"The Tramp, A Luxury."

At a conference held under the auspices of the Social Service Committee last night in Phillips Brooks House, Mr. B. C. Marsh spoke on "The Tramp, a Luxury." Mr. Marsh said that in discussing the tramp question he was taking up one of the most important problems to be dealt with by the philanthropic worker. The presence of so many vagrants is for two reasons our own fault,--either we enjoy them, or, if not, we are too lazy to dispose of them.

Tramps may be divided into three classes,--those looking for employment; those pretending to look for employment; and "innocents," or criminals who disguise themselves in the manners and appearance of ignorant vagrants.

Unwise philanthropy, widely speaking, is the chief objective cause of vagrancy. Indiscriminate public relief-houses, where help is given without investigation, so-called religious institutions to which those conforming to certain superficial tests are unjustly admitted, lack of keen and proper supervision, in lodging-houses--all these encourage rather than decrease the number of non-workers.

In order that cases might be investigated before becoming too flagrant, bodies of state officers should be instituted, who should know the names and records of offenders. Furthermore, if fewer peddling licenses were issued, if police stations were closed to tramps who might better be confined in places where work was exacted, and if blind and crippled children were attended to early in life, we should find a great decrease in the number of these useless citizens.