OCR Text |
Show TRAMPS. Logan is more seriously afflicted with tramps now than at any other time for a number of years. Scarcely a night passes but that applications are made to the police officers for lodgings in the jail and for food; while the solicitations for aid made at private houses are innumerable. We have been spared so far the unenviable experience of Salt Lake and Ogden, in the matter of burglaries and petty crimes so often the attendant consequence of an influx of tramps. But this good fortune may not long be ours, unless wise protective measures be soon adopted. As the season advances, these numbers of the tireless host that live upon the roads will increase in numbers. The Utah & Northern will be a thoroughfare for them. Logan enjoys a reputation for generosity and hospitality, and of the benefits of these qualities parasites will not be slow to avail themselves. Charity to the truly unfortunate is necessary; but among those who are tramping, where two men that are willing to earn their bread are discovered, as least one will be found, who is indisposed to all kinds of labor. It is difficult, without making a careful trial, to detect the difference; but we think measures could be instituted by the city which would prevent injustice wither to residents or deserving men in need of food and shelter. Let the ordinance relating to vagrancy be strictly enforced. The streets of Logan are in great need of improvement, and plenty of work can be furnished to prisoners. If men who have been on the road for days, weeks or months, poorly sheltered and miserably fed are really in search of labor, they will deem it a privilege to remain here at work for ten or twenty days. They could be given comfortable lodgings and wholesome food, and when the term of their imprisonment was ended they would be comparatively well fitted to continue the march. On the contrary, those individuals whose only desire is, by wandering about the country, to pick up a living without returning therefor any compensation, and who view labor with moral terror, would receive a well merited punishment. Financially, the city would lose nothing; the labor performed would pay all expenses of board and lodging. Then the citizens would be relieved from great annoyance and a burthen which they should not bear. |