LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
TRAMPS.
[TO TICE EDITOR Of TRY " SPECTATOR." J
SIR, -With reference to your recent article on "Tramps,"" will you permit me to supplement my letter which appeared in the Spectator of June 15th by a word or two on the subject of tramps' children? I am reminded by Miss Ellice Hopkina that the Spectator has not yet touched on this part of the- question.
Under the Education Acts, no English child is allowed to- be brought up in ignorance; but the education, compulsory on all others, is eluded in the ease of the children of nomads. Miss Ellice Hopkins gives the following examples of the- habitual condition of tramps' children :—" I have in my mind now, two families of habitual tramps about Leith Hill, one a. family of four, the other a family of eleven, the mother having been confined of the two youngest in the snow on Leith Hill, mother and infants narrowly escaping with their lives. These children are clad in indescribable rags to attract the pity of excursionists. Their language is indescribably filthy, their persons are as bad. They never go to school, church, or chapel, and look miserably unhealthy. The boys, of course, grow up to swell the tramp class, the girls, too, often become outcast women of a peculiarly hopeless type ; as Mrs. Murray Vicars used to say, ' It was almost impossible to cure them of what she used to call the " tramp-fever,"—when the spring came round they were off." I can certainly confirm this" picture from personal investigation into the habits and customs of our tramp-population. The evil should be partly attacked through the children. It is a mistake to believe that the tramp wishes to be relieved of them. They are his- chief source of profit, and are trained in mendicancy when they ought to be preparing for a useful life. The death of Mr. George Smith, of Coalville, leaves the question of the• children of nomads without an advocate who is not unwilling to be called a bore and a fanatic.
In the coming General Election, I venture to express the- hope that the candidates on both sides may look into this- question of tramps' children from a national point of view. If the children can be redeemed, most of the raw material of trampdom will be gradually destroyed. May I therefore add a ninth suggestion to the eight you have been good enough to publish P viz. :—
9. That the children of tramps, officially recognised as such by the Poor-law authorities, be brought under the Education Acts, and educated in day or industrial schools, as may be appropriate, the cost as far as possible being recovered from the parents by compulsory work or otherwise.
am, Sir, &c., Orman Mansions, Hampstead. AnN OLD WHITE.
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