Henry Stuart Baker at the Belper Union Workhouse, Derbyshire, 19110.

Belper’s "Weary Willies."
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A NIGHT IN THE CASUAL WARD.
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By "Amateur Casual."

For some months as an amateur casual I have been visiting various vagrant awards connected with workhouses both in England and Wales, with a view to setting forth some report when the poor Law Commission begin to move in the matter of reforming the present system of tramp relief.

That through Belper and the surrounding districts many reg'lar Weary Willies" pass every week no one can dispute, and something will surely be done in the future to put down this class of nomad, and, by confining them in labour colonies, induce or compel them to subsist by their own manual efforts.

Therefore, I trust this brief article describing how the tramp applying to the Belper Guardians for a night's shelter is treated in the casual ward, may be of interest to the ratepayers of the town.

The governors of several large provincial gaols have recently stated that the tramp often finds himself

Better off in prison than in casual wards,

and that he sometimes actually endeavours to secure imprisonment by deliberately committing some offence.

"I'd sooner be in 'stir' (prison) than in a "spike," I have often heard from the lips of a tramp. Nay, on more than one occasion I have listened to two or more of these wastrels discussing the best and easiest method of securing imprisonment.

Tramps with the very ragged and unclean clothing used at one time to constantly "tear up" in casual wards. This brought them imprisonment, and on being released they often were often provided with good suits and substantial boots. Since "canvas suits" has been the order of the day, however, there has been a great diminution of this offence.

Most tramps have their favourite gaols, and will go into that particular county served by their pet gaol to be arrested.

Derby Prison is no favourite.

Good and regular meals, cleanliness, plenty of sleep, and a minimum of work is obtainable in prison, while if they are "reg'lars" in Belper they are not encouraged to come again.

There are five classes of "roadsters," or persons on tramp, to be found almost nightly in Belper tramp ward.

The "gagger" is that plausible individual with the unshaven chin and dirty collar who stops any benevolent-looking personage he meets on the road, and, offering a pair of boot laces for sale, relates a pitiful story of hunger and suffering. I can assure those charitably inclined personages that the "gagger" is often better fed than the average labourer.

Then comes the "griddler" — the street singer, who is often heard in Belper's back streets singing in a voice seemingly full of plaintive melancholy, "Oh, where is my boy tonight?"

Third on the list is the "moucher," the "door thumper," who generally puts in an appearance at the back doors about meal times period he carries with him a little tin can — a "drum" he terms it — and appeals for tea and food

Many navvies often put up in the casual ward. This class unfortunately cannot stick to a job very long, and are therefore often compelled to "pad the 'oof."

The last class is the genuine unemployed workman, who is sometimes compelled to seek a nights shelter in the tramp ward. It is for this class I advocate a different treatment from that meted out to those of the "Weary Willie" tribe. He should not be housed with them, and should receive better and a more substantial food, providing of course he satisfies the officials that he is a genuine seeker of work period

To put him among the tramps is to lower him to the grade of a tramp, and eventually he will possibly lose all self-respect and be dragged into the ranks of the vagrant fraternity.

To anyone interested in tramp life the slang terms used by these nomads are almost as incomprehensive as the vocabulary of the Romany. While the casual ward is termed a "spike," a "derrick," or a "grubber," the workhouse itself is designated the "lump."

The highway is called the "main drag,"

and off the "main drag" are the places where the tramp seeks his food. To walk, as I have said in previous articles, is"to pad the 'oof on the Toby," while to beg is to "to mouch" or to "pitch the fork."

The food supplied him in Belper workhouse he calls, with the addition of a few lurid adjectives, "dry rooty," and his bed is a "lay down." In Belper, as in other work houses, the inmate who assists the porter in the reception of tramps bears the title of "tramp major." He is in some places thoroughly hated for his arrogant methods, but I can assure

The Belper "Tramp Major"

that he is spoken of as "not a bad 'un" by the Weary Willies who visit him. From Chesterfield to Belper is not a far cry, but on the road I met several interesting characters.

One was at tall, gaunt man with dirty, unshaven chin and long, tousled hair. He wore very greasy, black clothes, his boots were odd ones, and his bowler hat was minus a portion of the crown. Over his shoulders he carried a half- filled sack, and he "padded on" by the aid of a stick recently torn from some hedgerow.

"Mebbe yer goin' to Belper, chum?" he asked me, as I said "How do!""If yer are, I can tell yer a good kip house for fourpence."

I told him I was off into the "spike" that night.

"Well, yer might do worse," he replied."It ain't a bad 'un, as it goes, though it's a dry bread shop, and yer sumtimes get kep' in all day. I ain't bin in since I took up 'tatting'."

I soon discovered what 'tatting' was.

"To tat" is to collect rags and bones,

And the man employed in this kind of work is called a "tatter."

"Do well?" I asked.

" Just keep goin, yer know," he replied;"sometimes a bob a day, an' sometimes two, but of course I gets a bit of ' tommy' as well. But yer 'ave ter walk a long way. Now ter-day I've bin all round Clay Cross."

As a nail troubled him in one of his boots I left him by the roadside endeavouring to remove the obstacle.

An unwelcome visitation.

Not two miles out of Belper I met a short, stumpy little tramp wrapping up his possessions in a dirty red handkerchief. His face was convulsed with passion, and he every now and then shook his fist at the retreating form of a policeman, who, mounted on a bicycle, was fast receding in the distance. His language was blasphemous and filthy.

"Bin through me, the so-and- so," he roared as I came up to him. "Thought he had a 'cop' on, an' made me open my bundle and show him what I'd got."

Evidently the policeman had suspected the tramp of having stolen property in his possession, and stopped him and searched him on the spot. It was only by the judicious loan of a morsel of twist tobacco that I stopped his curses. Then we journey it on to spend the night in Belper casual ward.

Who you meet.

It was dark, cold, and misty when we wended our weary way to the workhouse, and, entering the little office, gave in our names, ages, occupations, places journeyed from, and destination.

That were not a dozen of us, but the majority looked as if they had suffered from the biting frost. One man told me that the night before he had slept in the open behind a wall. Imagine sleeping out in weather like it has been! But this fellow was of the navvy kind.

" I wer near froze when I woke in the mornin'," he said. "I should a bin a corpse I rec'on on'y I wer 'boozed' when I 'ligged' down and mebbe the beer saved me."

However, after our names, etc., had been registered, we underwent the ordeal of the bath. A good hot bath is a fine thing after a cold walk, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then, tying my clothes in a bundle, I went to bed. My bedroom was a small cell, and for a covering I had two thick rugs. But

My bed was of the board variety,

and though I contrived to arrange my rugs as to minimise in some measure their hardness, yet I felt very sore in the bones when I awoke in the next morning. Supper consisted of 8ozs. of bread, with hot water to drink.

At 6-30 next morning I was aroused, and quickly dressed, for the cold did not allow for much standing about in the nude. For breakfast I again received 8ozs. of bread. Several of the regular tramps brought food in with them to supplement this fare, and

It is possible it, if one possesses a halfpenny, to purchase a mug of tea.

However, at eight o'clock we were called on to perform a task of work in return for the night's shelter. In company with another casual I was set to cut up, with a cross-cut saw, several large railway sleepers. By working hard we kept the blood circulating. It is a capital exercise — for the well fed. My companion growled and cursed most of the time, at the cold, at the wood, at the officials, and at "spikes" generally.

But at 11 o'clock our work was finished, and, receiving any parcels which we had deposited the night before, we were allowed to depart.

Tramp's don't "wallow in luxury" here.

Now Belper casual ward, like the one mentioned last week in Chesterfield, is not one where the regular tramp is allowed to "wallow in luxury." He wants what he calls the "Home Rule Spike," but the officials at Belper take care that the home rule side of the business remains in the hands of the Belper Guardians. Certainly the institution carries out all the requirements of the Local Government Board. It is kept very clean, and the officials endeavour to cope with the wiles of the "Weary Willie" fraternity in as humane a manner as possible.