They did not infest the upper part of the State for the simple but eloquent reason that it meant starvation to them.

The farmers compelled the weary wayfarer to work all day like a borrowed horse for a single meal at the "second table." There was no such thing as a "hand-out," as it is known in the tramp's vocabulary.

It is not extraordinary, therefore, that tramps found the community so unattractive that they cheerfully walked miles to avoid it.

A peculiarly well-informed vagrant once characterised the up-state farmer as being so "close that he never shaved because it was a waste of hair." It is hardly necessary to state, in view of the attitude of both farmer and tramp, that the misguided vagrant who wandered that way was the object of distinct, if not distinguished, curiosity.

In the country roads he was stared at with a malevolence that chilled his appetite, no matter how long he had been cultivating it on barren soil.