 much
food in getting a few coppers for his lodging and a little tea and
tobacco, that he soon gets encumbered with more food than he can hide
or eat. In this case he cannot continue begging--which he must, or go
into the workhouse--so he throws the food away and continues to beg
more of it, in the hope of getting money for his bed. But very few
beggars ever threw food away without feeling regret that they had to
do so. It is for this reason that so many beggars carry a few cheap
trifles, such as pins, needles, laces, or some self-made novelty.
With these things they are sure of getting money for their lodging,
and, while doing so, beg food from those that will not buy.

I hope by these explanations to have made a beggar worthy of kinder
consideration, and proved his to be a character to be loved and
respected. Henceforth let no lady be afraid to walk a lonely road
without a dog, for her presence is dreaded by a tramp, however
beautiful she may be. The tramp has not Tommy Atkins's eye for female
beauty.

Let no total abstainer, who has given a beggar a penny, and sees
him enter a public-house, think that the penny goes for beer, for a
beggar is more likely to go in to beg instead of buy.

Think not because you have read of one case where a beggar was
arrested and found to have considerable money sewn in his clothes,
that every beggar you meet has saved money.

Think not because a beggar was seen in the morning to pass a barn
that was burned to the ground that same night, that he was the guilty
one. A burning barn would not feed his body, and he would not remain
there long enough to warm his feet and dry his socks.

And if you still believe that beggars mark houses, go to the window
and watch every one that leaves, and you are likely to be a great
many years before you catch one in the act of doing so. Houses _are_
marked, but in nine cases out of ten children are the guilty ones.




XXXII

Lady Tramps


Almost all tramps who travel alone object to women in a common
lodging-house. Even the landlord of such a plac