Mr. Towne also brought out the fact that tramps like to go to jail in
winter. Instead of considering a jail sentence for that part of the
year as a form of punishment, they welcome it as a chance to keep warm
and loaf at the public expense. Forty-three per cent of the commitment
of tramps occurs between November 1 and February 1. In short, the
jail or the penitentiary becomes a sort of winter vacation resort for
tramps. Many chiefs of police with whom Mr. Towne communicated said
that tramps in winter would ask to be sent to jail, and that if this
were not done they would sometimes commit offenses for the express
purpose of being arrested and sent there.
It is declared to be significant that in the tramp's slang the word
"dump" is applied to both lodging houses and jails.
With a cold winter the number of vagrants in penitentiaries and jails
increases. In 1906 there were more than 10,000 tramps and vagrants
in penitentiaries and jails, while in 1904, which was a very cold
winter, there were more than 14,000. On the average, about one-third
of the prisoners are tramps and vagrants. This means that the public
is annually paying several hundred thousand dollars for the avowed
purpose of punishing men for vagrancy, but in reality it amounts only
to furnishing a free place of winter rest. Most of the chiefs of
police believe that jails and penitentiaries do little good, if any,
in their treatment of tramps. Another fact is that the sentences for
this class of offenders are too short to accomplish any results. About
85 per cent of the sentences are from only one to sixty days.
[Illustration: THE TRAMP OF FICTION]
[Illustration: Tore Purse from the Hobo.]
[Illustration: (Tramp dropping bucket)]