Report of a Conference on Charities and on Other Subjects Pertaining to the Prevention of Suffering, Pauperism, and Crime; Held in Baltimore, April 15 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ...of Tramps, and, as that is a wide subject, we hope to show you, in the first place, what has been attempted in our sister states, and second, how much better we do these things in Maryland. We have selected the best speaker that we could on the subject to represent the outside, so that we may have confidence in the superior case made out for our own State. I will therefore introduce to you Judge Wayland, the President of the Associated Charities of New Haven. PROF. WAYLAND.--l/Ir. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen: I will begin by throwing off all disguise, and confessing that, for the last two or three minutes, I have been suffering. Having discovered the ready humor of your presiding officer, it occurred to me to fear that he would introduce me by saying that the subject of tramps would be discussed by a gentleman who was tramping far from home. The topic, as assigned to me, was The Legislation Which Has Been Efficient in the Elimination of Tramps. The paper is founded upon my observation and experience of the New England tramps, and the tramp of the middle States. What the tramp is in Maryland, and how numerous he is, I have, of course, no means of knowing. The career of the tramp from his first act of simple begging to his first act of crime is usually a brief one. His downfall begins with the discovery that to live without labor he needs only a dilapidated appearance and a plausible story. The original narra tive may have had some foundation in truth. But no investigation.follows--and the mischief is done. Impunity begets impudence, and bread not earned relaxes the moral_ fibre. He is already on the down grade and the brakes have less and less power to check the descent. The plausible story becomes the...