TRAMPS' SIGNS 43 



Unlettered, but highly organised, trampdom has a 

 lingua franca of its own, and its signs are to be read, 

 chalked on the fences and gateposts of the Dover Road, 

 as surely as one could read a French novel. 



The argot and the sign-language of the road are 

 not difficult to acquire by those who have observant 

 eyes and ears to hearken, but, like all languages, they 

 are ever changing, and the accepted signs of yesteryear 

 are constantly superseded by newer symbols. Little 

 do the country-folk understand the significance of the 

 chalk-marks on their gates and walls. Does the portly 

 yeoman suspect that the \ on his gatepost means 

 " no good " ? And how mixed would be the feelings 

 of many a worthy lady w^ere the inner meaning of 

 revealed to her — " Religious, but good on the whole." 

 Were the eloquence of that mark discovered to her, 

 she would know at once how it was that the poor men, 

 with their ragged beards and their toes peeping through 

 their boots, were so unfailingly pious and thankful for 

 the cold scran and the threepenny-piece with which 

 she relieved their needs, asking a blessing on her and 

 hers until they were out of sight, when they " stowed " 

 the piety and threw the provisions into the nearest 

 ditch, calling in at the next roadside pub to take the 

 edge off their thirst with that threepenny-piece. It 

 may safely be said that the tramp is not grateful. 

 He is, indeed, altruistic, but his altruism he saves for his 

 kind, and he exhibits it in the danger-signals he chalks 

 up in places the brotherhood wot of. There are 

 degrees of danger, as of luck. Some good-hearted 

 people become soured by many calls on their generosity, 

 and one can readily understand even the mildest- 

 mannered of elderly ladies becoming restive when 

 the sixth tramp appears at the close of the day. 

 Other people, too, lose their generosity with the 

 bedding-out plants which one of the fraternity has 

 " sneaked " from the front garden under cover of night. 

 In the first instance, the sign A (which means " Spoilt 

 by too many callers ") is likely to be found somewhere 



