. Strikers, communists, tramps and detectives . ns and that large class of people who arereally ready to assist in bettering the condition of their fel-lows, if they can only be shown how and where to work, Ican imagine nothing more pitiful being presented than thefollowing scene that is reported as repeatedly occmTingalong the line of the Boston and Albany Eailroad. It is night, and in a deep gorge near the railroad, wherethe trains are constantly passing and repassing, a collectionof some twenty or thirty of these outcasts, who have beendriven from a neighboring village, are gathered. At the
. Strikers, communists, tramps and detectives . ns and that large class of people who arereally ready to assist in bettering the condition of their fel-lows, if they can only be shown how and where to work, Ican imagine nothing more pitiful being presented than thefollowing scene that is reported as repeatedly occmTingalong the line of the Boston and Albany Eailroad. It is night, and in a deep gorge near the railroad, wherethe trains are constantly passing and repassing, a collectionof some twenty or thirty of these outcasts, who have beendriven from a neighboring village, are gathered. At thebottom of the gorge, where a stream of water leaps downfrom the hills through the stone archway sustaining thetracks, are sleeping or dozing, about a lire which has beenkindled for warmth and to cook what little the wanderersmay have stolen or begged for their supper, a large numberof the poor fellows, exhausted from their days march ; for,like Joe in Dickenss Bleak House, it is their destinyto be kept moving on and on. In different places are. TRAMPS OF THE OLDEN TIME. 39 seen old and young men who have retired from the com-panionship of their fellows, to brood over their misfortunes,regret lost opportunities in the past, or possibly resolveupon better things for the future. Up above all these, on alittle eminence amono^ the trees and before another firewhich has been kindled for their special benefit, is a groupof four, with toes, knees and elbows out, who take theirtroubles more lightly, and who are passing the hours in ananimated game of cards. They are all ragged, dirty, wretched. They are all out-easts, wanderers, vagabonds. They are all utterly homeless,and in the wide world have no spot that they may go to andclaim an interest in, nor is there any hand to be raised, saveagainst them. They are tramps, worthless tramps, thingsto be dreaded, shunned, driven and despised; and yet,among the gathering I have just pictured, it was found bya curious ofticial of the railroad nam
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectrailroadstrikeus1877
