor's mission to which somebody had donated a mutilated +Tauchnitz edition of Bret Harte's writings.</p> + +<p>In a county jail in Ohio I also once heard two tramps discuss for nearly +two hours the question whether Shakespeare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> wrote his plays when he did +or about two hundred years later. The tramp who favoured the latter +theory based it on the supposition that the balcony scene in "Romeo and +Juliet" could not have been possible so far back as "in Shakespeare's +time."</p> + +<p>"Why, gol darn it," he exclaimed, "they didn't have no such porches in +them days. A porch, I tell ye, is a modern invention, just like dynamite +is."</p> + +<p>Next to the exciting novel or tale of adventure, the tramp likes to read +books which deal with historical and economic subjects. It is a rather +exceptional tramp who can read intelligently such a book as Henry +George's "Progress and Poverty," but a number of roadsters have gone +through this work time and again, and can quote from it quite freely. +Indeed, it has been the cause of long discussions at "hang-outs" all +over the United States. Any book, by the way, which "shows up" what the +tramps consider the unreasonable inequalities in our social conditions, +appeals to them, and thoughts in regard to such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> matters filter through +the various social strata and reach the tramp class more rapidly than +the reader would think. I have heard tramps discuss socialism, for +instance, with quite as clear an insight into its weak points, and with +as thorough an appreciation of its alluring promises, as will be found +in any general gathering of people. They are much more entertaining when +discussing a book dealing with some serious question than when trying to +state their opinion of a novel. If a character in a novel has taken hold +of them, they can criticise it intelligently and amusingly, and they +have their favourite characters in fiction just as other people have, +but only a few tramps read novels with the intention of remembering +their contents for any length of time; such books are taken up mainly +for momentary entertainment, and are then forgotten. Books of historical +or political import, on the contrary, are frequently read over and over +again, and are made to do service as authorities on grave questions +discussed at "hang-out" conferences. Bryan's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> "First Battle" has been +quoted by tramps in nearly every State in the Union, and some roadsters +can repeat verbatim long passages from it.</p> + +<p>A striking example of the tramp's fondness for what he would call heavy +books was a man whom I met, some years ago, at a tramp camp in central +New York. We had been sitting around the camp-fire for some time, +discussing matters of the road, when the man called my attention to his +weak eyes. I had noticed that the lids of his eyes were very red, and he +told me that it was only with difficulty that he could read even large +print. "Used them up in the stir" (penitentiary), he explained. "We had +no work to do, and were shut up in our cells practically all of the +time, and I simply read myself blind." I asked him what kind of reading +he had enjoyed most, and he gave me a string of authors' names, whose +books he had drawn from the library, which but few college graduates +could beat. I have forgotten many of the books he mentioned, but Kant's +"Pure Reason" and Burton's "Melancholy"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> were among the number. We +talked together for over three hours about writers and writing, and I +have seldom enjoyed a conversation more. The man was still a tramp in +essential matters, and had no intention of becoming anything better, but +his reading had widened the boundaries of his world to such an extent +that in other clothes and with a few changes in his diction he might +have passed muster in very respectable companionship. If he is alive, he +is probably still looking for "set-downs" and "hand-outs," and +discussing between meals with the hoboes the wonderful things that were +revealed to him during the ten years he spent in his prison university.</p> + +<p>Endowed with this interest in books of a serious nature, it would seem +that the tramp ought eventually to take to heart some of the wisdom such +books contain, and try to live up to it in his every-day life, but I am +compelled to say that, in the majority of cases, he considers himself a +being apart from the rest of the world, so far as moral responsibility +is concerned.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> He likes to ponder over the moral obligations of others, +and to suggest schemes for a general social regeneration, but he finds +it irksome and unpleasant to apply his advice and recommendations to his +own existence. Theoretically, he has what he would call a religion, but +he no more expects to live up to his religion than he intends to work +when he can get out of it. He has two worlds in which he lives,—one +consisting of theories and fanciful conceits which he has got from books +and his own imagination, and the other of hard facts, prejudices, and +habits. He is most natural in the latter environment, but moods come +over him when he feels impelled to project himself into the world of +theories, and then nothing pleases him more than imaginatively to +reconstruct the world in general as he believes it ought to be.</p> + +<p>I have been asked whether he ever voluntarily reads the Bible. It is an +easy book to get hold of, and in prison it is forced upon the tramp's +attention, but it has no marked fascination for him. I have known a +roadster to beg a New Testament<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> from a Bible House agency in order to +settle a dispute about religious doctrine, but this is a very +exceptional case. The average tramp knows no difference between the Old +and New Testaments, and bases any religious convictions that he may have +on personal revelations of truth rather than on inspired Scripture. In +one respect, however, he conforms to conventional customs,—he likes to +sing hymns. In jail or out, if he happens to be in a singing mood, it is +only necessary to start such hymns as "Pull for the shore," "There were +ninety and nine," "Where is my wandering boy to-night?" and this +tattered and uncouth creature breaks forth into song. There is a grin on +his lips while he sings, for he appreciates the ludicrousness of the +situation, but he sings on at the top of his voice. At night, on a +Western prairie, where he and his pals have built a "hang-out" near a +railroad track, there is no more picturesque scene in all Hoboland than +when he stands up, starts a tune, and the others rise and join him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<p>Equally amusing, if not so harmless, are the tramp's improvised schools. +In the autumn, when the weather gets too cold for sleeping out, the +country schoolhouse becomes one of the tramp's night shelters. He gets +in through one of the windows. A wood-pile is near by, and what with a +good fire and benches to lie on, he makes a very cosy nest. Let a crowd +of ten or twenty appropriate such a place, and there is always a frolic +before bedtime. One of the tramps is elected teacher, the scholars' +books and slates are taken from their desks, and school begins. "Moike, +oppen yer mug 'n' see if ye kin read," the teacher commands, and the +burly pupil begins to paw over the leaves. Later comes a turn at +spelling, writing, and "figgerin'," and a wild hobo song ends the +session. A keg of beer sometimes helps to enliven things, and then +ink-bottles, readers, and spelling-books are scattered about the room in +great confusion. The wood-pile also disappears, and sometimes the +building itself goes up in flames. I have often wondered whether the +real pupils were not glad to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> find things so topsy-turvy in the morning. +It must take time to put the schoolhouse in order again, and the boys +and girls have a vacation meanwhile. The taxpayers grumble, of course, +but, as the tramp says, "they ought to fasten things tighter," and until +they do he will continue, I fear, to entertain himself at their expense.</p> + +<p>An experience that I had not long ago illustrates the tramp's +unwillingness to have his reading matter regulated by outsiders. I was +making an investigation of the tramp situation on certain railroads in +the middle West at the time, and one night, in company of some fellow +roadsters, I went for shelter to the tramp ward of a poor-house. The +room we were sent to was in the cellar, and we all passed a very +miserable night. In the morning we were given our breakfast in the +common dining-room of the institution, and while we were sitting at the +table the wife of the keeper gave each one of us a "tract," which we +carefully tucked under our plates and left there. When we had finished, +one of the tramps asked our hostess whether there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> was a place in the +building where we could wash; the hole we had had to stay in over night +was so dirty that our clothes and hands were covered with dust, and the +tramp knew that any stream we might find outside would be frozen over. +The woman looked at him severely, and said: "There's a brook at the foot +of the hill." The tramp's anger was aroused. "Madam," he said, "I have +always been taught that cleanliness is next to godliness. You have given +us all tracts, but you won't give us a place to wash. Your religion and +mine don't jibe. You'll find the tracts under the plates." We all got +another severe look, and the next batch of tramps probably got the +tracts.</p> + +<p>Of the newspapers that the tramp reads there is but little that is novel +to report beyond the fact that he begs for them in the same systematic +fashion characteristic of him when looking for his meals. Not all tramps +are anxious to keep up to date as regards the world's doings, but a fair +proportion of them look for their morning newspaper immediately after +breakfast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> They go to stores and barber-shops, and do not hesitate to +ask even newsdealers. In summer the newspapers which they get also serve +them as beds in railroad box-cars; they spread them out on the floor of +the car and lie down on them, their shoes and vests doing duty as +pillows, and their coats as covering. Their favourite papers are of the +yellow kind, but I doubt whether they take them any more seriously than +other people do who buy them merely for particular items of news and +then throw them away. They like spicy articles and glaring pictures, and +scramble with one another for first chance at the <i>Police Gazette</i>, but +this taste is not unnatural; their life is rough, vulgar, and +sensational, and the wonder is that they can appreciate and care for the +high-class literature which many of them read.</p> + +<p>I have said that they get enjoyment out of writing as well as reading. +There are a few well-educated men in tramp life, and they have been +surprised attempting to make literature as well as to read it. In +Germany it is quite a custom among the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> <i>Chausseegrabentapezirer</i> to +keep diaries in which they jot down notes and comments on their life, +and in this country, also, journals and essays by tramps have been +discovered. One of the most intelligent criticisms of my tramp papers in +<i>The Century</i> came from a Boston tramp, hailing for the time being from +Texas. Excepting a few mistakes in grammar which many persons who are +not tramps are guilty of, it was a very creditable production.</p> + +<p>Once upon a time, not to be too particular, two tramps were shut up all +alone in a jail in Michigan, and their sentences wore so heavily upon +them that they found it very difficult to be patient. Their stories gave +out, the jail fare became tiresome, there was very little to read, and +they were by nature very restless. At last things looked so gloomy that +they decided to spin a coin for a choice of two suggested +pastimes,—writing a story, or planning and carrying out an escape. It +was "heads" for the story, and "tails" for the escape. Heads won.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> True +to their contract, these two men, one fairly well educated, and the +other with a big imagination, sat themselves down to the task, pencil +and paper being furnished by the sheriff. For ten days they wrote and +wrote, then rewrote, until, as the man with the imagination said, their +"poor brains seemed squeezed to death." Indeed, they had worked so hard +that the man with a little education thought it would be worth while to +try to sell the story; so, after it had been read to the sheriff and his +wife, both of whom it pleased, sufficient postage was collected to send +it to a periodical thought to be looking for such contributions; and off +it went, and with it the solemn prayers of the authors. Three weeks +later, lo and behold! a letter arrived in care of the sheriff. The two +men opened it tenderly and fearfully, each tearing a little of the end +off and then passing it to the other, saying, like silly girls: "I don't +dare." But what was their surprise, the terrifying little thing once +laid bare, to find in it a check for ninety dollars, payable to them<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> +jointly or severally, as if the editor had fancied that they might be +turned loose at different times. Unfortunately, they were freed +together, and two hours afterward the man with the imagination had so +inflated it with whiskey that he wanted to storm the jail and free the +sheriff. His story, however, was not disgraced. It is still quite +readable. He, poor fellow, would probably like to toss up again for +pastimes; when last heard of he was "doing" solitary confinement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h3>POLICING THE RAILROADS.</h3> + +<p>Engineers build railroads and are largely represented in their +management, but both in building and operating them they are dependent, +at one time or another, upon some kind of police protection. Indeed, +there are railroads that could not have been constructed at all without +the aid of either soldiers or policemen. The Trans-Caspian railroad was +built largely by soldiers, and is still superintended by the war +department at St. Petersburg rather than by the minister of ways of +communication. The Siberian line is, in parts, the result of the work of +convicts, who were carefully watched by police guards, and the Russian +civil engineers in Manchuria have needed the protection of Cossacks +merely to survey<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> that end of the road. In Germany, practically all the +railroad officials, from the head of the engineering department down to +the track-walkers, have police power. The conductor of a train, for +instance, can put an obstreperous passenger under arrest without waiting +until a station is reached, and resistance to him is as serious an +offence as is resistance to the ordinary <i>Schutzmann</i>.</p> + +<p>In Europe, it was seen, when railroads were first coming into use, that +police efficiency, as well as that of the technical railroader, would be +required, if the properties were to be well managed, and it was secured +at the start. Before the railroads were built it had been made plain, +after long experience, that even on the public turnpikes policemen were +indispensable, and the authorities decided to employ them on railroads +as well. The protection of life and property is a very serious matter in +Europe, where precautions are taken which in the United States would +seem superfluous. It avails nothing in Germany, for example, for a +director<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> of a company to excuse the loss of money intrusted to his care +on the ground that he thought he was acting in a businesslike manner. +Inspectors, or commissioners, are appointed to see whether his +transactions come up to the standard of what is considered businesslike, +and if they find that he has not exercised good judgment, although there +may have been nothing intrinsically dishonest in the way he has managed, +his bondsmen frequently have to reimburse the stockholders for the loss +that his mistakes have brought upon them. It is the spirit of +carefulness behind such a precaution as this which goes to explain why +the Germans have the systematised police surveillance of railroad +property referred to. Much of this surveillance is in the hands of the +municipal police and rural constabulary, but the fact that the majority +of the railroad officials have police authority shows how much +protection was considered necessary to manage the properties carefully.</p> + +<p>In the United States the idea seems to have been that the engineers and +managers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> could be relied on to get out of railroad investments all the +profit that was in them, and that the assistance of policemen could be +dispensed with except as watchmen. It is true that, for a number of +years, railroad companies have had on their pay-rolls what are called +"railroad detectives," but up to a few years ago there was not a +well-organised railroad police force in the United States, and yet there +is no country in the world, at the present moment, where railroads are +more in need of such auxiliary departments. A great deal of money would +have been saved to investors, and not a few lives would have been +spared, had the American railroads seriously taken up this police matter +in the early days of their existence, and until they do, say what one +will about the luxuries to be found on American trains, and the speed at +which they run, American railroad properties, in this particular at +least, are inferior to those of Europe in management.</p> + +<p>The purpose of this last chapter is to call attention to the +inadequateness of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> police arrangements now prevalent on nearly all +railroad systems in the United States, to show what has resulted from +this inadequateness, and to interest railroad men and the general public +in police organisations which will be equal to the work necessary to be +done.</p> + +<p>To bring out clearly the defects of the prevailing railroad police +methods in the United States, it seems appropriate to take a concrete +case, and describe the situation on a railroad which I have been over as +a passenger and as a trespasser. It employs about sixty men in its +police department, and is one of the most tramp-infested roads in the +country. The maintenance of the so-called detective force costs the +company about forty thousand dollars a year.</p> + +<p>By way of illustration, I will give a résumé of conversations that I had +respectively with a detective, a tramp, and a trainman that I +encountered on the property. Each of these men was representative of his +class, and spoke his mind freely.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>The detective had started out in life as a brakeman, but his eyesight +became faulty after a few years, and he got a position on the police +force. He had just passed his fiftieth year when I met him, and was +heavy, unwieldy, and inclined to be lazy. His beat consisted of forty +miles of track, and he generally went over it in a passenger train.</p> + +<p>I asked him whether he found many tramps on passenger trains. He was not +supposed to devote all of his time to watching trespassers, but they +were so obviously a nuisance on the property that it struck me as +peculiar that he did not ride on trains where they were more likely to +be found.</p> + +<p>"No," he replied, in a drawling voice, to my query, "I don't find many +tramps in passenger coaches; but I know where their camps are, and +several of us raid 'em every now and then."</p> + +<p>"I should think you would want to ride more on freight-trains," I went +on, "and catch the trespassers in the act, so to speak."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm too heavy to fool around freight-trains; besides, I don't want to +have a knife put into me. Some o' them tramps are mighty quick on their +feet, and if I went at 'em they'd have a razor cut in me before I could +turn round."</p> + +<p>I asked him why, in view of his age and heaviness, he did not try to +find employment in some other department of the road more suited to his +abilities. Railroad companies are often very lenient with employees of +long standing, and give them easy positions in their old age.</p> + +<p>"This is the easiest department the road's got," he returned. "Besides, +I'm my own boss."</p> + +<p>"Don't you have to make regular reports to any one?"</p> + +<p>"I go to the trainmaster's office every morning for orders, but he don't +know much about the business, and generally tells me to do as I think +best. We men haven't got a chief the way the regular railroaders have."</p> + +<p>"Who is responsible for what you do?" I inquired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Nobody, I guess, but the pres'dent o' the road."</p> + +<p>"How do you spend your time?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I go to the trainmaster in the morning, and if he hasn't heard of +anything special, like a car robbery or an accident where there's likely +to be a claim for damages, I stay around the station a while, or go down +into the yards and see what I can see. Sometimes I spend the day in the +yards."</p> + +<p>"What do you do there?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I loaf around, keep the kids away from the cars, chin-chin with the +switchmen 'n' the other men, keep my eyes open for fellows that there's +rewards for, eat my dinner, an' go to bed."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you try to break up the tramp camps?"</p> + +<p>"We do try it, but they come back again."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think you would probably be more successful if you raided +them oftener?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess we would; but, you see, there ain't any one who's running +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> thing. When an order comes from the superintendent to make raids we +make 'em, but he don't send in that order more'n once in three months, +an' the rest o' the time we do pretty much as we like."</p> + +<p>"How do you think things would go if you men were organised and had a +chief? Would better work be done?"</p> + +<p>"Better work would be done, I guess, but it would be a darned sight +harder work," and he smiled significantly.</p> + +<p>My tramp informant was an old roadster of about forty, who had "held +down" the railroad in question for a number of years. I asked him how +long it had been an "open" road,—one easy for trespassers to get over.</p> + +<p>"As long as the memory of man goes back," he replied, with a suggestive +flourish of his hand.</p> + +<p>"Are not some divisions harder to beat than others?"</p> + +<p>"Once in awhile a division'll get a little horstile, but only fer a few +weeks."</p> + +<p>"How many tramps are riding trains?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't see all the trains, so I can't tell you; but I never seen a +freight yet that wasn't carryin' at least five bums, 'n' I've seen some +carryin' over a hundred In summer there's most as many bums as +passengers."</p> + +<p>"Is there much robbing of cars going on?"</p> + +<p>"Not so much as there might be. The blokes are drunk most of the time, +'n' they let chances go by. If they'd keep sober, 'n' look up good +fences, they could do a nice little business."</p> + +<p>"Do the police trouble you much?"</p> + +<p>"When they round up a camp they're pretty warm, but I don't see much o' +them 'cept then. 'Course you wants to look out fer 'em when a train +pulls into division yards, 'cause 'f yer handy they'll pinch you; but +they ain't goin' to run after you very far. I've heard that they have +orders to let the bums ride, so long as there ain't too much swipin' +goin' on. The company don't care, some people say."</p> + +<p>The trainman that I interviewed was a freight-train conductor who had +been in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> the employ of the company over twenty-five years. I asked him +whether he had instructions to keep trespassers off his trains.</p> + +<p>"I got the instructions all right enough," he said, "but I don't follow +them. I'm not a policeman for the road. I'm a conductor, and I only draw +a salary for being that, too. When I was green I used to try to keep the +bums off my trains, but I nearly got my head shot off one night and +stopped after that. It's the detectives' business to look after such +people."</p> + +<p>"Do you see much of the detectives?"</p> + +<p>"Once in awhile one of them shows up on my trains, but I've never seen +them make any arrests. One of them got on my train one day when I was +carryin' fifty tramps, and he never went near them."</p> + +<p>"What do you think ought to be done to keep tramps off trains?"</p> + +<p>"Well, what I'd like to have done would be for the United States +government to let all us trainmen carry revolvers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> and shoot every +galoot that got on to our trains. That'd stop the thing."</p> + +<p>"Do you think the company wants it stopped?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether they do or not, but I wish to God they'd do +something. Why, we men can't go over our trains at night any more, and +be sure that we ain't goin' to get it in the neck somewhere. It's a holy +fright."</p> + +<p>I have quoted these men because their testimony may be accepted as +expert. They know the situation and they know one another, and they had +no reason to try to deceive me in answering my questions. In addition to +their remarks, it is only necessary, so far as this particular road is +concerned, to emphasise the fact that the forty thousand dollars a year +which the company spends for protection of the property are not +protecting it, and are bringing in to the stockholders practically no +interest. The police force is entirely lacking in system; many of the +men are too old and indifferent, and the property is littered up with as +miscellaneous a collection<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> of vagabonds and thieves as is to be found +in a year's travel. This is neither good management, nor good business, +and it is unfair to a community which furnishes a railroad much of its +revenue, to foist such a rabble upon it.</p> + +<p>A more or less similar state of affairs exists on the great majority of +the trunk lines in the United States. They are all spending thousands of +dollars on their "detective" forces, as they call them, and they are all +overrun by wandering mobs of ne'er-do-wells and criminals. There are no +worse slums in the country than are to be found on the railroads. +Reformers and social agitators are accustomed to speak of the congested +districts of the large cities as the slums to which attention should be +directed, but in the most congested quarters of New York City there are +no greater desperadoes nor scenes of deeper degradation than may be met +on the "iron highways" of the United States. A number of railroads are +recognised by vagrants and criminals as the stamping ground of +particular gangs that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> are generally found on the lines with which their +names are connected.</p> + +<p>Every now and then the report is given out that a certain railroad is +about to inaugurate a policy of retrenchment, and the newspapers state +that a number of employees have been discharged or have had their work +hours cut down. The best policy of retrenchment that a number of +railroad companies can take up would be to stop the robberies on their +properties, collect fares from the trespassers, and free their employees +from the demoralising companionship of tramps and criminals. To carry +out such a policy a well organised railroad police force is +indispensable, and as I have made use of a practical illustration to +indicate the need of reform, I will advance another to show how this +reform can be brought about.</p> + +<p>There is one railroad police organisation in the United States which is +conscientiously protecting the property in whose interests it works, and +I cannot better make plain what is necessary to be done than by giving a +short account of its<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> organisation and performance. It is employed on +the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, and in inception and direction +is the achievement of the general manager of that system.</p> + +<p>As a division superintendent this gentleman became very much interested +in the police question, and organised a force for the division under his +immediate control. It worked so successfully that, on assuming +management of the entire property, he determined to introduce in all the +divisions the methods which he had found helpful in his division. There +was no attempt made, however, to overhaul the entire property at once. +The reform went on gradually, and as one division was organised, the +needs and peculiarities of another were studied and planned for. +Suitable men had to be found, and there was necessarily considerable +experimenting. The work was done thoroughly, however, and with a view to +permanent benefits rather than to merely temporary relief. To-day, after +six years of preparatory exercise, the "Northwest System" has a model +police<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> organisation, and the "Southwest System" is being organised as +rapidly as the right men can be found.</p> + +<p>The force on the "Northwest System"—and it must be remembered that this +part of the property takes in such cities as Pittsburg, Cleveland, +Toledo, and Chicago, where there is always a riffraff population likely +to trespass on railroad property—is made up of eighty-three officers +and men. The chief of the force is the superintendent, whose +jurisdiction extends to the "Southwest System" also. He reports to the +general manager, and is almost daily in conference with him. For an +assistant to manage things when he is "out on the road," and to relieve +him of road duty when he is needed at headquarters, he has an inspector, +a man who has risen from the ranks and has demonstrated ability for the +position. Each division has a captain, who reports to the division +superintendent and to the chief of the police service. This captain has +under him one or more lieutenants and the necessary number of patrolmen +and watchman, who report to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> him alone. An order from the general +manager consequently reaches the men for whom it is meant through +official channels entirely within the police department, and the same is +true of statements and reports of the men to the general manager.</p> + +<p>Practically everything is run according to a well-understood system, and +this is the secret of the department's success. Day in and day out every +man on the force knows what he has to do, and expects to be called to +order if his work does not come up to what is desired. Hunting down +trespassers and thieves is but a part of the routine. The property is +patrolled almost exactly as a large city is, and the men are expected to +make reports about such matters as the condition of frogs and switches, +switch-lights, fences, and station-buildings, to do preliminary work for +the department of claims, to keep the property free from trespassers, to +protect the pay-car, look out for circus and excursion trains, and +generally make themselves useful. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> are all picked men, and have to +come up to the requirements of the United States army as regards health +and physical strength. Their personal records are known for five years +previous to being employed on the force. They constitute for the general +manager an invaluable guardianship. He has but to press the button, so +to speak, and within a few hours the entire police force is carrying out +his instructions. Through it he can keep in touch with a thousand and +one matters which would otherwise escape his notice, and he can order an +investigation with the assurance that he will get an exact and +trustworthy report within a reasonable time.</p> + +<p>Such is the organisation. Its performance, up to date, has consisted in +cleaning up a property that, seven years ago, as I know from +observation, was so infested with criminals that it was notorious +throughout the tramp world as an "open" road. To-day that system is +noted for being the "tightest shut" line, from the trespasser's point of +view, in the country, and the company pays seventeen thousand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> dollars a +year less for its police arrangements than it did in 1893 for its +watchmen and detective force. These are facts which any one may verify, +and it is no longer possible for railroad companies to explain their +hesitation in taking up the police matter in earnest on the ground that +it would cost too much. It costs less, not only in the police +department's pay-rolls, but in the department of claims as well, than it +did when detached men, without any organisation and direction, were +employed, and the conditions at the start were very similar to those on +railroads now known to be "open." It is to be admitted that the rabble +which formerly infested this property has in all probability shifted to +other roads,—gangs of this character naturally follow the lines of +least resistance,—but it would have been impossible for it to shift had +other railroads taken a similar stand against it; it must have vanished.</p> + +<p>The time must come when this stand will be taken by all railroads. For a +number of years there has been no more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> valuable contribution to the +business of railroading in the United States than the demonstrated +success of a railroad police force, and it is difficult to believe that +the benefits it brings can be long overlooked. The question of methods +to be employed will naturally occasion considerable discussion, and it +will doubtless be found that an organisation which suits one railroad is +not available for another, but I believe that the general plan of the +police organisation described above is a safe one to follow. It is +founded on the principle that the men must be carefully selected, +thoroughly trained, systematically governed, and the scope of their work +sharply defined. No police force, railroad or municipal, can do really +good work unless due regard be given to these very important matters.</p> + +<p>For the benefit of railroad police forces which may be organised in the +future, the following suggestion seems to me to be worthy of +consideration.</p> + +<p>The title "detective" should not be given the men. They are not +detectives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> in the ordinary sense of the word, and to be so called hurts +them with the public and with their fellow employees. Railroading is a +business done aboveboard and in the public view, and its police service +should stand on a different footing from that of the detective force of +a large city, where, as all the world knows, secret agents are +necessary. They may be necessary at times on railroads also, but there +already exist reputable agencies for furnishing such service.</p> + +<p>The superintending officers of the force should be superior men. In +Germany a police patrolman has not the slightest hope of becoming so +much as a lieutenant until he has passed a very severe examination, +which practically implies a college education, and he consequently +realises that his superior officer is entitled to his position on other +grounds than mere "pull" or "seniority," and learns to have great +respect for him. A similar dignity should be attached to authoritative +positions in the railroad police, and to secure it able men must be +employed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<p>The superintendent of the service should be as supreme in it as is the +superintendent of a division. If he has been chosen for the position on +account of his fitness for it, the supposition is that he knows how to +fill it, and there should be but one superior to whom he must answer. I +bring up this point because on most railroads the police arrangements +are, at present, such that almost every head of a department gives +orders to the "detectives." On some roads even station agents are +allowed to regulate the local police officer's movements.</p> + +<p>Whether an American railroad police can be organised on as broad lines +as in Germany, where practically all the railroad officials have police +authority, is a question which cannot yet be definitely decided. The +conditions in the United States are very different from those in +Germany, and it may be that the sentiment of the people would be against +giving so many persons police power; but I think it would be +advantageous to experiment with the track-walkers, crossing-watchmen, +and gatemen, and see whether they can be incorporated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> in the railroad +police. Great care must naturally be exercised in picking out the men to +possess patrolmen's privileges, but an examination, such as all German +railroad police officials have to pass, would seem to be a precaution +which ought to secure safe officers. If such an arrangement were made, +the railroad police would admirably supplement the municipal police and +the rural constabulary, and the requirements, physical, mental, and +moral, of the examinations to be gone through would have a tendency to +elevate the morale of the men, not only as patrolmen, but also as +railroaders.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I desire to point out the opportunity of teaching by +example which I believe the railroad police of the United States are +going to have. Unlike the municipal police, they are free of the toils +of politics, and ought to become exemplary. Their methods and efficiency +will not remain unnoticed. The day that the railroad companies succeed +in ridding their properties of the vagrant class which now troubles +them, and thousands of this class<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> begin to take up permanent quarters +in the cities because they are unable to travel afoot, the public is +going to make inquiries as to whence this undesirable contingent has +come. They will then learn what a police force can do when it is not +officered by political appointment and when it is made up of men who +have been trained for the task imposed upon them.</p> + +<p>A good thing cannot for ever go a-begging. Six years ago it seemed as +impossible that a railroad could be cleaned up morally, as the one I +have described has been, as it now seems that American cities can have +police departments independent of politics. The trouble was that no +railroad had taken the initiative. Ten years hence, I venture to +prophesy, the railroads of the United States will not be the avenues of +crime that they are at present. Some day a similar reform in police +methods will be attempted and carried through in one of our cities, and +if the railroad police have done their work well, and remained true to +honest principles, not a little of the credit will belong to them.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> A "Peter-man" is a safe-"blower," and Peter-work is +safe-breaking.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Notes of an Itinerant Policeman, by Josiah Flynt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES OF AN ITINERANT POLICEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 35040-h.htm or 35040-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/4/35040/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Notes of an Itinerant Policeman + +Author: Josiah Flynt + +Release Date: January 22, 2011 [EBook #35040] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES OF AN ITINERANT POLICEMAN *** + + + + +Produced by Annie McGuire. This book was produced from +scanned images of public domain material from the Google +Print archive. + + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: JOSIAH FLYNT.] + + + + +NOTES OF AN +ITINERANT +POLICEMAN + + +By +JOSIAH FLYNT + +AUTHOR OF "TRAMPING WITH TRAMPS" + + +[Illustration] + + +BOSTON +L. C. PAGE & COMPANY +_MDCCCC_ + + + + +_Copyright, 1900_ +BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + + + + +INSCRIBED +TO +WILLARD ROPES TRASK + + + + +NOTE. + + +A number of the chapters in this book have appeared as separate papers +in the _Independent_, _Harper's Weekly_, the _Critic_, _Munsey's +Magazine_, and in publications connected with McClure's Syndicate; but +much of the material is new, and all of the articles have been revised +before being republished. + + + + +INTRODUCTORY. + + +For a number of years it had been a wish of mine to have an experience +as a police officer, to come in contact with tramps and criminals, as a +representative of the law. Not that I bore these people any personal +grudge, or desired to carry out any pet policy in dealing with them; but +I had learned to know them pretty intimately as companions in +lodging-houses and at camp-fires, and had observed them rather carefully +as prisoners in jails, and I was anxious to supplement this knowledge of +them with an inquiry in regard to the impression they make on the man +whose business it is to keep an official watch over them while they are +in the open. I desired also to learn more concerning the professional +offender than it had been possible for me to find about him in tramp +life. If one has the courage to go and live with professional criminals +as one of them, he can become even more intimate with them than in a +police force, but it is very difficult to associate with their class +long and not be compelled to take an active part in their criminal +enterprises, and my interest in them was not so great that I was +prepared to do this. I merely wanted to know how strong they are as a +class, in which sections of the country they are the most numerous, +whether they have peculiar characteristics differentiating them in +public thoroughfares from other types of outlaws, how they live, and +what is the general attitude toward them of our police and prison +authorities. Partial answers to these questions I had been able to get +in Hoboland, but I was anxious to fill them out and get any new facts +that would throw light on the general situation. + +During the spring and summer of last year (1899) it was possible for me +to have a police officer's experience. The chief of a large railroad +police force gave me a position as a patrolman, and, in company of two +other officers, I was put on a "beat" extending over two thousand miles +of railroad property. The work we were given to do was somewhat of an +innovation, but it afforded me an excellent opportunity to secure the +information I desired. For two months and a half, which was the extent +of my connection with the undertaking and with the force, we had to +travel over the property, protecting picnic trains, big excursions, +passengers travelling to and from towns where circuses were exhibiting, +and the ordinary scheduled traffic, whenever there was reason to believe +that pickpockets and other thieves were likely to put in an appearance. + +Early in the spring wandering bands of thieves start out on tours of the +railroads. They follow up circuses and picnics, and make it a point to +attend all big gatherings, such as county fairs, races, conclaves, and +congresses. Their main "graft," or business, is pocket-picking, but in a +well-equipped "mob" there are also burglars, sneak-thieves, and +professional gamblers. The pickpockets and gamblers operate, when they +can, on passenger trains, and they have become so numerous and +troublesome in a number of States that railroad companies are compelled +to furnish their own protection for their patrons. + +This protection, on the road for which I worked, has generally been +provided for by the stationary members of the force, and more or less +satisfactorily, but last year the chief wanted to experiment with "a +flying squadron" of officers, so to speak, who were to go all over the +property and assist the stationary men as emergency required, and we +three were chosen for this work. In this way it was possible for me to +come in contact with a large variety of offenders, to make comparisons, +and to see how extensively criminals travel. It was also easy for me to +get an insight into the workings of different police organisations along +the line, and to inspect carefully lock-ups, jails, workhouses and +penitentiaries. + +In the following chapters I have tried to give an account of my finding +in the police business, to bring out the facts about the man who makes +his living and keeps up a bank account by professional thieving, to tell +the truth in regard to "the unknown thief" in official life who makes it +possible for the known thief to prey upon the public, and to describe +some of the tramps and out-of-works who wander up and down the country +on the railroads. There is much more to be said concerning these matters +than will be found in this little book, but there are a great many +persons who have no means of finding out anything about any one of them, +and it is to such that my remarks are addressed. Until the general +public takes an interest in making police life cleaner and in +eliminating the professional offender and the dishonest public servant +from the problems which crime in this country brings up for solution, +very little can be accomplished by the police reformer or the +penologist. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WHO CONSTITUTE OUR CRIMINAL CLASSES? + + +The first duty of a policeman, no matter what kind of a police force he +belongs to, is to inform himself in regard to the people in his +bailiwick who are likely to give him trouble. In a municipal force an +officer can only be required to know thoroughly the situation on his +particular beat; if he can inform himself about other districts as well, +he is so much more valuable to the department, but he is not expected to +do much more than get acquainted with the people under his immediate +surveillance. In a railroad police force it is different, and it is +required of the officer that he study carefully the criminal situation +in all the towns and villages on the division on which he is stationed. +Some divisions are longer than others, but the average railroad +policeman's beat is not less than sixty miles, and in some cases nearly +two hundred. Mine, as I have stated, was over two thousand miles long, +and it took in five different States and nearly all the large cities in +the middle West. I was, consequently, in a position to acquaint myself +pretty thoroughly with the criminal classes in one of the most populous +and representative parts of the country. Offenders differ, of course, in +different localities, and one is not justified in drawing sweeping +conclusions concerning all of them from the study of a single type, but +my work was of such a nature that, in the course of my investigations, I +encountered, indoors and out, the most frequent offenders with whom the +policeman and penologist have to deal. It would take a large book merely +to classify and describe the different types, but there is a general +analysis that can be made without any great sacrifice of fact, and it is +this I desire to attempt in this chapter. + +There are six distinct categories of offenders in the United States to +which may be assigned, as they are apprehended and classified, the great +majority of our lawbreakers. They are: the occasional or petty offender, +the tramp, the "backwoods" criminal, the professional criminal, the +"unknown" thief, and what, for want of a better name, I call the +diseased or irresponsible criminal. All of these different types are to +be found on the railroads, and the railroad police officer must know +them when he sees them. + +The largest class is that of the petty offenders, and it is in this +category that are found the majority of the criminally inclined +foreigners who have emigrated to our shores. It is a popular notion that +Europe has sent us a great many very desperate evil-doers, and we are +inclined to excuse the increase of crime in the country on the ground +that we have neglected to regulate immigration; but the facts are that +we have ourselves evolved as cruel and cunning criminals as any that +Europe may have foisted upon us, and that the foreigners' offences are +generally of a minor character, and, in a number of instances, the +result of a misunderstanding of the requirements of law in this country, +rather than of wilful evil-doing. I hold no brief for the strangers in +our midst in this connection; it would be very consoling, indeed, to +know that we ourselves are so upright and honest that we are incapable +of committing crimes, and, this being proved, a comparatively easy task +to lessen the amount of crime; but there is no evidence to show that +this is the case. The majority of the men, women, and children that I +found in jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries, on my recent travels, +were born and brought up in this country, and they admitted the fact on +being arrested. If the reader desires more particular information +concerning this question, the annual police reports of our large cities +will be found useful; I have examined a number of them, and they +substantiate my own personal finding. In some communities the +proportion of foreign offenders to the general foreign population is +greater than that of native offenders to the general native population, +but I doubt whether this will be found to be the case throughout the +country; and even where it is, I think there is an explanation to be +given which does not necessarily excuse the crimes committed, but, in my +opinion, does tone down a little the reproach of wilfulness. The average +foreigner who comes to the United States looks upon the journey as an +escape; he is henceforth released, he thinks,--and we ourselves have +often helped to make him think so,--from the stiff rule of law and order +in vogue in his own land. He comes to us ignorant of our laws, and with +but little more appreciation of our institutions than that he fancies he +is for evermore "a free man." In a great many cases he interprets "free" +to mean an independence which would be impossible in any civilised +country, and then begins a series of petty offences against our laws +which land him, from time to time, in the lock-up, and, on occasions, +in jail. Theft is a crime in this country as well as elsewhere, and we +can make no distinction in our courts between the foreigner and native, +but I have known foreigners to pilfer things which they thought they +were justified in taking in this "liberal land;" they considered them +common property. Some never get over the false notions they have of our +customs and institutions, and develop into what may be termed occasional +petty thieves; they steal whenever the opportunity seems favourable. It +is this class of offenders, consisting of both natives and foreigners, +that is found most frequently in our police courts and corrective +institutions. + +I have put the tramp next to the occasional offender in numerical +importance, and I believe this to be his place in a general census of +the criminal population, but it is thought by some that his class is the +most numerous of all. Doubtless one of the reasons why he is considered +so strong is that he is to be found in every town and village in the +country. It must be remembered, however, that he is continually in +transit, thanks to the railroads, and is now in one town and to-morrow +in another. In both, however, he is considered by the public to +represent two distinct individuals, and is included in the tramp census +of each community. In this way the same man may figure a dozen times, in +the course of a winter, in the enumeration of a town's vagabonds, but as +a member of the tramp population he can rightfully be counted but once. +It is furthermore to be remarked concerning this class that a great many +wanderers are included in it who are not actual vagabonds. The word +tramp in the United States is made to cover practically every traveller +of the road, and yet there are thousands who have no membership in the +real tramp fraternity. Some are genuine seekers of work, others are +adventuresome youths who pay their way as far as food and lodging are +concerned, and still others are simple gipsy folk. The genuine tramp is +a being by himself, known in this country as the "hobo." The experienced +railroad police officer can pick him out of a general gathering of +roadsters nearly every time, and the man himself is equally expert in +discovering amateur roadsters. I will describe one of the first men I +learned to know in Hoboland; he is typical of the majority of the +successful tramps that I met during my experience as a police officer. + +His name was "Whitey,"--St. Louis Whitey,--and I fell in with him on the +railroad, as is the case in almost all hobo acquaintances. He was +sitting on a pile of ties when I first saw him. "On the road, Jack?" he +said, in a hoarse, rasping voice, sizing me up with sharp gray eyes in +that all-embracing glance which hoboes so soon acquire. They judge a man +in this one glimpse as well as most people can in a week's +companionship. I smiled and nodded my head. "Bound West?" + +"Yes." + +"The through freight comes through here pretty soon. I'm goin' West, +too. This is a good place to catch freights." I sat down beside him on +the ties, and we exchanged comments on the weather, the friendliness of +the railroad we were on, the towns we expected to pass through, some of +the tramps we had met, and other "road" matters, taking mental notes of +each other as we talked. I noticed his voice, how he was dressed, where +he seemed to have been, the kind of tramps he spoke most about, how he +judged whether a town was "good" or not, whether he bragged, and other +little things necessary to know in forming an opinion of all such men; +he observed me from the same view-point. This is the hobo's way of +getting acquainted, of finding out if he can "pal" with a man. There are +no letters of introduction explaining these things; each person must +discover them for himself, and a man is accepted entirely on the +impression that he makes. A few men have great names that serve as +recommendations at "hang-outs," but they must make their friends +entirely on their merits. + +Merely as a hobo there was nothing very peculiar about "Whitey." He +looked to be about forty years old, and knew American tramp life in all +its phases. His face was weather-beaten and scarred, and his hands were +tattooed. He dressed fairly well, had read considerably, mainly in +jails, wrote a good hand, knew the rudiments of grammar, and almost +always had money in his pockets. He made no pretensions to be anything +but a hobo, but the average person would hardly have taken him for this. +He might have passed in the street as a sailor, and on railroads he was +often taken for a brakeman. I did not learn his history before becoming +a tramp,--it is not considered good form to ask questions about this +part of a man's life,--but from remarks that he dropped from time to +time I inferred that he had once been a mechanic. He was well informed +about the construction of engines, and could talk with machinists like +one of their own kind. He had been a tramp about eight years when I +first met him, and had learned how to make it pay. He begged for a +thing, if it was possible to be begged, until he got it, and he ate his +three meals a day, "set downs" he called them, as regularly as the time +for them came around. I was with him for two weeks, and he lived during +this time as well as a man does with $1,500 a year. His philosophy +declared that what other people eat and wear he could also eat and wear +if he presented himself at the right moment and in the right way, and he +made it his business to study human nature. While I travelled with him +he begged for everything, from a needle to a suit of clothes, and did +not hesitate to ask a theatre manager for free tickets to a play for +both of us, which he got. + +What made him a tramp, an inhabitant of Hoboland, was that he had given +up the last shred of hope of ever amounting to anything in decent +society. Every plan that he made to "get on" pertained exclusively to +his narrow tramp world, and I cannot recall hearing him even envy any +one in a respected position. I tried several times to sound him +concerning a possible return to respectable living, and tentatively +suggested work which I thought he could do, but I might as well have +proposed a flying trip. "It's over with me," was his invariable reply. +His fits of drunkenness--they came, he told me, every six weeks or +so--had incapacitated him for steady employment, and he did not intend +to give any more employers the privilege of discharging him. He had no +particular grudge against society, he admitted that he was his own worst +enemy; but, as it was impossible for him to live in society respectably, +he deemed it not unwise to get all he could out of it as a tramp. "I'm +goin' to hell anyhow," he said, "and I might as well go in style as in +rags." Being considerably younger than he, he once barely suggested that +perhaps I would better try to "brace up," but it was in no sense of the +word an earnest appeal. Indeed, he seemed later to regret the remark, +for it is out of order to make such suggestions to tramps. If they want +to reform, the idea is that they can do it by themselves without any +hints from friends. + +As a man, separate from his business, "Whitey" was what most persons +would call a good fellow. He was modest, always willing to do a favour, +and everybody seemed to like him. During our companionship we never had +a quarrel, and he helped me through many a strait. I have seen him once +again since the first meeting. He was not quite so well dressed as +formerly, and his health seemed to be breaking up, but he was the same +good fellow. In late years I have not been able to get news of him +beyond the rumour that he was dying of consumption in Mexico. + +The menace of the tramp class to the country seems to me to consist +mainly in the example they set to the casual working man,--the man who +is looking around for an excuse to quit work,--and in the fact that they +frequently recruit their ranks with young boys. It is also to be said of +them that they are often in evidence at strikes, and take part in the +most violent demonstrations. As trespassers on railroads they are +notorious; they are a constant source of trouble to the railroad police +officer. Strictly speaking, the majority of them cannot be called +criminals, although a great many of them are discouraged criminals, but +in the chapter dealing with "The Lake Shore Push" it will be seen how +ferocious some of them become. + +The next largest class is composed of what I call backwoods criminals. +Scattered over the country, in nearly every State of the Union, are to +be found districts where people live practically without the pale of the +law. These places are not so frequent in the East as in the West, in the +North as in the South, but they exist in New England as well as in +Western States. They are generally situated far away from any railroad, +and the inhabitants seldom come in touch with the outside world. The +offenders are mainly Americans, but of a degenerated type. They resemble +Americans in looks, and have certain American mental characteristics, +but otherwise they are a deteriorated collection of people who commit +the most heinous offences in the criminal calendar without realising +that they are doing anything reprehensible. I have encountered these +miniature "Whitechapels" mainly on my excursions in tramp life, but I +had to be on the lookout for them during the police experience. In one +of the States which my "beat" traversed, I was told by my chief that +there was a number of such communities, and that they turned out more +criminals to the population in a year than the average large city. One +day, while travelling in a "caboose" with a native of the State in +question, I asked him how it came that it tolerated such nests of crime, +but he was too loyal to admit their existence. "We used to have a lot of +them," he explained, "but we've cleaned them up. You see, when we +discovered natural gas, it boomed everything, and we've been building +railroads and schools all over. No; you won't find those eyesores any +more; we're as moral a State to-day as any in the Union." It was a +pardonable pride that the man took in his State, but he was mistaken +about the matter in question. There are communities not over a hundred +and fifty miles from his own town where serious crimes are committed +every day, and no court ever hears of them because they are not +considered crimes by the people who take part in them. Not that these +people are fundamentally deficient in moral attributes, or unequal to +instruction as to the law of Mine and Thine, but they are so out of +touch with the world that they have forgotten, if indeed they ever knew, +that the things they do are criminal. + +It is impossible at present to get trustworthy statistics in regard to +this class, because no one knows all of its haunts, but if it were +possible, and the entire story about it were told, there would be less +hue and cry about the evil that the foreigners among us do. I refer to +the class without advancing any statistics, because it came within my +province as a police officer to keep track of it, and because it had +attracted my attention as an observer of tramp life; but it is well +worth the serious consideration of the criminologist. + +The professional criminal, or the habitual offender, as he is called by +some, comes next in numerical strength, but first of all, in my opinion, +in importance. I consider him the most important because he frankly +admits that he makes a business of crime, and is prepared to suffer any +consequences that his offences may bring upon him. It is he who makes +crime a constant temptation to the occasional offender, and it is also +he with whom we have the most trouble in our criminal courts; he is +almost as hard to convict as the man with "political influence." On my +"beat" he was more in evidence, in the open at least, than any of the +other offenders mentioned, except the tramp, but, as I stated, the warm +months are the time when he comes out of his hiding-places, and it was +natural that I should see a good deal of him. + +My fifth category is made up of what a friend calls "the unknown thief," +whom he considers the most dangerous and despicable of all. He means, by +the unknown thief, the man in official life, or in any position which +permits of it, who protects, for the sake of compensation, the known +thief. "If you will catch the unknown thief," he has frequently said to +me, "I will contract to apprehend and convict the known," and he +believes that until we make a crusade against the former, the latter is +bound to flourish in spite of all our efforts. He sees no use, for +instance, in spending weeks and sometimes months in trying to capture +some well-known criminal, as long as it is possible for the man to buy +his freedom back again, and it is his firm belief that this kind of +bargaining is going on every day. + +Although there was no doubt that the unknown thief was to be located on +any "beat," if looked for, my instructions were not to disturb him +unless he seriously disturbed me, and as he made no effort to interfere +with my work I merely made a note of his case when we met, and doubtless +he also "sized me up" from his point of view. How strong his class is, +compared with the others, must remain a matter of conjecture, but I have +put his class fourth in my description because it is the quality of his +offences, rather than their quantity, which makes his presence in the +criminal world so significant. There are those who believe that he is +to be found in every town and village in the United States, if enough +money is offered him as bait, but I have not sufficient data to prove, +or to make me believe, such a statement. The league between him and the +known thief--the man whose photograph is in the "rogue's gallery"--is so +close, however, that I have devoted special chapters to both offenders. + +Of the last category, the man whom I have called the irresponsible +criminal, there is not much of interest or value that I have to report. +While acting as police officer I practically never encountered him in +the open, and the few members of his class that I saw in prisons seemed +to me to have become irresponsible largely during their imprisonment. +Perhaps I take a wrong view of the matter, but I cannot get over the +belief that the majority of offenders, particularly those who are ranked +as "professionals," are _compos mentis_ as far as the law need require. +In every department of the prisons that I visited, men were to be seen +who gave the impression of being at least queer, but they formed but a +very small part of the prison population, and may very possibly have +been shamming the eccentricities which seemed to indicate that they were +on the border line of insanity. For this reason, and, as I say, because +I met none in the open, it has seemed fair to put this class last. + +The foregoing classification is naturally not meant as a scientific +description in the sense that the professional criminologist would take +up the matter. I have merely tried to explain how the criminal situation +in the United States seems to the man whose business it is to keep an +official watch over it. I may have overlooked, in my classification, +offenders that some of my brother officers would have included, but it +stands for the general impression I got of the criminal world while in +their company. To attempt to estimate the numerical strength of these +classes as a whole would land one in a bewildering bog of guesses. It is +only recently that we have made any serious effort to keep a record of +offenders shut up in penal institutions, of crimes which have been +detected and of offenders who have been punished, and it is a fact well +known in police circles that there is a great deal of crime which is +never ferreted out. There is consequently very little use in trying to +calculate the number of the entire criminal population. The most that I +can say in regard to the question is that never before has this +population seemed to me to be so large, but I ought to admit that not +until my recent experience have I had such an advantageous point of view +from which to make observations. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE PROFESSIONAL CRIMINAL. + + +In appearance and manner the professional criminal has not changed much +in the last decade. I knew him first over ten years ago, when making my +earliest studies of tramp life. I saw him again five years ago, while on +a short trip in Hoboland, and we have met recently on the railroads; and +he looks just about as he did when we first got acquainted. + +Ordinarily he would not be noticed in mixed company by others than those +accustomed to his ways. He is not like the tramp, whom practically any +one can pick out in a crowd. He dresses well, can often carry himself +like a gentleman, and generally has a snug sum of money in his pockets. +It is his face, voice, and habits of companionship that mark him for +what he is. Not that there is necessarily that in his countenance which +Lombroso would have us believe signifies that he is a degenerate, +congenitally deformed or insane, but rather that the life he leads gives +him a look which the trained observer knows as "the mug of a crook." He +can no more change this look after reaching manhood than can a genuinely +honest man, who has never been in prison, acquire it. I had learned to +know it, and had become practised in discovering it, long before I +became a policeman. It took me years to reach the stage when in merely +looking hurriedly at a criminal something instinctively pronounced him a +thief, but such a time certainly comes to him who sojourns much in +criminal environment. There are, of course, certain special features and +wrinkles that one looks for, and that help in the general summing up, +but after awhile these are not thought of in judging a man, at least not +consciously, and the observer bases his opinion on instinctive feeling. +Given the stylish clothes to which I have referred, a hard face, +suspicious eyes which seem to take in everything, a loitering walk, a +peculiar guttural cough, given by way of signal, and called the thief's +cough, and a habit of lingering about places where a "sporty" +constituency is usually to be found, and there is pretty conclusive +evidence that a professional thief is in view. All of this evidence is +not always at hand; sometimes there is only the cough to go by, but, the +circumstances being suspicious, any one of them is sufficient to make an +expert observer look quickly and prick up his ears. + +In New York City, for instance, there are streets in which professional +thieves can be met by the dozen, if one understands how to identify +them, and it is only necessary to pass a few words and they can be drawn +into conversation. Some are dressed better than others,--there are a +great many ups and downs in the profession,--and some look less typical +than the more experienced men,--it takes time for the life to leave its +traces,--but there they stand, the young and old, the clever and the +stupid, for any one who knows how to scrape acquaintance with them. +They are the most difficult people in the world to learn to know well +until one has mastered their freemasonry, and then they are but little +more fearful of approach than is the tramp. + +I devote a special chapter to their class, because I believe that they +are the least understood of all offenders, and also, as I stated in the +last chapter, because I consider them the real crux of the problem of +crime in this country. The petty offender is comparatively easy to +discourage, the backwoods criminal will disappear as our country +develops, the born criminal, the man who says that he cannot help +committing crimes, can be shut up indefinitely, but the professional +criminal, thanks to his own cleverness and the league he and the unknown +thief have entered into, baffles both the criminologist and the +penologist, and he probably does more financial harm to the country than +all the other offenders put together. He is the man that we must +apprehend and punish before crime in the United States will fail to be +attractive, and at the present moment it is its attractiveness which +helps to make our criminal statistics so alarming. + +I have placed him fourth in numerical strength in my general +classification, and I believe this to be a correct estimate of the +number of those who really make their living by professional thieving. +If those are to be included who would like to succeed as professional +thieves and fail, and drop down sooner or later into the occasional +criminal's class, or into the tramp's class, the position I have given +the so-called successful "professional" would have to be changed; but it +has seemed best to confine the class to those who are rated successful, +and on this basis I doubt whether an actual census taking, if it were +possible, would prove them to be more numerous than I have indicated. +Seeing and hearing so much of them on my travels, I made every effort to +secure trustworthy statistics in regard to their number, and as the +majority of them are known to the police, it seemed reasonable to +suppose that, if I passed around enough among different police +organisations, I ought to get satisfactory figures, but the fact of the +matter is that the police themselves can only make guesses concerning +the general situation, and I am unable to do any better. + +When putting queries concerning the number of the offenders in question, +my informants wanted me to differentiate and ask them about particular +kinds of professionals before they would reply. One very well informed +detective, for instance, said: "Do you mean the whole push, or just the +A Number One guns? If you mean the push, why you're safe in saying that +there are 100,000 in the whole country, but the most of 'em are a pretty +poor lot. If you mean the really good people, 10,000 will take 'em all +in." + +The cities which were reported to have turned out the greatest number +were New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Buffalo, +Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Chicago +was given the palm for being, at the present moment, the main stronghold +of habitual criminals. Nearly every photograph I saw of a young +offender was said to represent one of Chicago's hopefuls, and the +pictures of the old men were generally described as the likenesses of +New York City "talent." Chicago's lead in the number of "professionals" +was explained by one man on the ground that it is a Mecca and Medina +"for young fellows who have got into some scrape in the East. They go to +Chicago, get in with the push, and then start out on the road. The older +men train them." + +A question that I was continually putting to myself when meeting the +"professional" was: What made him choose such a career? He is +intelligent, agreeable to talk to, pleasant as a travelling companion, +and among his kind a fairly good fellow, and why did he not put these +abilities and talents to a better use? To understand him well I believe +that one must make his acquaintance while he is still living at home, as +a boy, in some city "slum." He does not always come from a slum, but, as +a rule, this is where he begins his criminal career. In every quarter +of this character there is a criminal atmosphere. The criminologists +have not given this fact sufficient prominence in their writings. They +make some mention of it, but it is seldom given its true significance in +their books. The best-born lad in the world can go wrong if forced to +live in this corrupt environment. Not that he is necessarily taught to +commit crimes, or urged to, although this sometimes happens; they become +spontaneous actions on his part. The very air he breathes frequently +incites him to criminal deeds, and practice makes him skilful and +expert. In another environment, in nine cases out of ten, he could be +trained to take an interest in upright living; in this one he follows +the lines of least resistance, and becomes a thief. + +Let me describe the childhood of a criminal boy who will serve as a type +for thousands. + +He was born in one of the slums of New York, not far from the Bowery, +and within a stone's throw of the clock of Cooper Institute, and the +white spire of Grace Church. From the very start he was what is called +an unwelcome child. Not that there was any particular dislike toward him +personally, but his parents had all they could do, and more too, to care +for the half dozen other children who had come to them, and, when he +appeared, there was hardly any room in the house left. He grew up with +the sense of want always present, and when he got into the street with +the other children of the neighbourhood, it became even more oppressive. +Pretty soon he learned from the example of his playmates that begging +sometimes helps to quiet a boy's hunger, and that pilfering from the +grocer's sidewalk display makes the dinner at home more substantial. +These are bits of slum philosophy that every child living in slums +learns to appreciate sooner or later. The lad in question was no +exception. He was soon initiated into the clique, and played his own +part in these miniature bread riots. He did not appreciate their +criminal significance. All he knew was that his stomach was empty and +that he wanted the things he saw in the shops and streets. He was like a +baby who sees a pretty colour gleaming on the carpet, and, without +counting the cost or pains, creeps after it. He knew nothing of the law +of Mine and Thine, except as the thing desired was held fast in the fist +of its owner. Not that he was deformed in his moral nature, or naturally +lacking in moral power, but this nature and power had never been +trained. Like his body, they had been neglected and forgotten, and it is +no surprise that they failed to develop. Had somebody taken him out of +his "slum" environment, and taught him how to be respectable and honest, +his talents might have been put to good uses, but luck, as he calls +circumstances, was against him, and he had to stay in low life. + +In this life there is, as a rule, but one ideal for a boy, and that is +successful thieving. He sees men, to be sure, who find gambling more +profitable, as well as safer, and still others humble enough to content +themselves with simple begging, but as a lad truly ambitious and anxious +to get on rapidly, he must join the "crook's" fraternity. There is also +a fascination about crime which appeals to him. Men describe it +differently, but they all agree that it has a great deal to do in making +criminals. My own idea is that it lies in the excitement of trying to +elude justice. I know from experience as an amateur tramp that there is +a great deal of satisfaction in slipping away from a policeman just as +he is on the point of catching you, and I can easily understand how much +greater the pleasure must be to a man, who, in thus dodging the officer, +escapes not simply a few days in a county jail, but long years in a +penitentiary. It is the most exciting business in the world, and for men +equal to its vicissitudes it must have great attractions. + +In time it interested the boy I am describing. At first he thieved +because it was the only way he knew to still his hunger, but as he grew +older the idea of gain developed, and he threw himself body and soul +into the thief's career. He had been brought up in crime, taught to +regard it as a profitable field of labour, full of exciting chase and +often splendid capture, and naturally it was the activity that appealed +to him. He knew that he had certain abilities for criminal enterprises, +that there was a possibility of making them pay, and he determined to +trust to luck. The reader may exclaim here: "But this boy must have been +a phenomenon. No lad wilfully chooses such a career so young." He was in +all respects an average slum boy in his ambitions and maturity, and if +he seems extraordinary to the reader, the only explanation I can give is +that low life develops its characters with unusual rapidity. Outcast +boys are in business and struggling for a place in the world long before +the respectable boy has even had a glimpse of it. This comes of +competition. They must either jump into the fray or die. The child in +them is killed long before it has had a chance to expand, and the man +develops with hothouse haste. It is abnormal, but it is true, and it all +goes to show how the boy in question was registered so early in the +criminal calendar. He had to make his living, he had to choose a +business, and his precocity, if I may call it that, was simply the +result of being forced so early into the "swim." He ought to have been a +frolicsome child, fond of ball and marbles, but he had but little time +for such amusements. Money was what he wanted, and he rushed pell-mell +in search of it. I will leave him in the company of hardened tramps and +criminals, into which he soon drifted, and among whom he made a name for +himself. + +The resolution to be a "professional" comes later with some lads than +with others. Until well on into their teens, and sometimes even into +their twenties, there are those who merely drift, stealing when they can +and managing otherwise when they can't. Finally they are arrested, +convicted, and sent to state prison. Here there is the same criminal +atmosphere that they were accustomed to in the open, only more of it. Go +where they will in their world, they cannot escape it. In prison they +form acquaintances and make contracts against the day when they will be +free again. They are eventually turned loose. What are they to do? The +"job," of course, that they have talked about with a "pal" in the "stir" +(penitentiary). They do it, and get away with two or three thousand. +This decides them. They know of more deals, and so do their cronies, and +they agree to undertake them and divide the plunder. So it goes on for +years, and finally they have "records;" they are recognised among their +fellows and in police circles as clever "guns;" they have arrived at +distinction. + +Only one who has been in the criminal world can realise how easy it is +for a boy to develop on these lines. He who studies prison specimens +only, and neglects to make their acquaintance while they are still young +and unhardened, naturally comes to look upon them as weird and uncanny +creatures, to be accounted for only on the ground that they are freaks +of nature; but they are really the result of man's own social system. If +there were no slums in this country, no criminal atmosphere, and no +unknown thieves to protect the known, there would be comparatively few +professional offenders. The trouble at present is that when a boy gets +into this atmosphere, once learns to enjoy criminal companionship and +practice, he is as unhappy without them as is the cigarette fiend +without his cigarette. Violent measures are necessary to effect any +changes, and there comes a time when nothing avails. + +Before closing this chapter it seems appropriate to refer to some of the +peculiar characteristics of professional offenders. The most that can be +attempted in the space of one chapter is a short account of a few of +their traits as a class, but an interesting book might be written on +this subject. + +A peculiar caste feeling or pride is one of the most noteworthy +characteristics of professional offenders. They believe that, in +ostracising them from decent company, the polite world meant that they +should live their lives in absolute exile, that they should be denied +all human companionship, and in finding it for themselves among their +kind, in creating a world of their own with laws, manners, and customs, +free of every other and answerable only to itself, they feel that they +have outwitted the larger world, beaten it at its own game, as it were. +Their attitude to society may be likened to that of the boy who has been +thrown out of his home for some misdemeanour and who has "got on" +without paternal help and advice; they think that they have "done" +society, as the boy often thinks that he has "done" his father, and the +thought makes them vain. Individually, they frequently regret the deeds +which lost them their respectability, and a number, if they could, would +like to live cleaner lives, but, collectively, their new citizenship and +position give them a conceit such as few human beings of the respectable +sort ever enjoy. Watch them at a hang-out camp-fire gathering! They sit +there like Indian chiefs, proud of their freedom and scornful of all +other society, poking fun at its follies, picking flaws in its +morality, and imaginatively regenerating it with their own suggestions +and reforms. At the bottom of their hearts they know that theirs is a +low world, boasting nothing that can compare with the one which they +criticise and carp at, and that they are justly exiled; but the fact +that they have succeeded alone and unaided in making it their own puffs +them up with a pride which will not allow them to judge impartially. + +I remember talking with a Western criminal in regard to this matter, and +taking him to task for his loose and careless criticism, as I considered +it. He had tossed off bold judgments on all manner of inconsistencies +and immoralities which he claimed that he had found in respectable +society, and took his own world as a standard of comparison. Generosity +was a virtue which he thought much more prevalent in his class. He +listened to my objections, and seemed to accept some of the points made, +but he closed the argument with a passionate appeal to what he would +have called my class pride. "But think how we've fooled 'em, Cigarette," +he exclaimed. "Why, even when they put us in prison we've still got our +gang, just the same, our crowd,--that's what tickles me. I s'pose they +are better'n I am,--I'll be better when I'm dead,--but they ain't any +smarter'n I am. They wanted me to go off in the woods somewhere 'n' chew +up my soul all alone, 'n' I've fooled 'em,--we all have! That's what I'm +kickin' for, that they give in 'n' say, 'You ain't such Rubes as we +thought you were.' If one uv 'em 'ud jus' come to me 'n' say: 'Jack, +it's a fact, we can't ring in the solitary confinement act on +you.--d'you know, I believe I'd reform jus' to be square with 'im. What +I want 'em to do is to 'fess up that I ain't beholden to 'em for cump'y, +for my gang, 'n' that they ain't any smarter'n I am in findin' a gang. +I'm jus' as big a man in my crowd as they are in theirs, 'n' nothin' +that they can do'll make me any smaller. Ain't that right, eh?" And I +had to confess that from his point of view it was. + +Respectable, law-abiding people never realise what a comfort this caste +feeling is to thousands of men. I have met even educated men to whom it +has been a consolation. They have never been able to define exactly the +compensation it affords them, indeed they have often been ashamed to +admit the fact, but it has remained, nevertheless. I think the man I +have just quoted enunciates it as clearly as it is possible to be set +forth in words. His joy consisted in discovering that he was just as +"smart," just as full of resource, just as equal to a trying situation, +even in his disgrace and downfall, as the man who shunned his company, +who wanted him banished or sent to prison; he had revenged himself, so +to speak, on his avengers, a gratification which is more or less dear to +all human beings. + +Personal liberty and freedom in contra-distinction to class liberty and +freedom also count for a good deal in the outcast's life. Besides being +independent of other people, he is also more or less independent of his +own people, so far as laws and commands are concerned. He tolerates no +king, president, or parliament, and resents with vigour any +infringements upon his privileges, either from society or his own +organisation. In fact, he leaves the organisation and lives by himself +alone, if he feels that its unwritten, but at times rather strict, laws +bear too heavily upon him. There are men who live absolutely apart from +the crowd, shunning all society, except that which supports them. They +are often called "cranks" by their less thoroughgoing companions, and +would probably impress every one as a little crotchety and peculiar, but +their action is the logical outcome of the life. The tendency of this +life is to make a man dislike the slightest conventionalism, and to live +up to his disliking is the consistent conduct of every man in it. He +hates veneer about him in every particular and only as he throws off +every vestige of it does he enjoy to the full his world. + +In a lodging-house in Chicago, some years ago, I met a tramp who was a +good example of the liberty-loving professional offenders. We awoke in +the morning a little earlier than the rest, and, as it was not yet time +to get up, fell to talking and "declaring ourselves," as tramps do +under such circumstances. After we had exchanged the usual cut and dried +remarks which even hobo society cannot do entirely without, he said to +me, suddenly, and utterly without connection with what had gone before: +"Don't you love this sort o' life?" at the same time looking at me +enthusiastically, almost as if inspired. I confessed that it had certain +attractive features, and showed, for the sake of drawing him out, an +enthusiasm of my own. "I don't see," he went on, "how I have ever lived +differently. I was brought up on a farm, but, my goodness, I wouldn't +trade this life if you'd give me all the land in the wild West. Why, I +can do just as I please now--exactly. When I want to go anywhere, I get +on a train and go, and no one has the right to ask me any questions. +That's what I call liberty,--I want to go just where I please," and he +brought out the words with an emphasis that could not have been stronger +had he been stating his religious convictions. + +I have often been asked whether tramps and criminals have class +divisions and distinctions like those in society proper. "Are there +aristocrats and middle class people, for instance," a number of persons +have said to me, "and does position count for much?" Most certainly +there are these distinctions, and they constitute one of the most +notable features of the life. There is just as much chance to climb high +and fall low, in the outcast world, there are just as many prizes and +praises to win, as in the larger world surrounding it, and the +investigator will find, if he observes carefully enough, the identical +little jealousies, criticisms, and quarrels that prevail in "polite +society." + +A man acquires position in pretty much the same way that it is acquired +elsewhere,--he either works hard for it, or it is granted him by common +consent on account of his superior native endowment. There is as little +jumping into fame in this world as in any other; one must prove his +ability to do certain things well, have a record of preparation +consistent with his achievements, before he can take any very high place +in the social order. The criminal enjoys, as a rule, the highest +position; he is the aristocrat of the entire community. Everybody looks +up to him, his presence is desired at "hang-out" gatherings, boys +delight to shake his hand, and men repeat his remarks like the wise +sayings of a prophet. He feels his importance, works for it, and tries +to live up to it, just as determinedly as aristocrats in other spheres +of activity, and if he loses it and falls from grace, the disappointment +is correspondingly keen. + +The tramp may be said to belong to the middle class of the outcast +world, and, like other middle class people, he often finds life a little +nicer in a class socially above him. He enjoys associating with +criminals, being able to quote them on matters of interest to the +"hang-out," and giving the impression that he is _au courant_ with their +business. If he can do all this well it makes him so much the more +important among his fellows. His own particular class, however, also +has advantages and attractions, and there are men who seek his company +nearly as much as he seeks the criminals. There is an upper middle class +as well as a lower, and the line of separation is sharply drawn. The +"old stagers," the men who have been years "on the road," and know it +"down to the ground," as they say, constitute the upper middle class. +They can dictate somewhat to the tramps not so experienced as they are, +and their opinions are always listened to first. If they say, for +instance, that a certain town is "hostile," unfriendly to beggars, the +statement is accepted on its face, unless some one has absolute evidence +to the contrary, and even then the under class man makes his demurrer +very modestly. I have never succeeded in getting as far as this during +my tramp experiences, and had to remain content in the lower division, +but even there I had a significance denied to men less experienced than +I was. A newcomer, for instance, a "tenderfoot," was expected to show me +deference, and if I happened in at a "hang-out," where only newcomers +were present, I was cock of the walk. Even these "tenderfeet" have a +class pride, too, for at the bottom of all this social arrangement there +are men and women who have been turned out of every class, the outcast +of the outcasts. They are called "tomato-can-stiffs" and "barrel +dossers" by the people above them, terms which indicate that they have +reached the last pitch of degradation. They realise their disgrace +nearly as much as their counterparts who have been turned out of +respectable society, and often look with longing upon the positions they +once enjoyed, but their lot is not entirely without its consolations, as +I learned one day in talking with one of them. "Well, at any rate," he +said, "I ain't got to keep thinkin' all the while 't I'm goin' to fall +and lose my posish the way you have to. There's no place for me to fall +to, I've come to the end o' my rope. You've got to keep lookin' out fer +yerself ev'ry step you take--keep worryin' about gettin' on, 'n' I don't +have them worries any more, 'n' it's a big relief, I tell you. You feel +the way you do when you get out o' prison." This thought is a little +fanciful, and not entirely sincere, but I can nevertheless appreciate +the man's point of view, for, with all the independence and liberty of +this world, there is, just as he said, considerable worry about holding +one's place, and I can imagine a time when it would be pleasant to be +relieved of it all. + +The financial profits in a professional offender's career are not easy +to determine, but they must be taken into consideration in all accounts +of his life, no matter how short. I saw more of the pickpocket, during +my police experience, than of any other professional thief, and it was +possible for me to learn considerable in regard to his winnings. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE BUSINESS OF PICKING POCKETS. + + +Next to the tramp, who is more of a nuisance on American railroads, +however, than a criminal offender, the pickpocket is the most +troublesome man that a railroad police officer has to deal with. He has +made a study of the different methods by which passengers on trains can +be relieved of their pocketbooks, and unless he is carefully watched he +can give a railroad a very bad name. The same is true of a circus, in +the wake of which light-fingered gentry are generally to be found. +Circuses, like railroads, hire policemen to protect their properties and +patrons, and there are certain "shows" which one can attend and feel +comparatively safe; but in spite of the detectives which they employ, +many of them are exactly what the owner of a circus called them in my +presence--"shake-downs." Everybody is to be "shaken down" who is "green" +enough to let the pickpockets get at him, and, if pocketbooks are lost, +the proprietor will not be held responsible. + +A railroad company, on the other hand, is severely criticised, and +justly, if pickpockets are much in evidence on its trains, and as they +are the most numerous of all habitual offenders, the railroad police +officer is kept very busy during the summer season. + +The origin of the pickpocket takes one too far back in history to be +explained in detail here, but the probability is that his natural +history is contemporaneous with that of the pocket. When pockets were +sewed into our clothes, and we began to put valuables into them, the +pickpocket's career was opened up; to-day he is one of the most expert +criminal specialists. In the United States he has frequently begun life +as a newsboy, who, if he is dishonest, soon learns how to take change +from the "fob" pocket of men's coats. If he becomes skilled at this +kind of "grafting," and attracts the attention of some older member of +the pickpocket's guild, he is instructed in the other branches of the +art, or trade, as one pleases; I call it a business. An apt pupil can +become an adept before he is in his teens; indeed, some of the most +successful pickpockets in the country to-day are young boys. There are a +number of reasons why so many criminals make pocket-picking a specialty. +In the first place, it brings in hard cash, which does not have to be +pawned or sold, and which it is very difficult to identify. The +"leather," or pocketbook, is "weeded" (the money is taken out) and then +thrown away, and unless some one has actually seen the pickpocket take +it he cannot be convicted. Another reason is that it requires no +implements or tools other than those with which nature has provided us. +Two nimble fingers are all that is necessary after the victim has once +been "framed up," and the ease with which victims are found constitutes +still another attraction of the profession. We all think we take great +care of our pocketbooks in crowded thoroughfares, and on street cars, +but the most careful persons are "marks" for the pickpocket, if he has +reason to believe that the plunder will pay him for the necessary +preparations. It is usually the unwary farmer from the country who makes +the easiest victim, but there are knowing detectives who have been +relieved of their purses. + +A fourth reason, and the main one, is that a practised hand at the +business takes in a great deal of money. Twenty-five dollars a "touch" +is not considered a phenomenal record if there is much money in the +crowd in which the pickpocket is working, and five or six touches in a +day frequently only pay expenses. An "A Number One grafter" is after +hundreds and thousands, and it is the ambition of every man in the +business to be this kind of pickpocket. + +Some men operate on the "single-handed" basis; they travel alone, +arrange their own "frame-ups" (personally corner their victims), and +keep all the profits. There are a few well-known successful pickpockets +of this order, and they are rated high among their fellows, but the more +general custom is for what is called a "mob" of men to travel together, +one known as the "tool" doing the actual picking, and the others +attending to the "stalling." A stall is the confederate of the +pickpocket, who bumps up against people, or arranges them in such a way +that the pickpocket can get at their pockets. Practically any one who +will take a short course of instruction can learn how to stall, but +there are naturally some who are more expert than others. A tool who +hires his stalls and makes no division of spoils with them will +sometimes have to pay as much as $5 a day for skilled men. When he +divides what he gets, each man in the mob may get an equal share or not, +according to a prearranged agreement, but the tool is the man who does +the most work. + +Of first-class tools, men who are known to be successful, there are +probably not more than 1,500 in the United States. Practically every +professional offender has a "go" at pocket-picking some time in his +career, but there are comparatively few who make a success of it as +actual pickpockets; the stalls are numberless. Among the 1,500 there are +some women and a fair portion of young boys, but the majority are men +anywhere from twenty to sixty years old. The total number of the +successful and unsuccessful is thirty, forty, or fifty thousand, as one +likes. All that is actually known is that there is an army of them, and +one can only make guesses as to their real strength. + +It is an interesting sight to see a mob of pickpockets at work. It +equals football in exercise and tactics, and fencing in cunning and +quickness. At the railroad station one of the favourite methods is for +the mob to mix with the crowd, pushing and tugging on and near the steps +of the coaches. It was my duty to watch carefully on all such occasions, +and I was finally rewarded by seeing some pickpockets at work. We were +three officers strong at the time, and we had concentrated at the +middle of the train, where the pushing was worst. One of the officers +was a man who has made a lifelong study of grafts and grafters. He and I +were standing close together in the crowd, and suddenly I saw him dart +like a flash toward the steps of one of the cars. I closed in also, as +best I could, and there on the steps were two big stalls blocking the +way, one of them saying to the people in front of him: "Excuse me, but I +have left my valise in this car." His confederate was near by, also +pushing. Between the two was the tool and his victim, and my companion +had slipped in among them just in time to shove his arm in between the +tool's arm and the victim's pocket, and the "leather" was saved. + +In the aisle of a car, when the passengers are getting out, another +popular procedure is for one stall to get in front of the victim, +another one behind him, and the tool places himself so that he can get +his hand into the man's pocket. The stall behind pushes, and the one in +front turns around angrily, blocking the way meanwhile, and says to the +innocent passenger: "Stop your pushing, will you? Have you no manners?" +The man makes profuse apologies, but the pushing continues until the two +stalls hear the tool give the thief's cough or make a noise with his +lips such as goes with a kiss, which is a signal to them that the +leather has come up, and is safely landed; it has been passed in +lightning fashion to a confederate in the rear; the tool never keeps it +if he can help it. On reaching the station platform the front stall begs +pardon for the harsh words he has spoken to the passenger, and in the +language of the story-teller, all ends happily. + +Still another trick, and one that can happen anywhere, is to tip the +victim's hat down over his eyes, and then "nick" him while he is trying +to get his equilibrium again. A veteran justice of the peace whom I met +on my travels, and who was the twin brother in appearance of the poet +Whittier, has an amusing story to tell of how this trick was played on +him. We had called on him--my two brother officers and I--to find out +whether he would enforce the local suspicious character ordinance if we +brought pickpockets before him that we knew were in town. It was circus +day, and a raft of them had followed the show to the town, and we were +afraid that they might attempt to do work on our trains. + +"Pickpockets! Enforce the suspicious character ordinance!"--screamed the +squire. "You just bring the slickers in, an' see what I'll do with them. +Why, gol darn them, they got $36 out o' me the night the soldier boys +came home." + +"How did it happen?" + +"I can't tell you. All I know is that I was coming down that stairway +over there across the street, my hat fell over my eyes, and I stumbled. +I didn't think anything about it at the time, but when I got down to +Simpson's, where I was going to buy some groceries for my wife, I found +that my wallet was gone." + +"Did you notice any one on the stairway?" + +"Yes, there was a well dressed looking stranger coming down behind me, +and there may have been another man, coming down behind him, but I +couldn't 'a' sworn that they took my wallet. Some boys found it down the +street the next day." + +For the benefit of those who have to travel much, and we are all on the +cars a little, it seems worth while to describe the "raise" and "change" +tricks. When a victim is to be raised, one stratagem is for a stall to +go to him and ask whether a valise in the seat behind him is his,--it +always is,--and if so will he kindly shift it. If passengers are getting +into the car, and there is considerable crowding going on, the man will +be relieved of his pocketbook while he is reaching down for his valise. + +To "change" a man is to shift him from one car to another on the plea +that the one he is in is to be taken off at a junction. While he is +changing and going down the aisle, his "roll" or wallet disappears, and +the pickpockets take another train at a junction. It is all done in a +flash, and is as simple as can be to those who are in the business, but +a great many "leathers" would be saved if people would only be careful +and not crowd together like sheep. At circuses I have seen them push and +shove like mad, and all the while the pickpockets were at work among +them. + +An interesting story is told of an Illinois town where a mob of +pickpockets had been led to believe that they had "squared" things +sufficiently with the authorities to be able to run "sure thing" games +at the show grounds with impunity,--pickpockets dabble occasionally in +games,--but they swindled people so outrageously that the authorities +got scared and prohibited the games. The men had paid so heavily for +what they had considered were privileges, that they were going to be +losers unless they got in their "graft" somehow, so they turned +pickpockets again, and, as one man put it, "simply tore the crowd open." +When it dispersed, the ground was literally covered with emptied +pocketbooks. + +The easiest way for the police officer to deal with the pickpocket is to +know him whenever he appears, and to let him understand that he is +"spotted" and would better keep away. Some officers are born +thief-catchers, and can seemingly scent crime where it cannot even be +seen, and, whether they know a man or not, can pick out the real +culprit. The average officer, however, must recognise his man before he +can touch him, unless he catches him red-handed, and it is he who knows +a great many offenders and can call the "turn" on them, give their names +and records, that is the great detective of modern times. The sleuth of +fiction, who catches criminals by magic, as it were, is a snare and a +delusion. + +During my police experience I carried with me a pocket "rogue's gallery" +of the most notorious pickpockets of the section of the country in which +I had to travel. For a time I saw so many of these gentry in the flesh, +and was shown so many pictures, that a bewildering composite picture of +all formed in my mind. It seemed to me, sometimes, as if everybody I saw +in the streets resembled a pickpocket that I had to be on the lookout +for. I finally determined to commit to memory a picture a day, or every +two or three days as was necessary, and learn to differentiate, and the +method proved successful. To-day there are about fifty pickpockets that +I shall know wherever I see them. The majority of them I have met +personally, but a number are known to me by photograph only. + +To illustrate the usefulness of photographs in the police business, and +incidentally my method, I must tell about a pickpocket whom I +identified, one morning, in a town where a circus was exhibiting. He had +tried to take a watch from a fellow passenger on a trolley-car, and had +nearly succeeded in unscrewing it from the chain when he was discovered. +He was a desperate character, and drew a razor, with which he frightened +everybody off the car, including the motorman. He attempted to escape by +running the car himself, but on seeing that it was going to take him +back to the town, he deserted it, appropriated a horse and buggy, and +made another dash for liberty. He was eventually driven into a fence +corner by some of the young men of the town, and kept at bay until the +police arrived, when he was taken to the lock-up, where, in company with +my two companions, I saw him. He was brought out of his cell for our +inspection, and, as luck would have it, it was his photograph in my book +that I had elected to commit to memory a few days before. I knew him the +minute I saw him, and he was identified beyond a possible doubt. In +return he gave me the worst scolding I have ever had in my life, and +threatened to put out "my light" when he is free again, but this is a +_facon de parler_ of men of his class; after he has served his five or +ten years he will have forgotten me and his threat. + +The amount of money which pickpockets take in annually is probably +greater than that of any of the other specialists in crime. It would be +idle to say how large it is, but it is a well-known fact that thousands +of dollars are stolen by them at big public gatherings to which they +have access. It was reported, for instance, that at the recent +Confederate Soldiers' Reunion in the South $30,000 were stolen by +pickpockets, and almost every day in the year one reads in the +newspapers of a big "touch" reaching into the thousands. I think it is a +conservative statement to say that in a lifetime the expert pickpocket +steals $20,000. Multiply this figure by 1,500, which I have given as the +number of the first-class tools in the country, and the result reaches +high up into the millions. Like other professional thieves, the +pickpocket throws away his money like water, and very seldom thinks of +saving for old age, but practically all successful mobs have "fall +money" (an expense fund for paying lawyers, etc., when they get +arrested) of from $3,000 to $5,000 each, carefully banked, and I know of +one pickpocket who is the owner of some very valuable real estate. A +good illustration of the rapidity with which they recoup themselves +financially after a period of rest, or a term in prison, is the story +told about one of them who returned to this country penniless after a +pleasure trip in Europe. The man related the incident to a friend of +mine. "Didn't have a red," he said. "I tackled a saloon keeper I knew +for a couple of thousand. How long do you think I was paying him back? +Three weeks!" + +If the pickpocket knew how to save his money, and could invest it well, +his children might some day be but millionaires. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +HOW SOME TOWNS ARE "PROTECTED." + + +Speaking generally, there are two methods in vogue in American police +circles for dealing with crime, and they may be called the compromising +and the uncompromising. The latter is the more honest. In a town where +it is followed, the chief of police is known to be a man who will not +allow a professional thief within the city limits, if he can help it, +and he is continually on watch for transient offenders. He will make no +"deal" with criminals in any particular, and he takes pride in securing +the conviction and punishment of all whom his men apprehend. He is +naturally not liked by offenders, although they respect his consistency, +and there is a local element of rowdies who consider him "an old fogey," +but he is the kind of officer that makes Germany, for instance, and +England, too, in a measure, so free of the class of criminals that in +this country are so bold. There are some chiefs of police in the United +States of this character, and they become known throughout the criminal +world, but there ought to be more of them. + +The compromising policeman is a man of another stripe. He knows about +the uncompromising "copper," has read about him and thought about him, +but he excuses his disinclination to accept him as a model on the ground +that, if he did, the thieves would "tear his town open." + +"Why, if I should antagonise this class, as you suggest," he will say to +the protesting citizens, "they would come here some night and steal +right and left, just out of revenge. I haven't enough men to protect the +city in that way. The Town Council only give me so much to run the +entire force, and I have to manage the best way I can. If you'll give me +more men, I'll try to drive all the thieves out of the city." + +In certain instances his argument has truth in it; it sometimes happens +that he has not enough men to take care of the city from the +uncompromising policeman's point of view. The trouble is, however, that +because he is thus handicapped he thinks that he can go a step farther, +and is justified in reasoning thus: "Well, I had to pay to get this +position, and if the people don't want the town protected as it ought to +be, it isn't my fault, and I'm going to get out of the job all that's in +it," and then begins a miserable conniving with crime. + +To illustrate what a professional thief can accomplish with such a +police officer, let it be supposed that the thief is happily married, as +is sometimes the case, has a family, and wants to live in a certain +town. The chief of police knows him, however, and can disgrace his +family, if he is so inclined. The thief wants his family left alone, he +takes a pride in it, so he visits the chief at "Headquarters," and they +have a talk. "See here, chief," he says, "I'll promise you not to do any +work in your town, if you'll promise to leave me and mine alone. Now, +what's it going to cost me?" + +Sometimes it costs money, not necessarily handed over the desk, and not +always to the chief personally, but in a manner that is satisfactory to +all concerned. In other cases the matter is arranged without money, and +the thief may possibly promise to "tip off" to the chief some well-known +"professional" when he comes to town, so that the chief can get the +benefit of an advertisement in the newspapers; they will say that such +and such a man has been captured, "after a long and exciting chase ably +conducted by our brilliant chief." The chase generally amounts to a +quiet walk to the hotel or saloon where the visiting thief is quietly +reading a newspaper or drinking a glass of beer, and the capture +dwindles down to a request on the part of the chief or his officer that +the man shall go to the "front office," which he does, wondering all the +while who it was that "beefed" on him (told the chief who he was). A +number of the "fly catches," as they are called in police parlance, +which create so much comment in the press, can be explained in some such +way as this. Meanwhile, however, what has become of the protected thief? +He may keep his word, a number of thieves do, and commit no theft in the +town where he is allowed to live; it depends on how much money he needs +to meet his various expenses, how dear his family is to him, and what +temptations he encounters. If he does break his word, however, and there +are no hall-marks on his theft, by which it can be definitely traced to +him, all he has to say, when asked by his protector as to who did it, +is: "It must have been outside talent." In other words, he can "work" +with almost absolute safety in the town, and the innocent public is +paying taxes all the while for a police force that ought to be able to +apprehend him. + +To prove that this case is not hypothetical but actual, I would say that +I have recently been in at least two cities where I know that +professional thieves live with impunity, for I saw as many as ten in +each, and they were not afraid to do criminal work in either. The +police of both places claimed that in giving the thieves a domicile they +were protecting their towns, but any one who knows either city well is +aware that professional crime is prevalent. + +One of the worst features of the policy under consideration is its +selfishness. A chief who says to a professional thief, "I will leave you +alone if you will leave me alone," practically says to him: "Go to +another town when you want to steal." An amusing story is told in this +connection about two chiefs who aired their different notions in regard +to the matter, at one of the annual conferences of the chiefs of police. +One of them had said tentatively, so the story goes, that he had heard +that in some cities criminals were protected, and that he considered the +practice a bad one. Another chief, who was thought to favour such a +policy, got up and said that he did not know much about the question in +hand, but he did know that his town was particularly free of crime. +"That may be, Bill," retorted the first speaker, "but I'll tell you +what your thieves do--they come down to my town to steal and go back to +yours, where they are left alone, to live." I give the anecdote merely +as gossip, but it illustrates splendidly one of the worst results of +compromise with crime. + +It sometimes happens that an entire municipal administration, or, at any +rate, the most powerful officials in it, favour the policy of +compromise, and then it is utterly impossible to punish the criminal +adequately. I have been in such communities. Not long ago I was in a +town of about ten thousand inhabitants where a "mob" of New York +pickpockets were caught in the act of attempting to pick a pocket. On +being charged with the crime by the officers who had discovered them, +they admitted their guilt and profession, and said: "But what are you +going to do about it?" If the town authorities had been trustworthy the +pickpockets could have been sent to the penitentiary; because there was +practically no hope of securing their conviction in the local courts on +account of their ability to bribe, or to give a purely nominal bail and +then run away, they were let go. + +One of the best illustrations of how a town's officials sell themselves +is embodied in the vile character known as "the fixer." I know this man +best as a circus follower. Connected with nearly all shows, sometimes +officially and sometimes not, are men who have games of chance with +which they swindle the public. In late years it has become necessary for +these men, in order to run their games, to pay for what are called +"privileges," and the man who secures these is called "the fixer." He +goes to the mayor or the chief of police of a town, as necessity +requires,--sometimes to both,--assures them that the games are harmless +(which they know is a lie), and hands them $25, $50, or $100, as +circumstances may require. In association with the men who have the +games are pickpockets and other professional thieves,--indeed the +gamesters themselves can frequently change clothes with the pickpockets +and let the thieves attend to the games while they pick pockets. It is +not necessarily understood that the "crooks" are to be protected by the +authorities to the extent that the gamesters are, but "the fixer," who +stands in with the thieves also, is supposed to be able to get them out +of any serious trouble, or, at least, to warn them if he knows that +trouble is brewing. + +It was once my duty to run a race with a "fixer," and try to get the ear +of a mayor of a town before he did. Two other officers and myself had +assured ourselves that a "mob" of pickpockets was following up a circus +which was being transported over the railroad we were protecting, and we +knew that in one town, at least, "the fixer" had "squared" things with +the authorities. The circus was on its way to another town on our lines, +the mayor and police of which we believed we could swing our way if we +got to them before "the fixer" did, and we travelled there ahead of him. +We were particularly anxious to have the pickpockets arrested if they +put in an appearance, and we told the mayor who they were, what +protection they were getting, and explained to him how he would be +approached by "the fixer." The mayor listened to us, nodded his head +from time to time, and then said: "Well, there'll be no fixing done in +this town, and if you will point out the pickpockets, when they come in, +you may rest assured that they will be arrested. I can't understand what +the citizens of a town can be thinking of when they elect to office men +such as you describe." The pickpockets as well as "the fixer" must have +got wind of what we had done, for the former did not appear, and the +latter made no call on the mayor. We learned, however, that he arranged +things satisfactorily to all concerned in the town where the circus +exhibited on the following day. + +How many towns in this country can be "fixed" in this manner is a +question I would not attempt to answer, but I do know that in the +district where I was on duty as a police officer a great deal of tact +exercise was necessary to beat "the fixer" in a town where it was to his +interests to buy up the local authorities; and I ask in wonderment, as +did the mayor whom I have quoted: What are the citizens of a town +thinking of, when they allow such corrupt officials to manage things? Is +it because they are ignorant of what goes on, or merely because they are +indifferent? A friend in the police business, but a man who has +understood how to remain honest in spite of it, answers the question by +saying: "The world is a graft; flash enough boodle under nine noses out +of ten, and you can do as you like with them. Take New York, for +instance. I could clean up that city in a week if the people would stand +by me. They wouldn't do it. Enough would tumble down in front of some +fixer to queer everything that I might do. You can't do anything worth +while in the police business unless you've got the people behind you, +and they are as fickle as a cat. Why, if I were chief of police in New +York, and I should clean up the city thoroughly, there is a class of +business men who would come to me and say that I was taking away some of +the main attractions of the city, and that they were going to make a +kick about it. Heaven knows that the police are corrupt, but I tell you +that the public is corrupt, too. See how things are up in Canada! I have +just come back from there, and I can assure you that there is no such +sneak work going on up there as there is with us. Their police courts +are as dignified almost as is our Supreme Court, and if a crook gets +into one of them they settle him. How many crooks get what they ought to +in this country? About one in ten, and he could get off with a light +sentence, if he had money enough to square things." + +Perhaps this is true, and we are indifferent to corruption as a people. +Certainly the police business makes one think so, but I have not been in +it long enough to hold to this pessimistic notion. It is my opinion that +the majority of the people in this country do not realise what goes on +about them, and I can take my own experience as an example. I have seen +more of criminal life, perhaps, than the average person, and it would +seem that I ought to have been able to learn considerable about the +corruption in the country, but I must admit that, until this experience +in a police force, I had no idea that it was as widespread as it is. It +is not unreasonable to suppose that people who have never had occasion +to look into such matters at all must be even more ignorant of the +situation than I was. There is a great deal of wrong-doing that is +apparent to any one who takes an active part in municipal politics, and +the newspapers are continually reporting things which can but make it +obvious to all who read that there is a strong criminal class in the +United States; but one seldom takes such matters seriously until he is +brought in close contact with them, and the general public is not thus +influenced. + +Take the Mazet Committee, which recently investigated New York. So far +as the police are concerned, I cannot see that the committee brought to +light much that was new, and it was difficult for me to take an interest +in this part of the investigation. If they had subpoenaed a few +successful professional thieves located in New York, however, and +persuaded them to tell what they know, the situation would have been +much clearer to me and to the general public. More interest and +indignation would also have been aroused if New York is "protected" in +the way that I have indicated in the case of other towns. The police are +not going to help investigate themselves, and the public is not likely +to be permanently affected by what they say. A very definite effect +would be made upon me, however, if a thief would get up and tell on what +basis he is allowed to live in New York, what it costs him, if anything, +to "square" things when he is arrested, what his annual winnings are, +and what, in general, he thinks of the criminal situation in the city. +He is a specialist entitled to speak with authority, and I would accept +his statements as trustworthy. + +It is, of course, to be replied to all this that it is very difficult to +persuade a thief to talk, but the point I would make is that the public +seldom gets the truth in regard to such matters as are under +consideration. It hears in an indefinite way that corruption is rampant, +and then there is an investigation, but the average citizen rarely +realises what is going on until some personal business brings him in +contact with the suspected officials. Let a man have his pocket picked, +or his home robbed, and go to the police about it, and he will begin to +see how things are managed. If everybody could have this experience, +meet both detective and thief, and all could have a talk together, there +would be an awakening in public sentiment that would be very beneficial. + +Meanwhile all that I can recommend is to hunt down the unknown thief, +and punish him hard. There are different methods by which he can be +apprehended, but I know of none better than to catch the known thief and +through him find out the other. The police and court proceedings, if +carefully followed, are bound to develop the facts, and, these once +secured, the public is to blame if the unknown thief is not punished. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +A PENOLOGICAL PILGRIMAGE. + + +One of the advantages that the itinerant policeman has over the +stationary officer is that he can inspect a large number of penal +institutions, and find out who, among the people he has to keep track +of, are shut up. The municipal officer may know that a certain +"professional" is out of his bailiwick, but unless he can place him +elsewhere he is never sure when or where he may turn up again. The +itinerant officer, on the other hand, can follow a man, and if he gets +into prison the officer knows it immediately. This is a very definite +gain in the police business, and it would be well if police forces +generally were given the benefit of it. There is a National Bureau of +Identification to which officers who are members may apply for +information in regard to any offender of whom there is a record, and the +institution is to be recommended to those who are connected with police +life, but voluntary information in regard to convicts sent to police +chiefs by prison wardens would also be helpful. + +My interest in the lock-ups, jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries that +I visited on my travels was, in a measure, professional, but I was +mainly concerned in getting information in regard to their condition and +management, and in finding out to what extent they have a deterrent +effect on crime. All told, I inspected about thirty-five places of +detention and penal institutions, and they represent the best and worst +of their kind in the country. In criticising them I would not have it +understood that I hold the officials in charge necessarily responsible +for their condition--the taxpayers decide whether a community shall have +a truly modern prison or not; my purpose is merely to report what I saw, +and to comment objectively on my finding. + +I visited more lock-ups than anything else. On reaching a town, I went +as soon as possible to the "calaboose" to see who were held there. +Sometimes the little prison was empty, and then again every cell would +be occupied, but in a week I generally saw from thirty to fifty inmates. +Mature men predominated, but women and boys were also to be found. The +women were invariably separated from the men by at least a cell wall, +but the boys, and I saw some not over ten years old, were thrown in with +the most hardened criminals. They were allowed to pass about among the +men in the lock-up corridor, and at night were shut up with them in the +cells. This is the worst feature of the lock-up system in the United +States. Very little effort is made in the smaller towns to separate the +young from the old, the hardened from the unhardened, and even in the +lock-ups of large cities a much more careful classification of the +inmates is necessary. The officials in charge of these places excuse the +policy now in vogue on the ground that there is not room enough to give +the boys better attention, and the taxpayers say that there is not +money enough in the community to build larger lock-ups. There is always +a reason of some sort for every blunder that is made, but as long as we +make our lock-ups "kindergartens of crime," as I once heard a criminal +call them, there is no excuse whatever to wonder why there are so many +offenders. It is a fashion, nowadays, to run to "the positive school" of +Italy and France for an explanation concerning the origin of the +criminal, to ask Signor Lombroso to diagnose the situation, but in this +country we need but make a round of our lock-ups to discover where the +fresh crop of offenders comes from. They generally get to the lock-up +from the "slum," where they may or may not have shown criminal +proclivities, but once in the lock-up and allowed to associate with the +old offenders, very few of them, indeed, escape the contaminating +influences brought to bear upon them. + +The county jail may be described as the public school of crime. There +are some county jails in which a thorough classification of the inmates +is secured, but there is a very small number of these jails compared +with the hundreds in which young and old, first offenders and habitual +criminals, are all jumbled together. I can write from a full experience +in regard to our county jails, because I have not only had to visit them +as a police officer, but I have also had to "serve time" in them as a +tramp, and I know whereof I speak. Practically any boy, no matter what +his training has been, can be made a criminal if handed over to skilled +jail instructors, and every day in the year some lad, who, after all is +said, is really only mischievous, is committed by a magistrate or +justice of the peace to a county prison. There is no other place for the +magistrate to send the boy, if his parents demand his incarceration, and +the sheriff is not prepared to take him to the reform school +immediately, and so he is tossed into the general rag-bag of offenders +to take his chances. He is eventually sent to the reform school or house +of correction, where it is theoretically supposed that he is going to be +reformed; but it is a fact that the majority of professional offenders +in this country have generally spent a part of their youth in just such +institutions, where they were no more reformed than is a confirmed +jailbird on his release from a penitentiary. It is an extremely +difficult task to change any boy who goes to a reform school after a +long sitting in a county jail, and the wonder to me is that our +reformatories accomplish what they do. The superintendent of a +reformatory school in Colorado took me to task some years ago for making +the statement in public, in regard to tramps, that I have just made +about professional criminals,--that the majority of them have +experienced reform-school discipline,--and he said that it was a +thoroughly established fact that tramps keep out of such places. Of +course they keep out of them as full-grown men, as do also grown-up +thieves, but they are sent to them as youngsters, if apprehended for +some offence, whether they like it or not, and any one who is acquainted +with tramps and criminal life knows this to be true. + +I make so much mention of boys in this paper because they are to be the +next generation of offenders, unless we succeed in rescuing them from a +criminal life while they are still susceptible to good influences; and +we are not doing this, or even seriously thinking about it, when we give +them professional thieves and convicted murderers as associates in +jails. + +Various suggestions have been made by which the county jail system can +be improved, and I favour the one which recommends that the county +institution be abolished entirely, and that two or three well-equipped +houses of detention be made to suffice for an entire State. Such an +arrangement would not only be a great deal cheaper than the present +practice, but it would permit of a careful division of all the inmates. +Some of our workhouses are already run on this basis, several counties +contributing toward the support and maintenance of each. It would, of +course, be necessary to make a county's contributions toward the support +of a jail proportionate to its population, but there ought not to be any +great difficulty in arranging a satisfactory contract; and it is time, +anyhow, that we throw over some of our commercial notions about making +corrective and penal institutions pay their way. The thing to do is to +make them effective in checking crime, and if they are successful in +this very important particular, we can well afford to put a little money +in them without worrying about the financial returns. + +I visited but one reformatory during my pilgrimage, but it was +representative of the latest of these institutions. I refer to the +Elmira, N. Y. type. The old and hardened "professional" calls these +places the high schools of crime, the next grade after the county jail, +but I do not agree with him in this classification. It is true, as he +says, that a number of offenders are committed to these institutions, +who ought to have been sent to the penitentiary, and it is particularly +disgusting to him to see educated men, with "pull" and friends, who have +been convicted of crimes for which less favoured offenders would receive +sentences to the State prison, relieved of the disgrace of going to +prison by being sent to the "kids' pen," as the reformatory is also +sometimes called; but, admitting all this, I believe that the modern +reformatory, when well managed, represents the best penological notions. +As in all prisons, however, where the inmates work on the association +basis, a great deal can be taught that is not in the curriculum of the +institution, and it is consequently no surprise to meet, in the open, +criminals who have "served time" in reformatories. In the reformatory +that I visited, it was a disappointment to me to find that men whose +faces, manner, and bearing proved them to be, if not actual +professionals, at least understudies of men who are, were mixed up in +the workshops with young fellows whom any one would have picked out; for +comparatively innocent offenders. I believe in the principle of +association in certain corrective institutions also, but I do not +approve of indiscriminate companionship. A natural reply to my criticism +is that it is hard to tell who are the old offenders, but a prison +official who knows his business, and has learned how to read faces and +to interpret actions, ought to be able to separate the "crook" from the +beginner in crime. It is a false notion to think that the former is +going to be helped by association with the latter. A prison is a prison, +no matter what euphemistic name it is called, and the old offender is +not going to allow any "mother's boy" fellow prisoner to set him an +example. In the criminal world, as in the larger world on which it +lives, the law of the survival of the fittest is operative, and the +fittest, as a rule, are those who are the most hardened; in prison and +out, it is they who really run things. + +Another mistake made in the reformatory in question, according to my +view, is the age limit by which admission into the institution is +regulated. When a young man has reached his twenty-first year, and +commits a crime which calls for a prison sentence, I say let him have +it, no matter whose son he may be, provided the penitentiary authorities +observe the classification referred to above. If it can be proved +beyond a reasonable doubt that the young man is mentally deficient, and +not accountable for his actions, it is obvious that the State prison is +no place for him; but, otherwise, it is my observation that more good +than harm is done, if he is made to suffer the punishment that the law +demands. I realise that I am on debatable ground in taking this view of +such cases, but they are debatable largely because the different +opinions held in regard to them are the result of different +observations. Mine have been made mainly in the outdoor criminal world, +and I have not had a wide experience with the offender in confinement, +but I have met the pampered young criminal so often, and it has been so +plain that it was light punishment which trained him to stand the more +severe, that I have come to believe that a quick checking-up at the +start would have been more beneficial. + +Of penitentiaries I saw two, each in a different State. One contained +about two thousand five hundred inmates, and the other about one +thousand eight hundred. It is not easy even for a police officer to +explore these institutions freely. I know of one warden who refuses to +let the police have photographs of criminals in his charge; he says that +"it is not nice to pass them around,"--but I managed to see a good deal +that I could not possibly have seen as an ordinary visitor, hurried +through by a guard. + +As a general statement, it may be said that a penitentiary reflects the +warden's personality. There are rules to be observed and work to be +done, which have been arranged and planned for by the board of +directors, but the warden is the man with whom the prisoners have to +deal, and they look up to him as the principal authority in every-day +matters. His main anxiety is to get good conduct out of his charges, and +he has to experiment with various methods. Some wardens favour one +method and some another. One, for instance, will think that leniency and +kindness work best, while another will recommend whipping, the dungeon, +electricity, hot water, etc., for recalcitrant inmates. The idea of each +warden is that he wants things to go smoothly, and if they do not, he +has to straighten them out as best he can. All this is very interesting +from the warden's point of view, and it interested me also somewhat when +visiting the two penitentiaries; but my main endeavour was to try to +find out to what extent these institutions were lessening the number of +criminals in the communities which they served. A man may be as gentle +as a lamb while in durance, and the warden may pride himself on the good +conduct he is getting out of him, but how is he going to be when he has +his liberty once more? The cleverest criminal is usually the most docile +prisoner, and yet he takes up crime again as his profession after his +time has expired, and the penitentiary has been in his case merely a +house of detention. Excepting the death penalty, however, imprisonment +in a penitentiary is the final form of punishment that we have in this +country, and if it fails to check crime, either our criminals are +increasing out of proportion to our means for taking care of them, or we +do not administer the proper chastisement. From what I have been able +to see of our penitentiaries as a visitor, and have heard about them as +a fellow traveller with tramps, and incidentally with criminals, I am +inclined to accept the second conclusion. Crime has increased in this +country faster than the population, but in the older States there are +enough penal institutions to take care of the offenders, if they were +made to have the discouraging effect on criminals that similar +institutions have in Europe. + +The late Austin Bidwell, an American offender who had a long experience +in an English prison, and who was a competent judge of the kind of +punishment that is the most deterrent, once said to me that he believed +that a short imprisonment, if made very severe, accomplished more than a +long imprisonment with comforts. And he added that he thought that in +the United States a mistake was made in giving criminals long sentences +to easy prisons. I hold more or less to the same view. Penologically, I +think that the punishment in vogue in Delaware, for certain offences, +is wiser and more to the point than that in any other State in the +Union. Punishment in prison ought not to be wholly retributive,--it has +been well called expiatory discipline,--but it ought to check crime, and +up to date there is no satisfactory evidence that our prisons are +achieving this end. In many of them the discipline is too lenient. At +one of the prisons I visited, two Sundays of the month are given up to a +lawn festival, which the prisoners' friends may attend. They bring lunch +baskets and join the prisoners in the prison garden, where they chat, +eat ice-cream, and drink lemonade, sold at a booth presided over by one +of the prisoners, and generally amuse themselves. It seemed to me that I +was attending a picnic. In a talk with the warden in regard to the +affair, he said that he found that such favours made the prisoners more +tractable. + +In my humble opinion, a prison is not a place where favours of this +character need be expected or shown, and if good conduct can only be got +out of them by being "nice" to them after this fashion, they would +better be shut up in their cells until they can learn to obey. + +In conclusion, I desire to put two queries: Why is it that the cleverest +criminals in our prisons are frequently to be found taking their ease in +the prison hospitals and "insane wards," and how does it come that men +who belong to the class of prisoners who ought to wear the "stripes" are +allowed the clothes which ordinarily are only given to prisoners who +have passed the "stripe" period of their incarceration? In one +penitentiary I found a politician and rich physician favoured in the +latter particular, and in the hospital and insane ward of another, +enjoying themselves in rocking-chairs and a private garden, I found more +professional thieves than in any other part of the institution. I ask +the questions in all innocence, but there are those who claim that +correct answers to them would disclose some very bad practices in prison +management. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +A NEW CAREER FOR YOUNG MEN. + + +Up till the present time the police business in the United States has +remained almost exclusively in the hands of a particular class. From +Maine to California one finds practically the same type of man +patrolling a beat, and there is not much difference among the superior +officers of police forces. They all have about the same conceptions of +morality, honesty, and good citizenship, and they differ very little in +their notions of police policy and methods. The thing to do, the +majority of them think, is to keep a city superficially clean, and to +keep everything quiet that is likely to arouse the public to an +investigation. Nearly all are politicians in one form or another, and +they feel that the security of their positions depends on the turn that +politics may take. If they have a strict chief, one who tries to be +honest according to his best light, they are more on their good +behaviour than when governed by an easy-going man, but even under such +circumstances there may be found, in large forces, a great deal of +concealed disobedience. Their main friends and acquaintances are +saloon-keepers, professional politicians, and employees in other +departments of the municipal government. In small towns they mix with +the citizens more than in large cities, but the best of them acquire in +time a caste feeling which impels them to find companionship mainly +among their own kind. Not all are dishonest or lazy, but the majority +have a code of honour suggested by their life and business. Once in the +life, and accustomed to its requirements, it is very difficult for them +to change to another. They have learned how to arrest men, to make +reports, to keep their eyes open or shut according to necessity, to rest +when standing on their feet, and to appreciate the benefits of a +regularly drawn salary, and their intelligence and general training +correspond with such an existence. A few develop extraordinary ability +in ferreting out crime, and become successful detectives, and others +keep their records sufficiently clean, or secure enough "pull," to rise +to superior posts, and in certain cases these exceptional men would fit +into exemplary police organisations. As a general thing, however, they +are men who would have received much less responsible positions in other +walks of life. This is as true of the commanding officers as of the +patrolmen. The captain of a precinct is frequently as poorly educated as +the patrolman serving under him, and his gold braid and brass buttons +are all that really differentiate him from the men he orders about. The +chief, in some instances, is a man of demonstrated ability, but there +are chiefs and chiefs, and the way their selection is managed it is +largely a matter of luck whether a town gets a good or bad one. +Occasionally the citizens of a town will become indignant, and remove +from office a disreputable chief, choosing in his place some highly +respected citizen who has consented to take the position on a "reform +platform" and for awhile the town has a man at the head of its police +force who is accepted as an equal in society and is recognised as an +influential man in municipal affairs, but before long the professional +politicians get hold of the reins of government again, things get back +into the old rut, and the conventional chief returns. + +It is this precariousness of the life, and the slavery to politicians, +that have probably deterred educated young men from making police work +their life business. They have seen no chance of holding prominent +police positions long, and they have possibly dreaded the companionship +which a policeman's life seems to presuppose. The young man just out of +college and casting about for a foothold in the world practically never +includes the police career in the number of life activities from which +he must make a choice. It is the law, medicine, journalism, or +railroading which generally attracts him, and he leaves unconsidered +one of the most useful callings in the world. There are few men who are +given more responsible positions, and who have better opportunities of +doing something worth while, than the police officer, and I think that I +ought to add, the prison official. In Germany this fact is recognised, +and men train for police and prison work as deliberately and diligently +as for any other profession; in this country very little training is +done, and the result is that comparatively inferior men get the +important posts, and our cities are not taken care of as they ought to +be, and could be. + +There is nothing sufficiently promising as yet in the state of public +opinion to justify one in saying that the time is particularly opportune +for young men to begin to consider the police career as a possible +calling, but I doubt whether there ever will be until the young men take +the matter into their own hands and give public notice of their +determination to enter the profession. Numerous obstacles will be put in +their way, and hundreds will get discouraged, but for those who +"stick," a great career will open up. The beginners must necessarily be +the pioneers and fight the brunt of the battle, but, the battle once +fought, there will be some positions of splendid opportunity. + +For the benefit of those who may care to consider seriously the +possibilities of the career, it will not be inappropriate, perhaps, to +describe the kind of men they may expect to have to associate with while +going through their apprenticeship, to explain some of the difficulties +that will be encountered, and to make a few suggestions in regard to the +training necessary for a successful performance of duty. I can write of +these matters only as a beginner, but it is the would-be beginner that I +desire to reach. + +In all police organisations supported by cities there are two distinct +kinds of officers, the uniformed men and the detectives. Among these the +beginner will have to pick out his friends, and until he knows well the +work of both classes of men he will be in a quandary as to which he +desires to ally himself with. There are things in the detective's life +which make it more attractive to some men than the policeman's, and +_vice versa_. The two officers have different attitudes toward the +criminal world, and the beginner will probably be decided in his choice +according to the impression the different attitudes make upon him. The +uniformed officer, or "Flatty," as he is called in the thief's jargon, +if he remains upright and honest, arrests a successful professional +criminal with the same _sang-froid_ and objectivity that are +characteristic of him when arresting a "disorderly drunk." It is a +perfunctory act with him; the offender must be shut up, no matter who he +is, and he is the party paid to do it. + +The officer in citizen's clothes, the "Elbow," is a different kind of +man. He realises as well as the "Flatty" that it is his business to try +to protect the community which employs him, but he handles a prisoner, +especially if the latter is a nicely dressed and well known thief, in a +different way from the ostentatious manner of arrest characteristic of +the ordinary policeman. It almost seems sometimes as if he were showing +deference to his prisoner, and the two walk along together like two old +acquaintances. The fact of the matter is that a truly successful +professional thief is a very interesting man to meet, and he is all the +more interesting to the officer if he has been able to catch him +unawares and without much trouble. Realising what a big man he has +got,--and thieves themselves have no better opinion of their ability +than that which the detective has of it,--he likes to ask him about +other big men, to get "wise," as the expression is. If it has been a +hard chase, he also likes to go over the details of it, and find out who +has doubled the most on his tracks. In time, if he keeps steadily at the +business and learns to know a number of what are called "good guns" +(clever thieves), he develops into a recognised successful +thief-catcher; but he has spent so much of his time in fraternising with +"guns," in order to learn from them, that he comes to think that his +moral responsibility is over after he has located them. Technically, I +suppose this is true; it is his business to catch, and the State must +prosecute and convict. The point I would bring out, however, is that he +is inclined to be lenient with his prisoner. To him the struggle has +been merely one of intelligence and shrewdness; he has had to be quick +and alert in capturing the "gun," and the latter has exercised all of +his ingenuity in trying to escape. Moral issues have not been at stake; +the thief has not stolen from the officer, and why should the latter not +be friendly when they meet? + +In defence of this attitude toward crime it may be said that criminals +are much more tractable in the custody of an officer of the kind under +consideration than when arrested by some blustering "Flatty," who shows +them up in the street as they walk along, and it is natural for a +detective to try to do his work with as little friction as possible. The +question, however, that I was continually putting to myself as a +beginner in the business was, whether I should not eventually drift +into a very easy-going policeman if I learned to look upon the thief +merely as a whetstone, so to speak, on which my wits were to be +sharpened. It seemed to me that to do my full duty it was necessary to +have moral ballast as well as shrewd intelligence, really to believe in +law, and that lawbreakers must be punished. I would not have it +understood that there are no police officers who keep hold of this +point, but I am compelled to say that the detective--and he is the man +to whom we shall have to go before professional crime in this country +can be seriously dealt with--is too much inclined to overlook it. + +The beginner in the profession must take sides, one way or another, in +regard to this kind of officer, and as he chooses for him or against him +he will find himself in favour or not with the class--and it is a large +one--to which the man belongs. It is unpleasant to have to begin one's +career by immediately antagonising a number of daily companions, and a +series of exasperating experiences follow such a policy, but in the +case in question I believe it will be found best to nail up one's +colours instanter and never to take them down. The officer who does this +gets the reputation of being at least consistent even among his enemies, +and he is also relieved of being continually approached by criminals +with bribes. + +Once started on his course, and his policy defined, the worst difficulty +that he will encounter for a number of months will be a reluctance, +natural to all beginners, to make an arrest. It seems easy enough to +walk up to a man, put a hand lightly on his shoulder, and say: "You're +my prisoner," but one never realises how hard it is until he tries it. +During my experience I had no occasion to make an arrest single-handed, +but it did fall to my lot to have a prisoner beg and beseech me to let +him go after he had been turned over to my care, and to the beginner +this is the hardest appeal to withstand. The majority of persons +arrested are justly taken into custody, and the bulk of the "hard luck" +stories they tell are fabrications, but it takes a man who has been +years in the service to listen to some of their tales of woe without +wincing. + +This squeamishness conquered, the beginner will have to be careful not +to become hard and pessimistic. There is a good deal to be said in +excuse of a police officer who develops these traits of character,--the +life he leads is itself often hard,--but if they dominate his nature he +learns to look upon the world in general merely as a great collection of +human beings, any one of whom he may have to arrest some day. He sees so +much that is "crooked" that he is in danger of thinking that he sees +crime and thieves wherever he turns, and unless he is very cautious he +will drift into a philosophy which permits him to be "crooked" also, +because, as he thinks, everybody else is. + +If the beginner has lived in a society where courtesies and kindnesses, +rather than insults and scoldings, have prevailed, he will also find it +hard for awhile to appreciate the fact that a police officer is a +peacemaker, and not an avenger. Wherever he goes, and no matter what he +does, he is a target for the nasty slings of rowdies and a favourite +victim of the "roastings" of thieves. In tramp life I have had to take +my share of insults, and until I experimented with the police business I +thought that as mean things had been said to me as a man ought to stand +in an ordinary lifetime, but on no tramp trip have I been berated by +criminals as severely as during my recent experience as a railroad +police officer, and yet it was my duty not to answer back if a quarrel +was in sight. + +Not all, however, in the policeman's life is exasperating and +discouraging. But few men have so many opportunities of doing good, and +of keeping track of people in whom they have taken an interest. Nothing +has pleased me more in my relations with the outcast world than the +chance I had as a railroad patrolman to help in sending home a penitent +runaway boy. He had left Chicago on the "blind baggage" of a passenger +train to get away from a tyrannical stepfather, and he fell into our +hands as a trespasser and vagrant several hundred miles from his +starting-point. It was a pitiful case with which no officer likes to +deal according to the requirements of the law, but we had to arrest him +to rescue him from the local officers of the town where he had been +apprehended; if he had been turned over to them the probability is that +he would have been put on the stone-pile with the hardened tramps, and +when released would have drifted into tramp life. We took him to +headquarters on the train, and the general manager of the railroad gave +him a pass home, where he has remained, sending me a number of weekly +accounts about himself. I report the incident both to show the +opportunities in a policeman's life, and to give a railroad company +credit for a kind deed which has probably preserved for the country a +bright lad who would otherwise have been an expense and trouble to it as +a vagabond and criminal. + +A word, before closing this chapter, in regard to how a young man, +desirous of following the police career, can best get a start. I chose a +railroad police force for my preliminary experience, and I would +recommend a similar choice to other beginners if the opportunity is +favourable. As long as a man does his work well in a railroad police +organisation he is not likely to be disturbed, but under existing +conditions the same cannot be said of a municipal force. A railroad +officer also has the advantage of being able to travel extensively and +to acquaint himself with different communities. If he can rise to the +top there is no reason, so far as I can see, why he should not be an +eligible candidate for the superintendency of a municipal police force. +The chief that I had, if he were able to gather the right men about him, +could protect a large city as successfully as he now protects a big +railroad system. If it is impossible for a would-be beginner to find +lodgment in any police force at the start, my suggestion is that he +experiment with the work of a police reporter on a newspaper. It is +difficult at present for a police reporter to tell all that he learns, +and it is to be hoped that he will some day be able to give the readers +of his paper full accounts of his investigations; but the young man who +is training for police work can make the reporter's position, in spite +of its present discouraging limitations, a stepping-stone to a position +in a police organisation. It helps him to get "wise," as the detective +says, and it is when he has become "wise" in the full sense of the word +that he is most valuable in the police business. + +A guard's position in a penitentiary makes a man acquainted with a great +many criminals, and is helpful in teaching one in regard to the +efficiency of different kinds of punishment. It is, perhaps, to be +recommended to the beginner as the next best position to try for, if, +after the reporter experience, there is still no opening in a police +force. The beginner may not be sure whether he desires to become a +police officer or to take part in the management of a prison, and the +guard's post helps him to come to a decision. + +All three of the recommended preparatory positions will be found useful, +if the young man has the patience and time to go through the drudgery +which they involve, and he will find that when he finally succeeds in +getting into a large police force he has a great advantage over men who +have not had his thorough training. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +"GAY-CATS." + + +Scattered over the railroads, sometimes travelling in freight-cars, and +sometimes sitting pensively around camp-fires, working when the mood is +on them, and loafing when they have accumulated a "stake," always +criticising other people but never themselves, seldom very happy or +unhappy, and almost constantly without homes such as the persevering +workingman struggles for and secures, there is an army of men and boys +who, if a census of the unemployed were taken, would have to be included +in the class which the regular tramps call "gay-cats." They claim that +they are over five hundred thousand strong, and socialistic agitators +sometimes urge that there are more than a million of them, but they +probably do not really number over one hundred thousand. + +Not much is known about them by the general public, except that they are +continually shifting from place to place, particularly during the warm +months. In the winter they are known to seek shelter in the large +cities, where they swell the ranks of the discontented and complaining, +and accept benefits from charitable societies. They certainly are not +tramps, in the hobo's sense of the word. His reason for derisively +calling them "gay-cats" is that they work when they have to, and tramp +only when the weather is fine. + +Many of them really prefer working to begging, but they are without +employment during several months in the year, and are constantly +grumbling about their lot in the world. They think that they are the +representative unemployed men of the country, and are gradually +developing a class feeling among themselves. They always speak of their +kind as "the poor," and of the people who employ them as "the rich," and +they believe that their number is continually increasing. + +As a railroad policeman it was my duty to keep well in touch with this +class of wanderers. Although they do not belong to the real tramp +fraternity, and are disliked by the hoboes proper, they follow the +hobo's methods of travel, and are constantly trespassing on railroad +property. The general manager of the railroad by which I was employed +asked me to gather all the facts that I could in regard to their class. + +"The attitude of the company toward this class of trespassers," he said, +in talking to me about the matter, "must necessarily be the same as +toward the tramps, as long as they both use the same methods of travel, +but I have often wondered whether there are enough of those who claim to +be merely unemployed men to justify railroad companies in experimenting +with a cheap train a day, somewhat similar in make-up to the fourth +class in Germany and Russia. At present the trouble is that we can't +tell whether they would support such a train, and I personally am not +convinced that all of them are as honest out-of-works as they say they +are, when arrested for stealing rides. If you can gather any data +concerning them which will throw light on this matter, I should be glad +to have it." + +All told, I have met on the railroads about one thousand men and boys +who claimed to be out-of-works and not professional vagabonds and +tramps. In saying that I have met them, I mean that I have talked with +them and learned considerable about their history, present condition, +and plans and hopes for the future. They talked with me as freely as +with one of their own kind; indeed, they seemed to assume that I +belonged among them. + +The most striking thing about them is that the majority are practically +youths, the average age being about twenty-three years, both West and +East. Of my one thousand out-of-works, fully two-thirds were between +twenty and twenty-five years old; the rest were young boys under +eighteen and mature men anywhere from forty to seventy. + +Youths of all classes of society have their _Wanderjahre_, and so much +time during this period is taken up with mere roaming that it is easy to +understand how many of them must be without work from time to time. It +is also true that young men are more hasty than their elders in giving +up positions on account of some real or supposed affront; life is all +before them, they think, anyhow, and meanwhile they do not intend to +knuckle down to any overbearing employer. In certain parts of the +country, on account of crowded conditions, it must be stated, +furthermore, that it is difficult for a number of young men to get +suitable employment. + +There is a sociological significance, however, about the present +strikingly large number of young men who are "beating" their way over +the country on the railroads. There is gradually being developed in the +United States a class of wanderers who may be likened to the degenerated +_Handwerksburschen_ of Germany. They are not necessarily apprentices in +the sense that the _Handwerksburschen_ usually are, although the great +majority of them have trades and make some effort, in winter at least, +to work at them, but they are almost the exact counterpart of the +_Burschen_ in their migratory habits. Years ago the travelling +apprentice was a picturesque figure in German life, and it was thought +quite proper that he should pack up his tools every now and then, get +out his wheelbarrow, and take a jaunt into the world. He had to take to +the highways in those days, and there was no such inducement, as there +is now, to make long, unbroken trips. A few miles a day was the average +stint, and at the end of a fortnight, or possibly a month, he was ready +and glad to go to work again. + +This is not the case to-day. The contemporary _Handwerksbursch_ works +just as little as he can, and travels in fourth-class cars as far as the +rails will carry him. In a few years, unless there is some home +influence to bring him back, he generally wanders so far afield that he +becomes a victim of _Die Ferne_, a thing of romance and poetry to his +sturdier ancestors of Luther's time, which for him has become a snare +and a delusion. German vagabondage is largely recruited from German +apprentices. It is the same love of _Die Ferne_, the desire to get out +into the world and have adventures independent of parental care and +guidance, which accounts largely for the presence of so many young men +in the ranks of the unemployed in this country. As I have said, they are +not tramps or "hoboes," but neither are they victims of trusts, +monopolists or capital. + +Great public undertakings, like the World's Fair at Chicago, the recent +war with Spain, a new railroad and the attractions of places like the +Klondike, have a tendency to increase the number of these youthful +out-of-works. The World's Fair stranded many thousands, and there are +already signs that the war with Spain has brought out a fresh crop of +them. They have taken to travelling on the railroads because they have +become inoculated with _Wanderlust_ and because they think that it is +only by continually shifting that they are likely to get work. The same +thing took place, only on a larger scale, after the Civil War, and our +present tramp class is the result. Some of the young men who took part +in the Spanish war, and when mustered out joined the wanderers on the +railroads, will eventually develop into full-fledged tramps; it is +inevitable. At present they are merely out-of-works, and at times +honestly seek work. + +Let me tell the story of one of my young companions for a few days on a +railroad in Ohio. He was a plumber by trade and had left a job only a +fortnight before I met him. The weather had got too warm to work, he +said (it was in June), and he had enough of a "stake" to keep him going +for several weeks "on the road." He was on his way to the Northwest. + +"The West is the only part o' this country worth much, I guess," he +said, "'n' I'm goin' out there to look around. Here in the East +ev'rything is in the hands o' the rich. There's no chance for a young +fellow here in Ohio any more." I asked him whether he was not able to +make a good living when he remained at work. "Oh, I can live all right," +he replied, "but this country's got to give me somethin' more'n a +livin', before I'll work hard month in and month out. I ain't goin' to +slave for anybody. I got as good a right's the next man to enjoy myself, +'n' when I want to go off on a trip I'm goin'." I suggested that this +was hardly the philosophy of men who made and saved a great deal of +money. "Well, I ain't goin' to work hard all my life 'n' have nothin' +but money at the end of it. I want to live as I go along, 'n' I like +hittin' the road ev'ry now and then." + +"How long do you generally keep a job?" + +"If I get a good one in the fall I generally keep it till spring, but +the year round I guess I change places ev'ry two or three months." + +"How much of a loaf do you have between jobs?" + +"It depends. Last year I was nearly four months on the hog +once,--couldn't get anything. As a general thing, though, I don't have +to wait over six weeks if I look hard." + +"Are you going to look hard out West?" + +"Well, I'm goin' to size up the country, 'n' if I like it, why, I guess +I'll take a job for awhile. I got enough money to keep me in tobacco 'n' +booze for a few weeks, 'n' it don't cost me anything to ride or eat." + +"How do you manage?" + +"I hustle for my grub the way hoboes do,--it's easy enough." + +"I should think a workingman like yourself would hate to do that." + +"I used to a little, but I got over it. You got to help yourself in this +world, 'n' I'm learnin' how to do it, too." + +The nationality of the "gay-cats" is mainly American. A large number +have parents who were born in Europe, but they themselves were born in +this country, and there are thousands whose families have been settled +here for several generations. + +What I have said in regard to the unemployed young men applies also, in +a measure, to the old men; the latter, in many cases, are as much the +victims of _Wanderlust_ as are their youthful companions: but there are +certain special facts which go to explain their vagabondage. The older +men are more frequently confirmed drunkards than are the younger men. +Occasionally during the past year I have met an aged out-of-work who was +a "total abstainer," but nine-tenths of all the mature men were by their +own confession hard drinkers. Whether their loose habits are also +answerable for their love of carping and criticising, and their notion +that they alone know how the world should be run, it is impossible for +me to say; but certain it is that their continual grumbling and scolding +against those who have been more persevering than they is another of the +causes which have brought them to their present unfortunate state. Men +who are unceasingly finding fault with their lot, and yet make no +serious attempt to better it, cannot "get on" very far in this country, +or in any other. + +This type of out-of-work exists everywhere, in Germany, Russia, England, +and France as well as in the United States, but I am not sure that our +particular civilisation, or rather our form of government, has not a +tendency to develop it here a little more rapidly than in any other +country which I have explored. + +It is a popular notion in the United States that every American has the +right to say what he thinks, and my finding is that the love of speaking +one's mind is exceedingly strong among the uneducated people of the +country. Agitators, who go among them, are partly to blame for this, and +I have observed that a number of the expressions used by the "gay-cats" +are the stock phrases of socialistic propagandists, but there is +something in the air they breathe that seems to incite them to +untempered speech. In Germany, where there is certainly far more +governmental interference to rant about, and among an equally +intelligent class of out-of-works who are not allowed for an instant the +freedom of movement permitted the same class in America, there is no +such wild talk as is to be heard among our unemployed. I have met scores +of old men on the railroads whom long indulgence in unconsidered +language has incapacitated for saying anything good about any one of our +institutions, as they conceive them, and they begrudge even their +companions a generous word. Such men, it seems to me, must necessarily +go to the wall, and although a few, perhaps, can advance evidence to +show that circumstances over which they had no control brought them low, +the majority of those that I know have themselves to blame for their +present vagabondage. + +It is furthermore to be remarked concerning these aged out-of-works that +pride and unwillingness to take work outside of their trades have also +been causes of their bankruptcy. The same is true, to some extent, of +all sorts of unemployed men, young and old, but it is particularly true +of "gay-cats" who have passed their thirty-fifth year. I have known them +to tramp and beg for months rather than accept employment which they +considered beneath their training and intelligence. + +It has been a revelation to me to associate with these men and see how +determined they are that the employing class shall have no opportunity +to say: "Ah, ha! we told you so!" Many of them have given up their +positions in a pet, and taken to the "road," with the idea that if they +cannot get what they want they will make the world lodge and feed them +for nothing. To bring out clearly their point of view, I will describe a +man whom I travelled with in Illinois. He had been without employment +for over eight months when I met him, and had just passed his +forty-second year. He expected to get work again before long, and was +passing the time away, until the position was ready for him, travelling +up and down the Illinois Central Railroad. He was a carpenter by +profession, and claimed that for over five years he had never worked at +any other occupation, when he worked at all. + +"I put in three hard years learnin' to be a carpenter," he said, "an' I +ain't goin' to learn another trade now. For awhile I used to take all +kinds o' jobs when I got hard up, but I've got over that. It's +carpenterin' or nothin' with me from now on. You got to put your foot +down in this country or you won't get on at all. + +"If I was married 'n' had kids, o' course I'd have to crawl 'n' take +what I could get, but, seein' I ain't, I'm goin' to be just as stuck up +as any other man that's got somethin' to sell. That's what all men like +us in this country ought to do. The rich have got it into their heads +that they can have us when they want us, 'n' kick us out when they don't +want us, 'n' that's what they've been doin' with the most of us. They +ain't goin' to play with me any more, though. Ten years ago I was better +off than I am now, 'n' I'd be in good shape to-day if it hadn't been for +one o' them trusts." + +"Are you not at all to blame for your present condition?" I asked, +knowing that the man was fond of whiskey. He thought a moment, and then +admitted that he might have squandered less money on "booze," but he +believed that he was entitled to the "fun" that "booze" brings. + +"'Course we workingmen drink," he explained, "'n' a lot of us gets on +our uppers, but ain't we got as much right to get drunk 'n' have a good +time as the rich? I'm runnin' my own life. When I want work I'll work, +'n' when I don't I won't. What we men need is more independence. What +the devil 'ud become o' the world if we refused to work? Couldn't go on +at all. That's what I keep tellin' my carpenter pals. 'Don't take +nothin' outside o' your trade,' I tell 'em, 'n' then the blokes with no +trades'll have a better chance.' But you know how it is,--you might as +well tell the most of 'em not to eat. I have had a little sense knocked +into me. You don't catch me workin' outside o' my trade. I'd rather +bum." + +And, unless he got the job he expected, he is probably still "on the +road." + +Enough, perhaps, has already been said to indicate the general trend of +the philosophy of the "gay-cats," but this account of them will fail to +do them justice if I do not quote them in regard to such matters as +government, religion, and democracy. It has never been my privilege to +hear them contribute anything particularly valuable to a better +understanding of the questions they discuss, but it seems fitting to +report upon some of their conclaves, if only to show how they pass away +much of their time. They have an unconquerable desire to express +themselves on all occasions and on all subjects, and it is no +exaggeration to say that two-thirds of their day passes in talk. + +In regard to the government under which we live, the favourite +expression used to characterise it was the word "fake." + +"Republic!" I heard a man exclaim one day; "this ain't no republic. It's +run by the few just as much as Russia is. There ain't no real republic +in existence. You and I are just as much slaves as the negroes were." + +Not all stated their opinions so strongly as this, and there were some +who believed that on paper, at least, we have a democratic form of +government, but the prevailing notion seemed to be that it was only on +paper. The Republican party is considered as derelict as the Democratic +by these critics. Neither organisation, they contend, is trying to live +up to what a republic ought to stand for, and they see no hope, either +for themselves or anybody else, in any of the existing political +parties. When quizzed about our Constitution and the functions of the +various departments of the government, they all show deplorable +ignorance, but it avails nothing to take them to task on this ground. +"They guessed they knew the facts just about as well as anybody else," +and that was supposed to end the matter. + +Religion, which the majority of the men with whom I talked took to be +synonymous with the word church, was another favourite topic of +discussion. Indeed, as I look back now over my conversations with the +"gay-cats," it seems to me that there was more said on this subject than +any other, and I have observed its popularity as a topic of conversation +among unemployed men in other countries as well. There is something +about it which is very attractive to men who are vagrants, as they +think, because of circumstances over which they had no control, and they +sit and talk by the hour about what they think the church ought to do, +and wherein it fails to accomplish that which it is supposed to have +for a purpose. The men that I met think that the reason that the church +in this country is not more successful in getting hold of people is +because it neglects its duties to the poor. + +"Here you and I are," a young mechanic remarked to me, as we sat in the +cold at a railroad watering-tank, "and what does any church in this town +care about us? Ten chances to one that, excepting the Catholic priest, +every clergyman we might go to for assistance would turn us down. Is +that Christianity? Is that the way religion is going to make you and me +any better? Not on your life. I tell you, the church has got to take +more interest in me before I am going to go out of my way to take much +interest in it." + +"But the church is not a public poor-house," I remonstrated. "You and I +are no more excused than other people from earning our living. If the +church had to take care of all the people who think they're poor, it +would go bankrupt in a day." + +"It's bankrupt already, so far as having any influence over the men that +you and I meet," he replied. "I don't see a man more than once in six +months who goes near a church, and he's generally a Catholic. There's +something wrong, you can bet, when things have got to that pass. If the +church can't interest fellows like us, it's going to have its troubles +interesting anybody." + +There were others who expressed themselves equally strongly, but I was +unable to get any satisfactory suggestion from any of them as to how the +church may be made either more religious or effective. They all had +their notions concerning its defects and shortcomings, but they seemed +unable to tell how these were to be supplanted by merits and virtues. +Many of them impressed me as men who would be capable, under different +conditions, of religious feeling, and there was something pathetic, I +thought, in the way they loved to linger in conversation on the subject +of religion, but in their present circumstances the most inspired church +in the world could not do much with them. They are victims of the +passion for indiscriminate criticism, and I doubt whether they would +know whether a church was doing its duty or not. + +Naturally a never-failing subject for talk was the labour question, and, +under this general head, in particular the importation of foreign labour +by the big corporations. I cannot recall an allusion to their present +circumstances that did not bring this point prominently to the fore, and +on occasions the mere mention of the word "foreigner" was sufficient to +bring out the most violent invectives. In a number of instances they +claimed that they knew absolutely that they had been forced out of +positions to make room for aliens who would work for less money. + +"An American don't count for what he used to in this country," an old +man said to me in Chicago. "The corporations don't care who a man is, so +long as he'll work cheap. 'Course a Dago can live cheaper'n I can, 'n' +so he beats me. I don't blame the Dago, 'cause he's doin' better'n he +did in Italy, anyhow, but I do blame them corporations, 'n' they're +goin' to get it in the neck some day, too. I won't live to see it, +perhaps, but you will. I tell you, Jack, there's goin' to be a +revolution in this country just as sure as this city is Chicago. It's +comin' nearer every day. Just wait till there's about a million more men +on the road, 'n' then you'll see somethin'. It'll beat that French +revolution bang up, take my tip for that." + +This same man, if his companions told the truth, had had a number of +opportunities to succeed, and had let them slip through his hands. Like +hundreds of others, however, he could not bear to admit that he was to +blame for his own defeat in life, and he made the foreigner his +scapegoat. It is, perhaps, true that some foreigners in this country +have ousted some Americans from their positions, but one needs but to +make a journey on any one of the railroads frequented by "gay-cats" to +realise how small a minority of them are tramping because foreigners +have got their jobs. Corporations and trusts may or may not be +beneficial, according to the way one considers them, but, in my opinion, +they are innocent of dealing unfairly by the thousand "gay-cats" that I +have recently interviewed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE LAKE SHORE PUSH. + + +Previous to my experience in a railroad police force, I was employed by +the same railroad company in making an investigation of the tramp +situation on the lines under their management. The object of the +investigation was to find out whether the policy pursued by the company +was going to be permanently successful in keeping tramps and +"train-riders" off the property, and to discover how neighbouring roads +dealt with trespassers. Incidentally, I was also to interview tramps +that I met, and ask their opinion of the methods used by the railroad +for which I worked. The first month of the investigation was given up to +roads crossing and recrossing the lines in which I was particularly +interested, and I lived and travelled during this period like a +professional tramp. While on my travels I made the acquaintance of a +very interesting organisation of criminal tramps, which is continually +troubling railroads in the middle West. As I also had to keep watch of +it while on duty as a patrolman, an account of my experience with some +of its members seems to fall within the scope of this book. + +One night, after I had been out about a week on the preliminary +investigation for the railroad, I arrived at Ashtabula, Ohio, on the +Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, in company with a little +Englishman, who, when we registered at the police station where we went +to ask for shelter, facetiously signed himself, George the Fourth. There +are four "stops," as the tramp says, in Ashtabula, three police stations +and the sand-house of the Lake Shore Railroad, and after we had used up +our welcome in the police stations we went to the sand-house. Later, +when we were sure that the police had forgotten us, we returned to the +"calabooses," and made another round of them, but we also spent several +nights at the sand-house. On our first night at the sand-house we +arrived there before the other lodgers had finished their hunt for +supper, and on the principle of "first come first served" we picked out +the best places in the sand. It was early in April, and in Ashtabula at +this season of the year the sand nearest the fire is the most +comfortable. During the evening other men and boys came in, but they +recognised that our early arrival entitled us to the good places, and +they picked out the next best. About ten o'clock we all fell asleep, +leaving barely enough room for the sand-house attendant to move about +and attend to his duties. A little after midnight I was awakened by loud +voices scolding and cursing, and heard a man, whom I could not see, +however, say: + +"Kick the fellow's head off. It's your place right 'nough, teach 'im a +lesson." + +Somebody struck a match then, and I saw two burly men standing over the +little Englishman. They were the roughest-looking customers I have ever +seen anywhere. More matches were struck in different parts of the +sand-house, and I heard men whispering to one another that the two +disturbers were "Lake Shore Push people," and that there was going to be +a fight. + +"Get up, will ye?" one of them said, in a brutal voice to my companion. +"It's a wonder ye wouldn't find a place o' yer own." + +"Hit 'im with the poker," the other advised. "Stave his slats in." + +Then the first speaker made as if he were going to kick the Englishman +in the head with his big hobnailed boot. The Englishman could stand it +no longer, and jumping to his feet and snatching up an empty +sand-bucket, he took a defensive position, and said: + +"Come on, now, if you blokes want a scrap. One o' ye'll go down." + +The crowd seemed only to need this exhibition of grit on the part of the +Britisher to make them rally to his side, and one of them set a ball of +newspapers afire for a light, and the rest grabbed sand-buckets and +pieces of board and made ready to assist the Britisher in "doing up" the +two bullies. The latter wisely decided that fifteen to two was too much +of a disadvantage, and left, threatening to come back with the "push" +and "clean out the entire house," which they failed to do, however, that +night or on any other night that the Englishman and I spent at the +sand-house. + +After they had gone, the crowd gathered around the Englishman, and he +was congratulated on having "put up such a good front" against the two +men. Then began a general discussion of the organisation, or "push," as +it was called, which I could only partially follow. I had been out of +Hoboland for a number of years previous to this experience, and the +"push" was a new institution to me. It was obvious, however, that it +played a very prominent part in the lives of the men at the sand-house, +for each one present had a story to tell of how he had been imposed upon +by it, either on a freight-train or at some stopping-place, in more or +less the same way as the Englishman had been. Had it not been that +questions on my part would have proven me to be a "tenderfoot," which it +was bad policy for one in my position to admit as possible, I should +have made inquiries then and there, for it was plain that the "push" was +an association that ought to interest me also; but all that I learned +that night was that there was a gang of wild characters who were trying +to run the Lake Shore Railroad, so far as Hoboland was concerned, +according to their own wishes and interests, and that there were +constant clashes between them and such men as were gathered together in +the sand-house. There was no mention made of their strength or identity; +the conversation was confined to accounts of their persecutions and +crimes, and to suggestions as to how they could be made to disband. One +man, I remember, said that the only thing to do was to shoot them, one +at a time, on sight, and he declared that he would join a "push" which +would make this task its object as an organisation. "They're the +meanest push this country has ever seen," he added, "an' workin' men as +well as 'boes ought to help do 'em up. They hold up ev'rybody, an' it's +got so that it's all a man's life's worth to ride on this road." + +The following morning, while reading the newspaper, a week or so old, in +which a baker had wrapped up some rolls which I had purchased of him, I +came across a paragraph in the local column, which read something like +this: "A middle-aged man was found dead yesterday morning, lying in the +bushes near the railroad track between Girard and Erie. His neck was +broken, and it is thought that he is another victim of the notorious +'Lake Shore gang.' The supposition is that he was beating his way on a +freight-train when the gang overtook him, and that, after robbing him, +they threw him off the train." + +After reading this paragraph, I strolled down the Lake Shore tracks to +the west, until I came to the coal-chutes, where tramp camps are to be +found the year round. As many as fifty men can be seen here on +occasions, sitting around fires kept up by the railroad company's coal, +and "dope" from the wheel-boxes of freight-cars. I found two camps on +the morning in question, one very near the coal chutes, and the other +about a quarter of a mile farther on. There were about a dozen men at +the first, and not quite thirty at the second. I halted at the first, +thinking that both were camps where all roadsters would be welcome. I +had hardly taken a seat on one of the ties, and said, "How are you?" +when a dirty-looking fellow of about fifty years asked me, in sarcasm, +as I afterward learned, if I had a match. "S'pose y' ain't got a piece +o' wood with a little brimstone on the end of it, have ye?" were his +words. I replied that I had, and was about to hand him one, when a +general grin ran over the faces of the men, and I heard a man near me, +say, "Tenderfoot, sure." It was plain that there was something either in +my make-up or manner which was not regular, but I was not left long in +suspense as to what it was. The dirty man with the gray hair explained +the situation. "This is our fire, our camp, an' our deestrict," he said +in a gruff voice, "an' you better go off an' build one o' yer own. Ye've +got a match, ye say?" the intonation of his voice sneeringly suggesting +the interrogation. There was nothing to do but go, and I went, but I +gave the camp a minute "sizing up" as I left. The men were having what +is called in tramp parlance a "store-made scoff." They had bought eggs, +bread, butter, meat, and potatoes in Ashtabula, and were in the midst of +their breakfast when I came upon them. In looks they were what a tramp +companion of mine once described as "blowed in the glass stiffs." It is +not easy to explain to one who has never been in Hoboland and learned +instinctively to appraise roadsters what this expression signifies, but +in the present instance it means that depravity was simply dripping off +them. Their faces were "tough" and dirty, their clothes were tattered +and torn, their voices were rasping and coarse, and their general +manner was as mean as human nature is capable of. To compare them to a +collection of rowdies with which the reader is acquainted, I would say +that they resembled very closely the tramps pictured in the illustrated +edition of Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper." Their average age +was about thirty-five years, but several were fifty and over, and others +were under twenty. The clever detective would probably have picked them +out for what they were, "hobo guns,"--tramp thieves and "hold-up" +men,--but the ordinary citizen would have classified them merely as +"dirty tramps," which would also have been the truth, but not the whole +truth. + +I learned more definitely about them at the second camp, where a welcome +was extended to everybody. "Got the hot-foot at the other camp, I +guess?" a young fellow said to me as I sat down beside him, and I +admitted the fact. "Those brutes wouldn't do a favour to their own +mothers," he went on. "We've jus' been chewin' the rag 'bout goin' over +an' havin' a scrap with 'em. There's enough of us this mornin' to lay +'em out." + +"Who are they?" + +"Some o' the Lake Shore gang. They jump in an' out o' here ev'ry few +days. There's a lot more o' them down at Painesville. They're scattered +all along the line. Las' night some of 'em held up those two +stone-masons settin' over there on that pile o' ties. Took away their +tools, an' made 'em trade clothes. Caught 'em in a box-car comin' East. +Shoved guns under their noses, an' the masons had to cough up." + +A few nights after this experience, and again in company with my friend, +George the Fourth, I applied for lodging at the police station at +Ashtabula Harbour. We made two of the first four to be admitted on the +night in question, and picked out, selfishly, it is true, but entirely +within our rights, two cells near the fire. We had made up our beds on +the cell benches out of our coats and newspapers, and were boiling some +coffee on the stove preparatory to going to sleep, when four newcomers, +whom I had seen at the "push's" camp, were ushered in. They went +immediately to the cells we had chosen, and, seeing that our things were +in them, said: "These your togs in here?" We "allowed" that they were. +"Take 'em out, then, 'cause these are our cells." + +"How your cells?" asked George. + +"See here, young fella, do as yer told. See?" + +"No, I don't see. You're not so warm." And George drew out his razor. +The men must have seen something in his eyes which cowed them, for they +chose other cells. I expected that they would maul us unmercifully +before morning, but we were left in peace. + +One more episode: One afternoon George and I decided that it was time +for us to be on the move again, and we boarded a train of empty cars +bound West. We had ridden along pleasantly enough for about ten miles, +taking in the scenery through the slats of the car, when we saw three +men climb down the side of the car. George whispered "Lake Shore Push" +to me the minute we saw them, and we both knew that we were to be "held +up," if the fellows ever got at us. It was a predicament which called +for a cool head and quick action, and George the Fourth had both. He +addressed the invaders in a language peculiar to men of the road and +distinctive mainly on account of its expletives, and wound up his +harangue with the threat that the first man who tried to open the door +would have his hand cut off. And he flashed his ubiquitous razor as +evidence of his ability to carry out the threat. The engineer +fortunately whistled just then for a watering-tank, and the men +clambered back to the top of the car, and we saw them no more. + +So much for my personal experience with the "Lake Shore Push" as a +possible victim; they failed to do me any harm, but it was not their +fault. They interested me so much that I spent two weeks on the Lake +Shore Railroad in order to learn the truth concerning them. I reasoned +that if such an organisation as they seemed to be was possible on one +railroad property, it might easily develop on another, and I deemed it +worth while to inform myself in regard to their origin, strength, and +purpose. Nearly every other newspaper that I came across, while +travelling in this district, made some reference to them, but always in +an indefinite way which showed that even the police reporter had not +been able to find out much about them. They were always spoken of as the +"infamous" or "notorious Lake Shore gang," and all kinds of crimes were +supposed to have been committed by them, but there was nothing in any of +the newspaper paragraphs which gave me any clue as to their identity. In +the course of my investigations I ran across a man by the name of Peg +Kelley, who had known me years before in the far West, and with whom I +had tramped at different times. We went over in detail, I romancing a +little, our experiences in the interval of time since our last meeting, +and he finally confessed to me that he was a member of the "Lake Shore +Push," and added that he was prepared to suggest my name for membership. +From him I got what he claims are the facts in regard to the "push." To +the best of my knowledge, never before in our history has an association +of outlaws developed on the same lines as has the "Lake Shore Push," and +it stands alone in the purpose for which it now exists. + +In the early seventies, some say in 1874, and others a little earlier, +there lived in a row of old frame houses standing on, or near, the site +of the present Lake View Park in Cleveland, Ohio, a collection of +professional criminals, among whom were six fellows called New Orleans +Tom, Buffalo Slim, Big Yellow, Allegheny B., Looking Glass Jack, and +Garry. The names of these particular men are given, because Peg Kelley +believes that they constituted the nucleus of the present "Lake Shore +Push." They are probably all dead by this time; at any rate, the word +"push" was not current tramp slang in their day, and they referred to +themselves merely as the "gang." Cleveland was their headquarters, and +it is reported that the town was a sort of Mecca for outlaws throughout +the neighbouring vicinity. The main "graft," or business, of the gang, +was robbing merchandise cars, banks, post-offices, and doing what is +called "slough work," robbing locked houses. The leader of the company, +if such men can be said to have a leader, was New Orleans Tom, who is +described as a typical Southern desperado. He had been a sailor before +joining the gang, and claimed that during the Civil War he was captured +by Union soldiers and sailors, while on the _Harriet Lane_, lying off +Galveston. The gang grew in numbers as the years went on, and there is a +second stage in its development when Danny the Soldier, as he was +called, seems to have taken Slim's place in leadership. By 1880, +although still not called "The Lake Shore Push," the gang had made a +name for itself, or, rather, a "record," to use the word which the men +themselves would have preferred, and had become known to tramps and +criminals throughout northern Ohio and southern Michigan. The police got +after them from time to time, and there were periods when they were +considerably scattered, but whenever they came together again, even in +twos and threes, it was recognised that pals were meeting pals. When +members of the gang died or were sent to limbo, it was comparatively +easy to fill their places either with "talent" imported from other +districts, or with local fellows who were glad to become identified with +a mob. There has always been a rough element in such towns as Cleveland, +Toledo, Erie, and Buffalo, from which gangs could be recruited; it is +composed largely of "lakers," men who work on the lakes during the open +season, and live by their wits in winter time. This class has +contributed its full share to the criminal population of the country, +and has always been heavily represented in mobs and gangs along the lake +shore. + +Opinions differ, Peg Kelley claims, as to when the name "Lake Shore +Push" was first used by the gang, as well as to who invented it, but it +is his opinion, and I have none better to offer, that it was late in the +eighties when it was first suggested, and that it was outsiders, such +as transient roadsters, who made the expression popular. He says, in +regard to this point: + +"The gang was known to hang out along the lake shore, an' mainly on the +Lake Shore Road, an' 'boes from other States kep' seein' 'em an' hearin' +about 'em when they came this way. Well, ye know how 'boes are. If they +see a bloke holdin' down a district they give 'im the name o' the place, +an' that's the way the gang got its monikey (nickname). The 'boes kep' +talkin' about the push holdin' down the Lake Shore Road, an' after +awhile they took to callin' it the 'Lake Shore Push.' + +"Ev'ry 'bo in the country knows the name now. Way out in 'Frisco, 'f +they know 't ye've come from 'round here they'll ask ye 'bout the push, +if it's what it's cracked up to be, an' all that kind o' thing. It's got +the biggest rep of any 'bo push in the country." + +The story of how the "push" got its "rep" is best told by Peg, and in +his own words. I have been at considerable pains to verify his +statements, and have yet to discover him in wilful misrepresentation. He +admits that the "push" has done some dastardly deeds, and appreciates +perfectly why it is so hated by out-of-works who have to "beat" their +way on trains which run through its territory, but he believes that it +could not have been otherwise, considering the purpose for which the +"push" was organised. + +"Ye can't try to monopolise anythin', Cigarette," he said to me, +"without gettin' into a row with somebody, an' that's been the +'xperience o' the push. When there was jus' that Cleveland gang, nobody +said nothin', 'cause they didn't try to run things, but the minute the +big push came ev'rybody was talkin', an' they're chewin' the rag yet." + +"Who first thought of organising the big push?" + +"I don't know 't any one bloke thought of it. It was at the time that +trusts an' syndicates an' that kind o' thing was beginnin' to be +pop'lar, an' the blokes had been readin' 'bout 'em in the newspapers. I +was out West then,--it was in '89,--an' didn't know 'bout the push one +way or the other, but from what the blokes tell me the idea came to all +of 'em 'bout the same time. Ye see, that Cleveland gang had kep' growin' +an' growin' an' spreadin' out, an' after awhile there was a big mob of +'em floatin' up an' down the road here. Blokes from other places had got +into it, an' they'd got to be the biggest push on the line. There was no +partickler leader, the way the James and Dalton gangs had leaders, an' +there never has been. 'Course the newspapers try to make out that this +fella an' that fella runs the thing, but they don't know what they're +talkin' 'bout. The bigger the gang got, the more room it wanted, an' +pretty soon they began to get a grouch on against the gay-cats that kep' +comin' to their camps. Ye know how it is yourself. When ye've got +'customed to a push, ye don't want to have to mix with a lot o' +strangers, an' that's the way the gang felt, an' they got to drivin' the +gay-cats away from their camps. That started 'em to wonderin' why they +shouldn't have the Lake Shore Road all to themselves. As I was tellin' +ye, trusts an' syndicates was gettin' into the air 'bout that time, an' +the push didn't see why it couldn't have one too; an' they begun to have +reg'lar fights with the gay-cats. I came into the push jus' about the +time the scrappin' began. I ain't speshully fond o' scrappin', but I did +like the idea o' dividin' up territory. There's no use talkin', Cig, if +all the 'boes in the country 'ud do what we been tryin' to do, there'd +be a lot more money in the game. Take the Erie Road, the Pennsy, the +Dope,[1] an' the rest of 'em. Ye know as well as I do, 't if the 'boes +on those lines 'ud organise an' keep ev'ry bum off of 'em 't wasn't in +the push, an' 'ud keep the push from gettin' too large, they'd be a lot +better off. 'Course there's got to be scrappin' to do the thing, but +that don't need to interfere. See how the trusts an' syndicates scrap +till they get what they want, an' see how many throats they cut. We've +thrown bums off trains, I won't deny it, an' we hold up ev'ry one of +'em 't we can get hold of, but ain't that what the trusts are doin', +too?" + +I asked him whether the "push" distinguished or not in the people it +halted. + +"If a reg'lar 'bo, a fella 't we know by name," he went on, "will open +up an' tell us who he is, an' his graft, we'll let 'im go, but we tell +'im that the world's gettin' smaller 'n' smaller, 'n' 't he'd better get +a cinch on a part of it, too. That don't mean 't he can join the push, +an' he knows it. He understan's what we're drivin' at. He can ride on +the road 'f he likes, but he'll get sick o' bein' by himself all the +time, an' 'll take a mooch after awhile. 'Course all don't do it, ye've +seen yerself that there's hunderds runnin' up an' down the line 't we +ain't got rid of, an' p'r'aps never will. I ain't so dead sure that the +thing's goin' to work, but the coppers'll never break us up, anyhow. +They've been tryin' now for years, an' they've got some of the blokes +settled, but we can fill their places the minute they've gone." + +"How many are in the push?" + +"'Bout a hunderd an' fifty. Sometimes there's more an' sometimes +there's less, but it aver'ges 'bout that." + +"Do all the fellows come from around here?" + +"No, not half of 'em. There's fellas from all over; a lot of 'em are +Westerners." + +"What is the main graft?" + +"Well, we're diggin' into these cars right along. We got plants all +along the road, from Buffalo to Chi. I can fit ye out in a new suit o' +clothes to-morrow, 'f ye want to go up the line with me." + +"Don't the railroad people trouble you?" + +"O' course, they ain't lookin' on while we're robbin' 'em, but they +can't do very much. We got the trainmen pretty well scared, an' when +they get too rambunctious we do one of 'em up." + +"Do you ever shift to other roads?" + +"Lately we've branched out a little over on the Dope an' the Erie, but +the main hang-outs are on the Shore. We know this road down to the +ground, an' we ain't so sure o' the others. Most o' the post-office +work, though, is done off this road." + +"What kind of work is that?" + +"Peter-work,[2] o' course, what d'ye think?" + +"Pan out pretty well?" + +"Don't get much cash, but the stamps are jus' about as good. Awhile ago +I was payin' fer ev'rythin' in stamps. Felt like one o' the old +fourth-class postmasters." + +"Doesn't the government get after you?" + +"Oh, it's settled some of us, but as I was tellin' ye, there's always +fellas to take the empty places." + +"Got much fall money?" + +"No, not a bit. We don't save anythin', it all goes fer booze an' grub. +I've seen a big box o' shoes go fer two kegs o' beer, an' ye can't get +much fall money out o' that kind o' bargaining. We have a good time, +though, an' we're the high-monkey-monks o' this road." + +Later he introduced me to some of his companions. They were the same +kind of men with whom the Englishman and I had had the disagreeable +encounters,--rough and vicious-looking. "They're not bad fellas, are +they?" Peg asked, when we were alone again. "You'd tie up to them, Cig, +'f ye was on the Shore, I know ye would." + +It was useless to argue with him, and we separated, he to join a +detachment of the "push" in western New York, and I to continue on my +way westward. Since the meeting with Peg I have been back several times +in the "push's" territory, and have continued to make acquaintances in +it. In the tramp's criminal world it stands for the most successful form +of syndicated lawlessness known up to date, and, unless soon broken up +and severely dealt with, it will serve as a pattern for other +organisations. Whether it is copied or not, however, when the history of +crime in the United States is written, and a very interesting history it +will be, the "Lake Shore Push" must be given by the historian a +prominent place in his classification of criminal mobs. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. + +[2] A "Peter-man" is a safe-"blower," and Peter-work is safe-breaking. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +HOW TRAMPS BEG. + + +It is a popular notion that tramps have a mysterious sign-language in +which they communicate secrets to one another in regard to professional +matters. It is thought, for instance, that they make peculiar chalk and +pencil marks on fences and horse-blocks, indicating to the brotherhood +such things as whether a certain house is "good" or not, where a +ferocious dog is kept, at what time the police are least likely, or most +likely, to put in an appearance, how late in the morning a barn can be +occupied before the farmer will be up and about, and where a convenient +chicken-coop is located. + +Elaborate accounts have been written in newspapers about the amount of +information they give to one another in this way, and many persons +believe that tramps rely on a sign-language in their begging. + +It is well to state at the outset that this is a false conception of +their methods. They all have jargons and lingoes of their own choosing +and making, and they converse in them when among themselves, but the +reported puzzling signs and marks which are supposed to obviate all +verbal speech are a fabrication so far as the majority of roadsters are +concerned. Among the "Blanket Stiffs" in the far West, and among the +"Bindle Men," "Mush Fakirs," and "Turnpikers," of the middle West, the +East, and Canada, there exists a crude system of marking "good" houses, +but these vagrants do not belong to the rank and file of the tramp army, +and are comparatively few in numbers. + +It is furthermore to be said that the marking referred to is occasional +rather than usual. Probably one of the main reasons why the public has +imagined that tramps use hieroglyphics, in their profession is that when +charity is shown to one of them the giver is frequently plagued with a +visitation from a raft of beggars. + +This phenomenon, however, is easily explained without recourse to the +sign-language theory. Outside of nearly all towns of ten thousand +inhabitants and more the tramps have little camps or "hang-outs," where +they make their headquarters while "working" the community. Naturally +they compare notes at meal-time, and if one beggar has discovered what +he considers an easy "mark,"--a good house,--he tells his pals about it, +so that they may also get the benefit of its hospitality. The finder of +the house cannot visit it himself again until his face has been +forgotten, at any rate he seldom does visit it more than once during a +week's stay in the town; but his companions can, so he tells them where +it is, and what kind of a story they must use. + +Although the hoboes do not make use of the marks and signs with which +the popular fancy has credited them, they have a number of interesting +theories about begging and a large variety of clever ruses to deceive +people, and it is well for the public to keep as up-to-date in regard to +these matters as they keep in regard to the public's sympathies. Not all +tramps are either clever or successful; the "road" is travelled by a +great many more amateurs than professionals, but it is the earnest +endeavour of all at least to make a living, and there are thousands who +make something besides. + +Roughly estimated, there are from sixty to seventy-five thousand tramps +in the United States, and probably a fifth of all may be classified as +"first-class" tramps. There is a second and a third class, and even a +fourth, but it is the "A Number One men," as they call themselves, who +are the most interesting. + +The main distinction between these tramps and the less successful +members of the craft is that they have completely conquered the +amateur's squeamishness about begging. It seems comparatively easy to go +to a back door and ask for something to eat, and the mere wording of the +request is easy,--all too easy,--but the hard part of the transaction is +to screw up courage enough to open the front gate. The beginner in +tramp life goes to a dozen front gates before he can brace himself for +the interview at the back door, and there are men to whom a vagrant life +is attractive who never overcome the "tenderfoot's" bashfulness. + +It was once my lot to have a rather successful professional burglar for +a companion on a short tramp trip in the middle West. We had come +together in the haphazard way that all tramp acquaintanceships are +formed. We met at a railroad watering-tank. The man's sojourn in +trampdom, however, was only temporary; it was a good hiding-place until +the detectives should give up the hunt for him. He had "planted" his +money elsewhere, and meanwhile he had to take his chances with the +"'boes." + +He was not a man who would ordinarily arouse much pity, but a tramp +could not have helped having sympathy for him at meal-time. At every +interview he had at back doors he was seized with the "tenderfoot's" +bashfulness, and during the ten days that our companionship lasted he +got but one "square meal." His profession of robber gave him no +assistance. + +"I can steal," he said, "go into houses at night, and take my chances in +a shootin' scrape, but I'll be ---- if I can beg. 'Taint like swipin'. +When ye swipe, ye don't ask no questions, an' ye don't answer none. In +this business ye got to cough up yer whole soul jus' to get a lump +(hand-out). I'd rather swipe." + +This is the testimony of practically all beginners in the beggar's +business; at the start thieving seems to them a much easier task. As the +weeks and months pass by, however, they become hardened and discover +that their "nerve" needs only to be developed to assert itself, and the +time comes when nothing is so valuable that they do not feel justified +in asking for it. They then definitely identify themselves with the +profession and build up reputations as "first-class" tramps. + +Each man's experience suggests to him how this reputation can best be +acquired. One man, for example, finds that he does best with a "graft" +peculiarly his own, and another discovers that it is only at a certain +time of the year, or in a particular part of the country, that he comes +out winner. The tramp has to experiment in all kinds of ways ere he +understands himself or his public, and he makes mistakes even after an +apprenticeship extending over years of time. + +In every country where he lives, however, there is a common fund of +experience and fact by which he regulates his conduct in the majority of +cases. It is the collective testimony of generations and generations of +tramps who have lived before him, and he acts upon it in about the same +way that human beings in general act upon ordinary human experience. + +Emergencies arise when his own ingenuity alone avails and the "average +finding" is of no use to him, and on such occasions he makes a note on +the case and reports about it at the next "hang-out" conclave. If he has +invented something of real value, a good begging story, for instance, +and it is generally accepted as good, it is labelled "Shorty's Gag," or +"Slim's," as the man's name may be, and becomes his contribution to the +general collection of "gags." + +It is the man who has memorised the greatest number of "gags" or "ghost +stories," as they are also called, and can handle them deftly as +circumstances suggest, that is the most successful beggar. There are +other requirements to be observed, but unless a man has a good stock of +stories with which to "fool" people, he cannot expect to gain a foothold +among "the blowed in the glass stiffs." He must also keep continually +working over his stock. "Ghost stories" are like bonnets; those that +were fashionable and _comme il faut_ last year are this year out of +date, and they must be changed to suit new tastes and conditions, or be +replaced by new ones. Frequently a fresh version of an old story has to +be improvised on the spot, so to speak. + +The following personal experience illustrates under what circumstances +"gags" are invented. It also shows how even the professionals forget +themselves and their pose on occasions. + +One morning, about eight years ago, I arrived in a small town in the +Mohawk valley in company with a tramp called Indianapolis Red. We had +ridden all night in a box-car in the hope of reaching New York by +morning, but the freight had been delayed on account of a wreck, and we +were so hungry when we reached the town in question that we simply had +to get off and look for something to eat. It was not a place, as we well +knew, where tramps were welcome, but the train would not stop again at a +town of any size until long after breakfast, so we decided to take our +chances. + +We had an hour at our disposal until the next "freight" was due. The +great question was what story we should tell, and we both rummaged +through our collections to find a good one. Finally, after each of us +had suggested a number of different stories and had refused them in +turn, on the ground that they were too old for such a "hostile" place, +Red suggested that we try "the deef 'n' dum' gag." There are several +"gags" of this description, and I asked him which one he meant. + +"Let's work it this way," he said, and he began to improvise. "I'm your +deef 'n' dum' brother, see? An' we're on our way to New York, where I'm +going to get a job. I'm a clerk, and you're seein' me down to the city +so's't nothin'll happen to me. Our money's given out, an' we've simply +got to ask fer assistance. We're ter'bly hungry, an' you want to know if +the lady o' the house'll be good enough to help yer brother along. See?" + +I "saw" all right, and accepted the proposition, but the odds seemed +against us, because the town was one of the most unfriendly along the +line. We picked out a house near the track. As a rule such houses have +been "begged out," but we reasoned that if our story would go at all it +would go there, and besides the house was convenient for catching the +next freight-train. + +As we approached the back door I was careful to talk to Red on my +fingers, thinking that somebody might be watching us. A motherly old +lady answered our knock. I told her Red's story in my best manner, +filling it out with convincing details. She heard me out, and then +scrutinised Red in the way that we all look at creatures who are +peculiar or abnormal. Then she smiled and invited us into the +dining-room where the rest of the family were at breakfast. It turned +out to be a Free Methodist clergyman's household. We were given places +at the table, and ate as rapidly as we could, or rather Red did; I was +continually being interrupted by the family asking me questions about my +"unfortunate brother." + +"Was he born that way?" they asked, in hushed voices. "How did he learn +to write? Can he ever get well?" and other like queries which I had to +answer in turn. By the time I had finished my meal, however, I saw by a +clock on the wall that we had still fifteen minutes to catch our train, +and gave Red a nudge under the table as a hint that we ought to be +going. We were about to get up and thank our hostess for her kindness +when the man of the house, the clergyman, suggested that we stay to +family prayers. + +"Glad to have you," he said; "if you can remain. You may get good out of +it." I told him frankly that we wanted to catch a train and had only a +few minutes to spare, but he assured me that he would not be long and +asked me to explain the situation to Red. I did so with my fingers, +telling the parson afterward that Red's wiggling of his fingers meant +that he would be delighted to stay, but a wink of his left eye, meant +for me alone, said plainly enough to "let the prayers go." + +We stood committed, however, and there was nothing to do but join the +family in the sitting-room, where I was given a Bible to read two +verses, one for Red and one for myself. This part of the program +finished, the parson began to pray. All went well until he came to that +part of his prayer where he referred to the "unfortunate brother in our +midst," and asked that Red's speech and hearing be restored. + +Just then Red heard the whistle of our freight. He forgot everything, +all that I had said and all that he had tried to act out, and with a +wild whoop he sprang for the door, shouting back to me, as he went out: + +"Hustle, Cigarette, there's our rattler." + +There was nothing to do but follow after him as fast as my legs would +carry me, and I did so in my liveliest manner. I have never been in the +town since this experience, and it is to be hoped that the parson's +family have forgiven and forgotten both Red and me. + +Besides studying the persons of whom he begs, and to whom he adapts his +"ghost stories" as their different natures require, the tramp also has +to keep in mind the time of the day, the state of the weather, and the +character of the community in which he is begging. I refer, of course, +to the expert tramp. The amateur blunders on regardless of these +important details, and asks for things which have no relation with the +time of the day, the season, or the locality. + +It is bad form, for instance, to ask early in the morning for money to +buy a glass of whiskey, and it is equally inopportune to request a +contribution toward the purchase of a railway ticket late at night. The +"tenderfoot" is apt to make both of these mistakes; the expert, never. +The steady patrons of beggars, and all old hands at the business have +such, seldom realise how completely adjusted to local conditions "ghost +stories" are. They probably think that they have heard the story told to +them time and again and in the same way, but if they observe carefully +they will generally find that, either in the modulation of the voice, or +the tone of expression, it is different on rainy days, for instance, +from what it is when the sun shines. It takes a trained ear to +discriminate, and expert beggars realise that much of their finesse is +lost even on persons who give to them; but they are artists in their +way, and believe in "art for art's sake." Then, too, it is always +possible that they will encounter somebody who will appreciate their +talent, and this is also a gratification. + +Speaking generally, there is more begging done in winter than in summer, +and in the East and North than in the South and West; but some of the +cleverest begging takes place in the warm months. It is comparatively +easy to get something to eat and a bed in a lodging-house when the +thermometer stands ten degrees below zero. A man feels mean in refusing +an appeal to his generosity at this time of the year. "I may be cold and +hungry some day myself," he thinks, and he gives the beggar a dime or +two. + +In summer, on the other hand, the tramp has no freezing weather to help +him out, and has to invent excuses. Even a story of "no work" is of +little use in the summer. This is the season, as a rule, when work is +most plentiful, and when wages are highest, and the tramp knows it, and +is aware that the public also understands this much of political +economy. Nevertheless, he must live in summer as well as in winter, and +he has to plan differently for both seasons. + +The main difference between his summer and winter campaigns is that he +generally travels in summer, taking in the small towns where people are +less "on to him," and where there are all kinds of free "dosses" (places +to sleep), in the shape of barns and empty houses. In November he +returns to the cities again to get the benefit of the cold weather +"dodge," or goes South to Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. + +Probably fifteen thousand Eastern and Northern tramps winter in the +South every year. Their luck there seems to be entirely individual; some +do well and others barely live. They are all glad, however, to return to +the North in April and go over their old routes again. + +An amusing experience that I had not long ago illustrates the different +kind of tactics necessary in the tramp's summer campaign. So far as I +know, he has never made use of the story that did me such good service, +and that was told in all truthfulness, but it has since occurred to me +that he might find it useful, and I relate it here so that the reader +may not be taken unawares if some tramp should attempt to get the +benefit of it. + +I was travelling with some tramps in western Pennsylvania at the time, +and we were "beating" our way on a freight-train toward a town where we +expected to spend the night. Noontime found us all hungry, and we got +off the train at a small village to look for lunch. It was such a small +place that it was decided that each man should pick out his particular +"beat," and confine his search to the few houses it contained. If some +failed to get anything, those who were more successful were to bring +them back "hand-outs." + +My "beat" was so sparsely settled that I hardly expected to get so much +as a piece of bread, because the entire village was known to hate +tramps; but an inspiration came to me as I was crossing the fields, and +I got a "set-down" and a "hand-out" at the first house I visited. + +The interview at the back door ran thus: + +"Madam,"--she was rather a severe-looking woman,--"I have exactly five +cents in my pocket and I am awfully hungry. I know that you don't keep a +boarding-house, but I have come to you thinking that you will give me +more for my nickel than the storekeeper will over in the village. I +shall be obliged to you if you will help me out." + +A look of surprise came into the woman's face. I was a new species to +her, and I knew it, and she knew it. + +"Don't know whether we've got anything you want," she said, as if I were +a guest rather than a wayfarer. + +"Anything will do, madam, anything," I replied, throwing into my words +all the sincerity of which a hungry man is capable. She invited me into +the dining-room, and gave me a most satisfying meal. There were no +conversational interruptions. I ate my meal in silence and the woman +watched me. The new species interested her. + +Just as I was finishing, she put some sandwiches, cake, and pie into a +newspaper. I had made a good impression. + +"There," she said, as I was about to go. "You may need it." + +I held out my nickel and thanked her. She blushed, and put her hands +behind her back. + +"I don't keep a hotel," she said, rather indignantly. + +"But, madam, I want to pay you. I'm no beggar." + +"You wouldn't have got it if you had been. Good-bye." + +The tramps' methods of begging, as has been said, are largely regulated +by circumstances and experience, but even the amateurs have theories +about the profession, and they are never more interesting than when +sitting around some "hang-out" camp-fire, discussing their notions of +the kind of "ghost stories" that go best with different sorts of people. +Indeed, the bulk of their time is passed in conferences of this +character. Each man, like the passionate gambler, has a "system," and he +enjoys "chewing the rag" about its intricacies. The majority of the +systems are founded on the tramp's knowledge of women. Taking the +country by and large, he sees more of women on his begging tours than +of men, and it is only natural that his theoretical calculations should +be busied mainly with women. Some tramps believe that they can tell to a +nicety what a blonde woman will give in excess of a brunette, or vice +versa, and the same of a large woman in contra-distinction to a small +one. Much of their theorising in these matters is as futile as is the +gambler's estimate of his chances of luck, but certain it is that after +a long apprenticeship they become phenomenally accurate in "sizing up" +people; and it is he who can correctly "size up" the greatest number of +people at first glance and adapt himself to their peculiarities, that +comes out winner in the struggle. + +Next in importance to the ability to appraise correctly the generous +tendencies of his patrons, and to modulate his voice and to concoct +stories according to their tastes, come the tramp's clothes and the way +he wears them. It probably seems to most persons that the tramp never +changes his clothes, and that he always looks as tattered and torn as +when they happen to see him, but the expert has almost as many +"changes" as the actor. Some days he dresses very poorly; this is +generally the case in winter; and on other days he looks as neat and +clean as the ordinary business man. It all depends on the weather and +the "beat" he has chosen for the day's work. Every morning, before he +starts out on his tour, he takes a look at the weather and decides upon +his "beat." The "beat" selected, he puts on the "togs" which he thinks +suit the weather, and away he goes for better or worse. In New York city +there are probably a hundred scientific beggars of this character, and +they live as well as does the man with a yearly income of $2,000. + +Sunday is the most dismal day in the week to the average tramp,--the +beggar who is content with his three meals a day and a place to lie down +in at night. But few men who go on tramp for the first time expect that +Sunday is going to be any different from any other day in the week. They +usually reach "the road" on a week-day after a debauch, and they find +that their soiled clothes and general unkempt condition differentiate +them in public thoroughfares very little from hundreds of workingmen. No +policeman worries them with suspicious glances, and in large cities they +pass unchallenged even in the dead of night. Indeed, they receive so +little notice from any one that they wonder how they had ever imagined +that outcasts were such marked human beings. + +Then comes their first Sunday. They get up out of their hayloft, or +wherever it may be that they lay down the night before, prepared to look +for their breakfast just as they did on the previous day, and after +brushing off their clothes and washing themselves at some pump or public +faucet, they start out. In a small town they feel that something is +wrong before they have gone a block, and by nine o'clock in large towns +they decide to go without their breakfast if they have not yet got it. A +change has come over the earth; they seem out of place even to +themselves, and they return through back streets to their lodging-houses +or retreats on the outskirts of the town, sincerely regretting that +they are travellers of "the road." + +A number of men in the world have to thank this Sunday nausea that they +are to-day workers and not tramps. The latter feel the effects of it to +the end of their days; it is as unescapable as death, but like certain +seafaring men who never get entirely free of seasickness and yet +continue as sailors, so old vagabonds learn to expect and endure the +miserable sensations which they experience on the first day of the week. +These sensations are due to the remnant of manhood which is to be found +in nearly all tramps. The majority of them are for all practical +purposes outcasts, but at breakfast-time, on Sunday morning, they have +emotions which on week-days no one would give them credit for. + +It was my fate, some years ago, to be one of a collection of wanderers +who had to while away a Sunday in a "dugout" on a bleak prairie in +western Kansas. We had nothing to eat or drink and practically nothing +to talk about except our dismal lot. Toward nightfall we got to +discussing in all earnestness the miserableness of our existence, and I +have always remembered the remarks of a fellow sufferer whom we called +"West Virginia Brown." He was supposed to be the degenerate scion of a +noble English family, and was one of the best educated men I have ever +met in Hoboland. He took little part in the general grumbling, but at +last there was a lull in the conversation, and he spoke up. + +"I wonder," he said, "whether the good people who rest on Sunday, go to +church, and have their best dinner in the week, realise how life is +turned upside down for us on that day. There have always been men like +us in the world, and it is for us as much as for any one, so far as I +know, that religion exists, and yet the day in the week set apart for +religion is the hardest of all for us to worry through. Was it, or +wasn't it, the intention that outcasts were to have religion? The way +things are now, we are made to look upon Sunday and all that it means +with hatred, and yet I don't believe that there's any one in the world +who tries to be any squarer to his pals than we do, and that's what I +call being good." + +The last "the road" knew of Brown, he was serving a five years' sentence +in a Canadian prison. His lot cannot be pleasant, but methinks that on +Sundays, at least, he is glad that he is not "outside." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE TRAMP'S POLITICS. + + +As a political party the tramps cannot be said to amount to much. +Counting "gay-cats" and hoboes, the two main wings of the army, they are +numerous enough, if concentrated in a single State, or in a city like +New York, to cast, perhaps, the determining vote in a close election, +but they are so scattered that they never become a formidable political +organisation. They are more in evidence in the East than in the West, +and in the North than in the South, but they are to be met in every +State and Territory in the Union. On account of their migratory habits +very few of them are legally entitled to vote, and the probability is +that only a small fraction of them actively take part in elections. In +large cities like New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, +and during fiercely fought political struggles even in some of the +smaller towns, they are collected into colonies by unscrupulous +electioneering specialists, and paid to vote as they are told, but +otherwise they make very little effort to have their voices count in +political affairs. Two of their number, Indiana Blackie and Railroad +Jack, have achieved some notoriety as stump speakers, and Blackie was a +man who might have secured political preferment,--a consulship, +perhaps,--if he had understood how to keep sober, but he broke down +during a campaign in West Virginia, and was drowned not long after in +the Ohio River. In Wheeling, West Virginia, I heard him make one of the +wittiest political speeches I have ever heard anywhere, and his hearers +listened to him as attentively as a few evenings before they had +listened to a famous politician. The speech was no sooner ended, +however, than Blackie went off on a terrible "jag," and I saw him at +noon the next day, looking for a wash-boiler. He was splattered all +over with mud, and did not know whether he was in West Virginia or +Indiana. He finally concluded from the colour of the mud that he was out +in Wyoming. + +Although the tramps have no comprehensive political organisation, and +take but little interest in voting, except when their ballots bring in +hard cash, they are great talkers on political questions of the day, and +are continually championing the cause of some well-known political +leader. As a class, they may be called _Geister die stets +verneinen_,--they are almost invariably in opposition to the party in +power. Since the last presidential election Mr. William Jennings Bryan +has been their hero, and they expect of him, if his ambition to be +President is ever gratified, a release from all the troubles which they +think are now oppressing the country, and particularly themselves. They +have, without doubt, misconstrued a great deal that Mr. Bryan has said +in his speeches and writings; they have pinned their faith to him +without carefully considering his promises; but in something that he +has said or done, or in his personality, they have discovered, they +think, the elements of leadership, which, for the nonce, at any rate, +they admire. There is not a man in the country at the present moment, +for whom they would shout as much, and in whose honour they would get so +drunk, as for Mr. Bryan. They know very little concerning his theories +about silver, beyond the expression, "The Cross of Gold," and they are +very scantily informed in regard to his notions about expansion and +imperialism, but he represents for them, as probably no other political +leader ever did, upheaval and revolution, and it is on such things that +they expect to thrive. + +The place to hear them talk and to get acquainted with their political +views is at the "hang-out." Practically any nook or corner where they +can lie down at night is a "hang-out" to them, but as most of their life +is spent on the railroads their main gathering points are little camps +built alongside the track. Here they sleep, eat, wait for trains, and +"chew the rag." Much of their conversation is confined to purely +professional matters, but every now and then, at some large camp, a +roadster will make a slurring remark about this or that political +leader, or a paragraph in a newspaper in regard to a "burning" question +of the hour will be read aloud, and the confab begins. The topic that +started it is soon smothered under a continually accumulating pile of +fresh ones, but that does not matter, the "hang-out" never settles +anything; it takes up one thing after the other in rapid succession, as +fancy dictates, and one must listen carefully merely to catch the drift +of what is said. The sentences are short and broken, and a word often +suffices to kill what promised to be a lengthy discussion. The old men +speak first, the young men next, and the boys are supposed to keep quiet +and listen. Sometimes, when "booze" accompanies the talk, the age +distinctions are temporarily overlooked, and all speak together; but +this kind of a conclave finally ends in a free fight, to which politics +and everything else are subordinated. + +The burden of practically all the palavers is "the way the country is +going to the dogs." It comes as natural to the average tramp to declare +that the United States is in dire peril as it does to the German +socialist to say that Germany is a miserable _Polizei-Staat_. He does +not honestly believe all that he says, and it needs but a scurrilous +remark about our country from some foreign roadster to startle him into +a pugnacious patriotism; but in the bosom of his "hang-out" he takes +delight in explaining what a bad plight the country is in. This is +really his political creed. Free trade, protection, civil service +reform, the currency question, pensions, and expansion are mere side +issues in his opinion. The real issue is what he considers the frightful +condition of our "internal affairs." From Maine to California the tramps +may be heard chattering by the hour on this topic, and they have singled +out Mr. Bryan as their spokesman because they think that he voices their +pessimism better than any other man in public view. + +It came as a surprise to me, when first getting acquainted with tramps, +to find that they were such grumblers and critics,--such _Noergler_, as +Kaiser Wilhelm says. I had pictured them as a class which managed to +live more or less successfully whether any one else got on or not, and +had imagined that they were, comparatively speaking, at peace with the +world. That they troubled themselves with public questions and political +problems was a thought that had not occurred to me. The fact is, +however, that they are as fierce political partisans as the country +contains, and in talking with them one must be careful not to let an +argument go beyond what in polite society would be considered rather +narrow bounds. They are quick to resort to fists in all discussions, and +in my intercourse with them it has paid best to let them do most of the +talking when politics has been the topic of conversation. + +It would take a book, and a large one at that, to report all the +evidence that they advance at "hang-out" conferences in support of +their statements concerning the evils from which they believe the +country is now suffering, but no account of their political notions, no +matter how short, should fail to take note of their rantings against +capital, and what they consider the political corruption of the country. +Nearly every conversation they have on politics begins with some wild +assertion in regard to one of these topics, and Mr. Bryan's name is +invariably dragged into the discussion. They believe that he hates the +man who has saved money and understands how to make it earn more, quite +as much as they do, and they will be very much disappointed in him, in +case he is ever elected President, if he does not suggest legislation by +which the rich man can be made "to shell out his coin." On no subject do +the tramps use such violent language as on this one of the capitalist. +They think that it is he who has imported all the foreign labour in the +country,--another eyesore in their opinion; who has made England the +real "boss" of things on this side of the Atlantic,--a notion which +they claim to have dug out of Mr. Bryan's speeches; who has reduced the +wages of the "poor workingman" and increased the cost of living; and, +worst of all, who is now trying to take away from them what they +consider their inalienable railway privileges. + +They hold him answerable also for the trusts and syndicates, agitation +against which they require from any political party in which they take +an interest. They have thought seriously over these matters about as +much as a ten-year-old child has, but that does not matter. They do not +propose to think hard about anything. Mr. Bryan is for the present doing +all the thinking which they consider necessary, and they are content +merely to repeat in their own jargon statements which he has made, or +which they think he has made. He has become for them an infallible +oracle, who understands them and their position, and whom they +understand. In the bottom of their hearts they know that they are +deserving of precious little championship, that they lead despicable +lives, and commit some very reprehensible deeds; but it is a +consolation to them which they cannot let go, to think that Mr. Bryan +includes them in his classification of victims of the "gold bugs," so +they try to make propaganda for him. + +The time was when many of them shouted for Henry George and "General" +Coxey as vociferously as they now shout for Bryan. They expected from +George and Coxey the same overthrow of their imaginary oppressors and +general upheaval of things that they now look forward to from Mr. Bryan. +They were once also enamoured of Mr. Blaine, but for a different reason. +They admired the way he championed the cause of Americans who got into +trouble in foreign parts. When he was Secretary of State it was a +temporary fad among them to scold about the way Americans were treated +abroad, and on one occasion, the details of which I have forgotten, Mr. +Blaine pleased them immensely by insisting on the release of an American +who had been falsely arrested in some foreign port. + +They are particularly entertaining when talking about the corruption in +the country. They discuss this question with all the seriousness of +professional moralists and reformers, and it seems never to occur to +them that there is any inconsistency in their attitude toward the +matter. An amusing instance of their lack of perception in this +particular came to my notice in Columbus, O., where I was temporarily on +duty as a railroad police officer. One morning, word came that Mr. Bryan +was expected to arrive about noon. He was to give a talk to his local +admirers. There were about two hours between the time I received notice +of his coming and the hour of his arrival, and I put them in strolling +about the streets, seeing whether there were any light-fingered gentry +in the town whom I knew. In the course of my wanderings I dropped into a +saloon in one of the side streets where a man, whom I recognised as a +"hobo gun,"--a tramp pickpocket,--was holding forth in loud language on +the "poleetical c'rupshun" in the country, and in Ohio in particular. +He made the usual platitudinous remarks about this matter, to which his +drunken hearers listened with approval, and wound up his harangue with a +eulogy on Mr. Bryan, who was "the one honest man in the land." When Mr. +Bryan arrived at the railroad station, my companions and I had to be on +watch to see that his pockets as well as those of the people crowding +about him were not picked, and whom should I find prowling about +suspiciously in the throng, but the loud-mouthed reformer of the saloon! +He was looking hard for a pocket to "nick," but some one must have +"tipped off" the "fly cops" to him, for he disappeared before long as +mysteriously as he had appeared, and without any plunder, for no +"leather" was "lifted" on that occasion. + +Not all of the tramps' political talk is merely negative and critical; +some of it is also positive and constructive. They think that they know +what they want in the way of government, as well as what they do not +want. Speaking generally, they favour a crude kind of state socialism, +to be prefaced, however, by a general cataclysm, in which existing +conditions are to be entirely revolutionised, and out of which the poor, +and more particularly the outcast, are to come victorious. They make no +attempt to elaborate in conversation the details either of the +convulsion, or of the new order of things which is to follow; +generalities alone interest them, and they scorn inquiries as to how +their theories are to be put into practice. That Mr. Bryan is in +sympathy with their notions of the extensive powers that the government +ought to have is proved for them by the fact that he believes that +silver can be given its rightful place in our monetary system merely by +an enactment of Congress, or by command of the President. They recognise +no laws in politics other than those which man makes. That there are +natural laws and economic facts, over which man has no control, is a +matter which they have never taken into consideration. I refer to the +rank and file of the tramp army. There are individual men who do not +subscribe to what I have given as the political philosophy of the +majority of the tramps,--men, indeed, who laugh at the thought of a +tramp having any political notions at all,--but they are exceptions. The +average roadster considers himself as justified in stating his political +beliefs, and working for them, if he is so inclined, as does the +workingman,--even more, because he thinks that he has time to formulate +his ideas, whereas the workingman is kept busy merely earning his bread. + +As agitators and propagandists the tramp is mainly in evidence at big +strikes. In the last fifteen years there has not been a notable railroad +strike in the country in which he has not taken part either as a helper +in destroying property, or as a self-elected "walking delegate." The +more damage the strikers achieve, the more he is pleased, because he +believes, as said above, that it is only upon ruins that the government +he desires can be founded. When a train of cars is derailed or burned, +he considers the achievement a contribution to the general downfall of +the rich and favoured classes. He also has the antiquated notion of +political economy, that when a thing has been rendered useless by +breakage or incendiarism the workingman is benefited, because the thing +must be replaced, and labour must be employed to do it,--hence it pays +the poor to effect as much destruction as possible. It would be unjust +to Mr. Bryan to say that the tramp has got this notion from him, but the +trouble is that Mr. Bryan preaches from texts so easily misunderstood by +the class of people to which tramps and criminals belong, that he does a +great deal of harm to the country, and materially hurts his own cause. +Not only the tramp, but thousands of workingmen expect of him, in case +he is successful in his ambition, things which he can no more give than +can the humblest of his admirers; yet both the tramp and the workingman +believe that they have promises from him which justify them in expecting +what they do. He is a victim of his own "gift of gab," as the tramp dubs +his oratory. He has talked so much and so loosely that the tramp has +read into his words assurance of changes which he can never bring about. +Of course it is not to be expected that he or any other man in his +position should put much store by what such a constituency as the tramps +thinks of him, but the tramp's exaggerated notions of his policy are +symptomatic of the man's influence on people. What the tramp +particularly likes about him is his doctrine of discontent; they would +drop him like a hot coal if he should admit that the country was in a +proper condition. A great many other people, who are not tramps, tie to +him for the same reason. He is the idol _par excellence_ of persons who +have nothing to lose whether he succeeds or fails. He has promised them +great benefits if they will help him to office, and as in the case of +the tramp, it costs them nothing to shout and vote for him. + +His tramp admirers, however, he can hold only so long as he represents +what they deem to be the most radical doctrines going. If another man +like "General" Coxey should appear, with more attractive propositions, +they would flock to him as readily as they now rally around Mr. Bryan. +They are a volatile people. Just before war had been declared with +Spain, while everybody was discussing our chances in the approaching +struggle, a great many of the tramps were sure that the United States +was going to get the "licking" of its life. One tramp was so positive of +this that he declared that "Spain had forgotten more than we ever knew +about naval warfare, or ever would know." To-day the same man, as well +as the majority of those who sided with him, believe that the United +States can "knock out" any nation in existence, and they are +dissatisfied because we don't do it. So it will probably go with Bryan, +so far as they are concerned. At the next presidential election, if he +is defeated again, the majority of them will look around for some other +man for whom they can talk. Even successful leadership bores them after +awhile. They love change, and are continually seeking it in their +every-day life as well as in their politics. It is this trait of theirs +which would defeat any attempt at permanent organisation among them. + +Two friends were recently discussing the relative power and influence of +the man who writes and the man who organises and leads. The late George +William Curtis was cited as a man who must have wielded great power with +his pen, and Richard Croker was set over against him as an organiser and +leader. The argument ran on for some time, and one of the friends +finally made this statement: "I wouldn't care if they were nothing +better than tramps, provided a thousand of them would follow my +directions in everything that was undertaken. Why, I could be king of a +ward with such a following. Take the East Side, for instance. The man +over there who can vote solid a thousand men on all occasions, beats any +writer in the country in influence." Perhaps he does, but no man in the +country, be he writer or organiser, could hold a thousand tramps +together in politics. For one election they might be kept intact, but a +defection would take place before the second one was due. As men to +manipulate and direct, they could be made to do most in battle, and I +have always regretted that a regiment of them did not go to Cuba during +the late war. With a regiment of regulars behind them to have kept them +from retreating, and some whiskey to inspire them, a regiment composed +of fellows such as are to be found in "The Lake Shore Push," for +instance, would have charged up San Juan Hill with a dash that even the +Rough Riders would have had trouble to beat. They are not good political +philosophers, or conscientious citizens, but in desperate circumstances +they can fight as fiercely as any body of men in the world. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +WHAT TRAMPS READ. + + +In a superficial way tramps read practically everything they can get +hold of. As a class they are not particularly fond of books when there +is something more exciting to engage their attention, such as a +"hang-out" conference, for instance, but they get pleasure out of both +reading and writing. They have generally learned how to read as boys, +either at home with their parents or in some institution for truants and +"incorrigibles." Dime novels and like literature amuse them most at this +stage in their career, and the same is true of tramp boys who are found +in Hoboland, but they learn to laugh over the fascination that such +books had for them, as do more highly cultivated readers. As a rule, +however, it is not until they have served a term in prison that they +take a definite interest in the books that appeal to educated people. In +all large prisons there are libraries from which the inmates can draw +books at stated intervals, and the majority of the truly professional +tramps generally serve at least one sentence in these institutions. As +youths, it was their ambition to be successful thieves, crack burglars, +pickpockets, and "Peter-men" (safe thieves), and they have usually +experimented with the thief's profession long enough to get a year or +two in a penitentiary. Some take a longer time than others to become +convinced that they lack criminal wit, and are fitted, so far as their +world is concerned, for nothing higher than tramping, but the majority +of tramps in the United States arrive at this conclusion sooner or +later, and degenerate into what may be called discouraged criminals. In +the process of getting discouraged they have access to prison libraries, +and can pick and choose their books as they like. In some prisons the +wardens keep track of the kinds of books their charges call for, and I +have seen interesting reports in which an attempt has been made to read +the characters of the men from their different bookish preferences; but +it is easy to make mistakes in such calculations. I know of prisoners, +for instance, who have called for nothing but religious books in the +hope that the "Galway" (the prison priest) would be so impressed with +their reformation that he would recommend their cases to the Board of +Pardons for reconsideration. Indeed, prisoners in general are such +_poseurs_, in one respect or another, that not much faith can be put in +conclusions as to their literary tendencies deduced from their selection +of books in prison libraries. One must observe them in the open, and see +what they read when they are free of the necessity of making an +impression, to discover their real preferences. + +In summer they are almost constantly "in transit," and read very little +except newspapers, but in winter they flock to the large cities and +gather around the stoves and radiators in public libraries, and it is +then that one can learn what kind of reading they like best. The library +in Cooper Union, for example, is one of their favourite gathering-places +in New York City during the cold months, and I have seen the same tramps +reading there day after day. Novels and books of adventure appeal to +them most, and it would surprise a great many people to see the kind of +novels many of them choose. Thackeray and Dickens are the favourite +novelists of the majority of the tramps that I have happened to talk +with about books, but the works of Victor Hugo and Eugene Sue are also +very popular. The general criticism of the books of all of these +writers, however, is that they are "terribly long drawn out." A tramp +who had just finished reading Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" once said to me: +"Why the devil didn't he choke it off in the middle, an' leave out all +the descriptions? It's a good book all right enough, but it's as +long-winded as a greyhound." Robert Louis Stevenson, on the other hand, +is admired by a Western tramp acquaintance of mine on account of his +"big mouthfuls of words." + +Detective stories like "Sherlock Holmes" and the books of Gaboriau are +read widely by both tramps and criminals, and the ingenuity of their +authors is often admired; but the tramp cannot understand, and no more +can I, why the writers of such stories prefer to give their own +conception of a detective to the "Hawkshaw" of real life. He believes, +and I agree with him, that much more interesting detective tales could +be written if the truth about police life were told; and there awaits +the writer who is prepared and willing to depict the "fly cop" as he +really is in Anglo-Saxon countries, a remunerative and literary success. +No mistake has been made in portraying him as the King of the Under +World, but some one ought to tell what a corrupt king he has been, and +still is, in a great many communities. + +Popular books, such as "Trilby," "David Harum," and "Mr. Dooley," almost +never reach the tramps until long after their immediate success is over. +The tramps have no money to invest in books of the hour, and the +consequence is that while the public is reading the book of some new +favourite author, they are poring over books that were popular several +years back. There are roadsters who are to-day reading for the first +time the earliest books of Mark Twain, Bret Harte, and other well-known +authors, and the next crop of vagabonds will probably read the works of +writers who are now in the foreground. In Chicago I met, one day, a +tramp who had just discovered Bret Harte, and he thought that +"Tennessee's Partner" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" were recent +stories. "I tell ye, Cigarette," he declared, enthusiastically, "those +stories'll make that fella's fortune. Jus' wait till people get to +talkin' about 'em, an' you'll see how they'll sell." He had read the +tales in a sailor's mission to which somebody had donated a mutilated +Tauchnitz edition of Bret Harte's writings. + +In a county jail in Ohio I also once heard two tramps discuss for nearly +two hours the question whether Shakespeare wrote his plays when he did +or about two hundred years later. The tramp who favoured the latter +theory based it on the supposition that the balcony scene in "Romeo and +Juliet" could not have been possible so far back as "in Shakespeare's +time." + +"Why, gol darn it," he exclaimed, "they didn't have no such porches in +them days. A porch, I tell ye, is a modern invention, just like dynamite +is." + +Next to the exciting novel or tale of adventure, the tramp likes to read +books which deal with historical and economic subjects. It is a rather +exceptional tramp who can read intelligently such a book as Henry +George's "Progress and Poverty," but a number of roadsters have gone +through this work time and again, and can quote from it quite freely. +Indeed, it has been the cause of long discussions at "hang-outs" all +over the United States. Any book, by the way, which "shows up" what the +tramps consider the unreasonable inequalities in our social conditions, +appeals to them, and thoughts in regard to such matters filter through +the various social strata and reach the tramp class more rapidly than +the reader would think. I have heard tramps discuss socialism, for +instance, with quite as clear an insight into its weak points, and with +as thorough an appreciation of its alluring promises, as will be found +in any general gathering of people. They are much more entertaining when +discussing a book dealing with some serious question than when trying to +state their opinion of a novel. If a character in a novel has taken hold +of them, they can criticise it intelligently and amusingly, and they +have their favourite characters in fiction just as other people have, +but only a few tramps read novels with the intention of remembering +their contents for any length of time; such books are taken up mainly +for momentary entertainment, and are then forgotten. Books of historical +or political import, on the contrary, are frequently read over and over +again, and are made to do service as authorities on grave questions +discussed at "hang-out" conferences. Bryan's "First Battle" has been +quoted by tramps in nearly every State in the Union, and some roadsters +can repeat verbatim long passages from it. + +A striking example of the tramp's fondness for what he would call heavy +books was a man whom I met, some years ago, at a tramp camp in central +New York. We had been sitting around the camp-fire for some time, +discussing matters of the road, when the man called my attention to his +weak eyes. I had noticed that the lids of his eyes were very red, and he +told me that it was only with difficulty that he could read even large +print. "Used them up in the stir" (penitentiary), he explained. "We had +no work to do, and were shut up in our cells practically all of the +time, and I simply read myself blind." I asked him what kind of reading +he had enjoyed most, and he gave me a string of authors' names, whose +books he had drawn from the library, which but few college graduates +could beat. I have forgotten many of the books he mentioned, but Kant's +"Pure Reason" and Burton's "Melancholy" were among the number. We +talked together for over three hours about writers and writing, and I +have seldom enjoyed a conversation more. The man was still a tramp in +essential matters, and had no intention of becoming anything better, but +his reading had widened the boundaries of his world to such an extent +that in other clothes and with a few changes in his diction he might +have passed muster in very respectable companionship. If he is alive, he +is probably still looking for "set-downs" and "hand-outs," and +discussing between meals with the hoboes the wonderful things that were +revealed to him during the ten years he spent in his prison university. + +Endowed with this interest in books of a serious nature, it would seem +that the tramp ought eventually to take to heart some of the wisdom such +books contain, and try to live up to it in his every-day life, but I am +compelled to say that, in the majority of cases, he considers himself a +being apart from the rest of the world, so far as moral responsibility +is concerned. He likes to ponder over the moral obligations of others, +and to suggest schemes for a general social regeneration, but he finds +it irksome and unpleasant to apply his advice and recommendations to his +own existence. Theoretically, he has what he would call a religion, but +he no more expects to live up to his religion than he intends to work +when he can get out of it. He has two worlds in which he lives,--one +consisting of theories and fanciful conceits which he has got from books +and his own imagination, and the other of hard facts, prejudices, and +habits. He is most natural in the latter environment, but moods come +over him when he feels impelled to project himself into the world of +theories, and then nothing pleases him more than imaginatively to +reconstruct the world in general as he believes it ought to be. + +I have been asked whether he ever voluntarily reads the Bible. It is an +easy book to get hold of, and in prison it is forced upon the tramp's +attention, but it has no marked fascination for him. I have known a +roadster to beg a New Testament from a Bible House agency in order to +settle a dispute about religious doctrine, but this is a very +exceptional case. The average tramp knows no difference between the Old +and New Testaments, and bases any religious convictions that he may have +on personal revelations of truth rather than on inspired Scripture. In +one respect, however, he conforms to conventional customs,--he likes to +sing hymns. In jail or out, if he happens to be in a singing mood, it is +only necessary to start such hymns as "Pull for the shore," "There were +ninety and nine," "Where is my wandering boy to-night?" and this +tattered and uncouth creature breaks forth into song. There is a grin on +his lips while he sings, for he appreciates the ludicrousness of the +situation, but he sings on at the top of his voice. At night, on a +Western prairie, where he and his pals have built a "hang-out" near a +railroad track, there is no more picturesque scene in all Hoboland than +when he stands up, starts a tune, and the others rise and join him. + +Equally amusing, if not so harmless, are the tramp's improvised schools. +In the autumn, when the weather gets too cold for sleeping out, the +country schoolhouse becomes one of the tramp's night shelters. He gets +in through one of the windows. A wood-pile is near by, and what with a +good fire and benches to lie on, he makes a very cosy nest. Let a crowd +of ten or twenty appropriate such a place, and there is always a frolic +before bedtime. One of the tramps is elected teacher, the scholars' +books and slates are taken from their desks, and school begins. "Moike, +oppen yer mug 'n' see if ye kin read," the teacher commands, and the +burly pupil begins to paw over the leaves. Later comes a turn at +spelling, writing, and "figgerin'," and a wild hobo song ends the +session. A keg of beer sometimes helps to enliven things, and then +ink-bottles, readers, and spelling-books are scattered about the room in +great confusion. The wood-pile also disappears, and sometimes the +building itself goes up in flames. I have often wondered whether the +real pupils were not glad to find things so topsy-turvy in the morning. +It must take time to put the schoolhouse in order again, and the boys +and girls have a vacation meanwhile. The taxpayers grumble, of course, +but, as the tramp says, "they ought to fasten things tighter," and until +they do he will continue, I fear, to entertain himself at their expense. + +An experience that I had not long ago illustrates the tramp's +unwillingness to have his reading matter regulated by outsiders. I was +making an investigation of the tramp situation on certain railroads in +the middle West at the time, and one night, in company of some fellow +roadsters, I went for shelter to the tramp ward of a poor-house. The +room we were sent to was in the cellar, and we all passed a very +miserable night. In the morning we were given our breakfast in the +common dining-room of the institution, and while we were sitting at the +table the wife of the keeper gave each one of us a "tract," which we +carefully tucked under our plates and left there. When we had finished, +one of the tramps asked our hostess whether there was a place in the +building where we could wash; the hole we had had to stay in over night +was so dirty that our clothes and hands were covered with dust, and the +tramp knew that any stream we might find outside would be frozen over. +The woman looked at him severely, and said: "There's a brook at the foot +of the hill." The tramp's anger was aroused. "Madam," he said, "I have +always been taught that cleanliness is next to godliness. You have given +us all tracts, but you won't give us a place to wash. Your religion and +mine don't jibe. You'll find the tracts under the plates." We all got +another severe look, and the next batch of tramps probably got the +tracts. + +Of the newspapers that the tramp reads there is but little that is novel +to report beyond the fact that he begs for them in the same systematic +fashion characteristic of him when looking for his meals. Not all tramps +are anxious to keep up to date as regards the world's doings, but a fair +proportion of them look for their morning newspaper immediately after +breakfast. They go to stores and barber-shops, and do not hesitate to +ask even newsdealers. In summer the newspapers which they get also serve +them as beds in railroad box-cars; they spread them out on the floor of +the car and lie down on them, their shoes and vests doing duty as +pillows, and their coats as covering. Their favourite papers are of the +yellow kind, but I doubt whether they take them any more seriously than +other people do who buy them merely for particular items of news and +then throw them away. They like spicy articles and glaring pictures, and +scramble with one another for first chance at the _Police Gazette_, but +this taste is not unnatural; their life is rough, vulgar, and +sensational, and the wonder is that they can appreciate and care for the +high-class literature which many of them read. + +I have said that they get enjoyment out of writing as well as reading. +There are a few well-educated men in tramp life, and they have been +surprised attempting to make literature as well as to read it. In +Germany it is quite a custom among the _Chausseegrabentapezirer_ to +keep diaries in which they jot down notes and comments on their life, +and in this country, also, journals and essays by tramps have been +discovered. One of the most intelligent criticisms of my tramp papers in +_The Century_ came from a Boston tramp, hailing for the time being from +Texas. Excepting a few mistakes in grammar which many persons who are +not tramps are guilty of, it was a very creditable production. + +Once upon a time, not to be too particular, two tramps were shut up all +alone in a jail in Michigan, and their sentences wore so heavily upon +them that they found it very difficult to be patient. Their stories gave +out, the jail fare became tiresome, there was very little to read, and +they were by nature very restless. At last things looked so gloomy that +they decided to spin a coin for a choice of two suggested +pastimes,--writing a story, or planning and carrying out an escape. It +was "heads" for the story, and "tails" for the escape. Heads won. True +to their contract, these two men, one fairly well educated, and the +other with a big imagination, sat themselves down to the task, pencil +and paper being furnished by the sheriff. For ten days they wrote and +wrote, then rewrote, until, as the man with the imagination said, their +"poor brains seemed squeezed to death." Indeed, they had worked so hard +that the man with a little education thought it would be worth while to +try to sell the story; so, after it had been read to the sheriff and his +wife, both of whom it pleased, sufficient postage was collected to send +it to a periodical thought to be looking for such contributions; and off +it went, and with it the solemn prayers of the authors. Three weeks +later, lo and behold! a letter arrived in care of the sheriff. The two +men opened it tenderly and fearfully, each tearing a little of the end +off and then passing it to the other, saying, like silly girls: "I don't +dare." But what was their surprise, the terrifying little thing once +laid bare, to find in it a check for ninety dollars, payable to them +jointly or severally, as if the editor had fancied that they might be +turned loose at different times. Unfortunately, they were freed +together, and two hours afterward the man with the imagination had so +inflated it with whiskey that he wanted to storm the jail and free the +sheriff. His story, however, was not disgraced. It is still quite +readable. He, poor fellow, would probably like to toss up again for +pastimes; when last heard of he was "doing" solitary confinement. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +POLICING THE RAILROADS. + + +Engineers build railroads and are largely represented in their +management, but both in building and operating them they are dependent, +at one time or another, upon some kind of police protection. Indeed, +there are railroads that could not have been constructed at all without +the aid of either soldiers or policemen. The Trans-Caspian railroad was +built largely by soldiers, and is still superintended by the war +department at St. Petersburg rather than by the minister of ways of +communication. The Siberian line is, in parts, the result of the work of +convicts, who were carefully watched by police guards, and the Russian +civil engineers in Manchuria have needed the protection of Cossacks +merely to survey that end of the road. In Germany, practically all the +railroad officials, from the head of the engineering department down to +the track-walkers, have police power. The conductor of a train, for +instance, can put an obstreperous passenger under arrest without waiting +until a station is reached, and resistance to him is as serious an +offence as is resistance to the ordinary _Schutzmann_. + +In Europe, it was seen, when railroads were first coming into use, that +police efficiency, as well as that of the technical railroader, would be +required, if the properties were to be well managed, and it was secured +at the start. Before the railroads were built it had been made plain, +after long experience, that even on the public turnpikes policemen were +indispensable, and the authorities decided to employ them on railroads +as well. The protection of life and property is a very serious matter in +Europe, where precautions are taken which in the United States would +seem superfluous. It avails nothing in Germany, for example, for a +director of a company to excuse the loss of money intrusted to his care +on the ground that he thought he was acting in a businesslike manner. +Inspectors, or commissioners, are appointed to see whether his +transactions come up to the standard of what is considered businesslike, +and if they find that he has not exercised good judgment, although there +may have been nothing intrinsically dishonest in the way he has managed, +his bondsmen frequently have to reimburse the stockholders for the loss +that his mistakes have brought upon them. It is the spirit of +carefulness behind such a precaution as this which goes to explain why +the Germans have the systematised police surveillance of railroad +property referred to. Much of this surveillance is in the hands of the +municipal police and rural constabulary, but the fact that the majority +of the railroad officials have police authority shows how much +protection was considered necessary to manage the properties carefully. + +In the United States the idea seems to have been that the engineers and +managers could be relied on to get out of railroad investments all the +profit that was in them, and that the assistance of policemen could be +dispensed with except as watchmen. It is true that, for a number of +years, railroad companies have had on their pay-rolls what are called +"railroad detectives," but up to a few years ago there was not a +well-organised railroad police force in the United States, and yet there +is no country in the world, at the present moment, where railroads are +more in need of such auxiliary departments. A great deal of money would +have been saved to investors, and not a few lives would have been +spared, had the American railroads seriously taken up this police matter +in the early days of their existence, and until they do, say what one +will about the luxuries to be found on American trains, and the speed at +which they run, American railroad properties, in this particular at +least, are inferior to those of Europe in management. + +The purpose of this last chapter is to call attention to the +inadequateness of the police arrangements now prevalent on nearly all +railroad systems in the United States, to show what has resulted from +this inadequateness, and to interest railroad men and the general public +in police organisations which will be equal to the work necessary to be +done. + +To bring out clearly the defects of the prevailing railroad police +methods in the United States, it seems appropriate to take a concrete +case, and describe the situation on a railroad which I have been over as +a passenger and as a trespasser. It employs about sixty men in its +police department, and is one of the most tramp-infested roads in the +country. The maintenance of the so-called detective force costs the +company about forty thousand dollars a year. + +By way of illustration, I will give a resume of conversations that I had +respectively with a detective, a tramp, and a trainman that I +encountered on the property. Each of these men was representative of his +class, and spoke his mind freely. + +The detective had started out in life as a brakeman, but his eyesight +became faulty after a few years, and he got a position on the police +force. He had just passed his fiftieth year when I met him, and was +heavy, unwieldy, and inclined to be lazy. His beat consisted of forty +miles of track, and he generally went over it in a passenger train. + +I asked him whether he found many tramps on passenger trains. He was not +supposed to devote all of his time to watching trespassers, but they +were so obviously a nuisance on the property that it struck me as +peculiar that he did not ride on trains where they were more likely to +be found. + +"No," he replied, in a drawling voice, to my query, "I don't find many +tramps in passenger coaches; but I know where their camps are, and +several of us raid 'em every now and then." + +"I should think you would want to ride more on freight-trains," I went +on, "and catch the trespassers in the act, so to speak." + +"I'm too heavy to fool around freight-trains; besides, I don't want to +have a knife put into me. Some o' them tramps are mighty quick on their +feet, and if I went at 'em they'd have a razor cut in me before I could +turn round." + +I asked him why, in view of his age and heaviness, he did not try to +find employment in some other department of the road more suited to his +abilities. Railroad companies are often very lenient with employees of +long standing, and give them easy positions in their old age. + +"This is the easiest department the road's got," he returned. "Besides, +I'm my own boss." + +"Don't you have to make regular reports to any one?" + +"I go to the trainmaster's office every morning for orders, but he don't +know much about the business, and generally tells me to do as I think +best. We men haven't got a chief the way the regular railroaders have." + +"Who is responsible for what you do?" I inquired. + +"Nobody, I guess, but the pres'dent o' the road." + +"How do you spend your time?" + +"Well, I go to the trainmaster in the morning, and if he hasn't heard of +anything special, like a car robbery or an accident where there's likely +to be a claim for damages, I stay around the station a while, or go down +into the yards and see what I can see. Sometimes I spend the day in the +yards." + +"What do you do there?" + +"Oh, I loaf around, keep the kids away from the cars, chin-chin with the +switchmen 'n' the other men, keep my eyes open for fellows that there's +rewards for, eat my dinner, an' go to bed." + +"Why don't you try to break up the tramp camps?" + +"We do try it, but they come back again." + +"Don't you think you would probably be more successful if you raided +them oftener?" + +"Yes, I guess we would; but, you see, there ain't any one who's running +the thing. When an order comes from the superintendent to make raids we +make 'em, but he don't send in that order more'n once in three months, +an' the rest o' the time we do pretty much as we like." + +"How do you think things would go if you men were organised and had a +chief? Would better work be done?" + +"Better work would be done, I guess, but it would be a darned sight +harder work," and he smiled significantly. + +My tramp informant was an old roadster of about forty, who had "held +down" the railroad in question for a number of years. I asked him how +long it had been an "open" road,--one easy for trespassers to get over. + +"As long as the memory of man goes back," he replied, with a suggestive +flourish of his hand. + +"Are not some divisions harder to beat than others?" + +"Once in awhile a division'll get a little horstile, but only fer a few +weeks." + +"How many tramps are riding trains?" + +"I don't see all the trains, so I can't tell you; but I never seen a +freight yet that wasn't carryin' at least five bums, 'n' I've seen some +carryin' over a hundred In summer there's most as many bums as +passengers." + +"Is there much robbing of cars going on?" + +"Not so much as there might be. The blokes are drunk most of the time, +'n' they let chances go by. If they'd keep sober, 'n' look up good +fences, they could do a nice little business." + +"Do the police trouble you much?" + +"When they round up a camp they're pretty warm, but I don't see much o' +them 'cept then. 'Course you wants to look out fer 'em when a train +pulls into division yards, 'cause 'f yer handy they'll pinch you; but +they ain't goin' to run after you very far. I've heard that they have +orders to let the bums ride, so long as there ain't too much swipin' +goin' on. The company don't care, some people say." + +The trainman that I interviewed was a freight-train conductor who had +been in the employ of the company over twenty-five years. I asked him +whether he had instructions to keep trespassers off his trains. + +"I got the instructions all right enough," he said, "but I don't follow +them. I'm not a policeman for the road. I'm a conductor, and I only draw +a salary for being that, too. When I was green I used to try to keep the +bums off my trains, but I nearly got my head shot off one night and +stopped after that. It's the detectives' business to look after such +people." + +"Do you see much of the detectives?" + +"Once in awhile one of them shows up on my trains, but I've never seen +them make any arrests. One of them got on my train one day when I was +carryin' fifty tramps, and he never went near them." + +"What do you think ought to be done to keep tramps off trains?" + +"Well, what I'd like to have done would be for the United States +government to let all us trainmen carry revolvers and shoot every +galoot that got on to our trains. That'd stop the thing." + +"Do you think the company wants it stopped?" + +"I don't know whether they do or not, but I wish to God they'd do +something. Why, we men can't go over our trains at night any more, and +be sure that we ain't goin' to get it in the neck somewhere. It's a holy +fright." + +I have quoted these men because their testimony may be accepted as +expert. They know the situation and they know one another, and they had +no reason to try to deceive me in answering my questions. In addition to +their remarks, it is only necessary, so far as this particular road is +concerned, to emphasise the fact that the forty thousand dollars a year +which the company spends for protection of the property are not +protecting it, and are bringing in to the stockholders practically no +interest. The police force is entirely lacking in system; many of the +men are too old and indifferent, and the property is littered up with as +miscellaneous a collection of vagabonds and thieves as is to be found +in a year's travel. This is neither good management, nor good business, +and it is unfair to a community which furnishes a railroad much of its +revenue, to foist such a rabble upon it. + +A more or less similar state of affairs exists on the great majority of +the trunk lines in the United States. They are all spending thousands of +dollars on their "detective" forces, as they call them, and they are all +overrun by wandering mobs of ne'er-do-wells and criminals. There are no +worse slums in the country than are to be found on the railroads. +Reformers and social agitators are accustomed to speak of the congested +districts of the large cities as the slums to which attention should be +directed, but in the most congested quarters of New York City there are +no greater desperadoes nor scenes of deeper degradation than may be met +on the "iron highways" of the United States. A number of railroads are +recognised by vagrants and criminals as the stamping ground of +particular gangs that are generally found on the lines with which their +names are connected. + +Every now and then the report is given out that a certain railroad is +about to inaugurate a policy of retrenchment, and the newspapers state +that a number of employees have been discharged or have had their work +hours cut down. The best policy of retrenchment that a number of +railroad companies can take up would be to stop the robberies on their +properties, collect fares from the trespassers, and free their employees +from the demoralising companionship of tramps and criminals. To carry +out such a policy a well organised railroad police force is +indispensable, and as I have made use of a practical illustration to +indicate the need of reform, I will advance another to show how this +reform can be brought about. + +There is one railroad police organisation in the United States which is +conscientiously protecting the property in whose interests it works, and +I cannot better make plain what is necessary to be done than by giving a +short account of its organisation and performance. It is employed on +the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, and in inception and direction +is the achievement of the general manager of that system. + +As a division superintendent this gentleman became very much interested +in the police question, and organised a force for the division under his +immediate control. It worked so successfully that, on assuming +management of the entire property, he determined to introduce in all the +divisions the methods which he had found helpful in his division. There +was no attempt made, however, to overhaul the entire property at once. +The reform went on gradually, and as one division was organised, the +needs and peculiarities of another were studied and planned for. +Suitable men had to be found, and there was necessarily considerable +experimenting. The work was done thoroughly, however, and with a view to +permanent benefits rather than to merely temporary relief. To-day, after +six years of preparatory exercise, the "Northwest System" has a model +police organisation, and the "Southwest System" is being organised as +rapidly as the right men can be found. + +The force on the "Northwest System"--and it must be remembered that this +part of the property takes in such cities as Pittsburg, Cleveland, +Toledo, and Chicago, where there is always a riffraff population likely +to trespass on railroad property--is made up of eighty-three officers +and men. The chief of the force is the superintendent, whose +jurisdiction extends to the "Southwest System" also. He reports to the +general manager, and is almost daily in conference with him. For an +assistant to manage things when he is "out on the road," and to relieve +him of road duty when he is needed at headquarters, he has an inspector, +a man who has risen from the ranks and has demonstrated ability for the +position. Each division has a captain, who reports to the division +superintendent and to the chief of the police service. This captain has +under him one or more lieutenants and the necessary number of patrolmen +and watchman, who report to him alone. An order from the general +manager consequently reaches the men for whom it is meant through +official channels entirely within the police department, and the same is +true of statements and reports of the men to the general manager. + +Practically everything is run according to a well-understood system, and +this is the secret of the department's success. Day in and day out every +man on the force knows what he has to do, and expects to be called to +order if his work does not come up to what is desired. Hunting down +trespassers and thieves is but a part of the routine. The property is +patrolled almost exactly as a large city is, and the men are expected to +make reports about such matters as the condition of frogs and switches, +switch-lights, fences, and station-buildings, to do preliminary work for +the department of claims, to keep the property free from trespassers, to +protect the pay-car, look out for circus and excursion trains, and +generally make themselves useful. They are all picked men, and have to +come up to the requirements of the United States army as regards health +and physical strength. Their personal records are known for five years +previous to being employed on the force. They constitute for the general +manager an invaluable guardianship. He has but to press the button, so +to speak, and within a few hours the entire police force is carrying out +his instructions. Through it he can keep in touch with a thousand and +one matters which would otherwise escape his notice, and he can order an +investigation with the assurance that he will get an exact and +trustworthy report within a reasonable time. + +Such is the organisation. Its performance, up to date, has consisted in +cleaning up a property that, seven years ago, as I know from +observation, was so infested with criminals that it was notorious +throughout the tramp world as an "open" road. To-day that system is +noted for being the "tightest shut" line, from the trespasser's point of +view, in the country, and the company pays seventeen thousand dollars a +year less for its police arrangements than it did in 1893 for its +watchmen and detective force. These are facts which any one may verify, +and it is no longer possible for railroad companies to explain their +hesitation in taking up the police matter in earnest on the ground that +it would cost too much. It costs less, not only in the police +department's pay-rolls, but in the department of claims as well, than it +did when detached men, without any organisation and direction, were +employed, and the conditions at the start were very similar to those on +railroads now known to be "open." It is to be admitted that the rabble +which formerly infested this property has in all probability shifted to +other roads,--gangs of this character naturally follow the lines of +least resistance,--but it would have been impossible for it to shift had +other railroads taken a similar stand against it; it must have vanished. + +The time must come when this stand will be taken by all railroads. For a +number of years there has been no more valuable contribution to the +business of railroading in the United States than the demonstrated +success of a railroad police force, and it is difficult to believe that +the benefits it brings can be long overlooked. The question of methods +to be employed will naturally occasion considerable discussion, and it +will doubtless be found that an organisation which suits one railroad is +not available for another, but I believe that the general plan of the +police organisation described above is a safe one to follow. It is +founded on the principle that the men must be carefully selected, +thoroughly trained, systematically governed, and the scope of their work +sharply defined. No police force, railroad or municipal, can do really +good work unless due regard be given to these very important matters. + +For the benefit of railroad police forces which may be organised in the +future, the following suggestion seems to me to be worthy of +consideration. + +The title "detective" should not be given the men. They are not +detectives in the ordinary sense of the word, and to be so called hurts +them with the public and with their fellow employees. Railroading is a +business done aboveboard and in the public view, and its police service +should stand on a different footing from that of the detective force of +a large city, where, as all the world knows, secret agents are +necessary. They may be necessary at times on railroads also, but there +already exist reputable agencies for furnishing such service. + +The superintending officers of the force should be superior men. In +Germany a police patrolman has not the slightest hope of becoming so +much as a lieutenant until he has passed a very severe examination, +which practically implies a college education, and he consequently +realises that his superior officer is entitled to his position on other +grounds than mere "pull" or "seniority," and learns to have great +respect for him. A similar dignity should be attached to authoritative +positions in the railroad police, and to secure it able men must be +employed. + +The superintendent of the service should be as supreme in it as is the +superintendent of a division. If he has been chosen for the position on +account of his fitness for it, the supposition is that he knows how to +fill it, and there should be but one superior to whom he must answer. I +bring up this point because on most railroads the police arrangements +are, at present, such that almost every head of a department gives +orders to the "detectives." On some roads even station agents are +allowed to regulate the local police officer's movements. + +Whether an American railroad police can be organised on as broad lines +as in Germany, where practically all the railroad officials have police +authority, is a question which cannot yet be definitely decided. The +conditions in the United States are very different from those in +Germany, and it may be that the sentiment of the people would be against +giving so many persons police power; but I think it would be +advantageous to experiment with the track-walkers, crossing-watchmen, +and gatemen, and see whether they can be incorporated in the railroad +police. Great care must naturally be exercised in picking out the men to +possess patrolmen's privileges, but an examination, such as all German +railroad police officials have to pass, would seem to be a precaution +which ought to secure safe officers. If such an arrangement were made, +the railroad police would admirably supplement the municipal police and +the rural constabulary, and the requirements, physical, mental, and +moral, of the examinations to be gone through would have a tendency to +elevate the morale of the men, not only as patrolmen, but also as +railroaders. + +In conclusion, I desire to point out the opportunity of teaching by +example which I believe the railroad police of the United States are +going to have. Unlike the municipal police, they are free of the toils +of politics, and ought to become exemplary. Their methods and efficiency +will not remain unnoticed. The day that the railroad companies succeed +in ridding their properties of the vagrant class which now troubles +them, and thousands of this class begin to take up permanent quarters +in the cities because they are unable to travel afoot, the public is +going to make inquiries as to whence this undesirable contingent has +come. They will then learn what a police force can do when it is not +officered by political appointment and when it is made up of men who +have been trained for the task imposed upon them. + +A good thing cannot for ever go a-begging. Six years ago it seemed as +impossible that a railroad could be cleaned up morally, as the one I +have described has been, as it now seems that American cities can have +police departments independent of politics. The trouble was that no +railroad had taken the initiative. Ten years hence, I venture to +prophesy, the railroads of the United States will not be the avenues of +crime that they are at present. Some day a similar reform in police +methods will be attempted and carried through in one of our cities, and +if the railroad police have done their work well, and remained true to +honest principles, not a little of the credit will belong to them. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Notes of an Itinerant Policeman, by Josiah Flynt + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK NOTES OF AN ITINERANT POLICEMAN *** + +***** This file should be named 35040.txt or 35040.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/4/35040/ + +Produced by Annie McGuire. 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