It is in gaols that one sees the worst side of this perversion.  In the daytime the prisoners are let out into a long hall, and can do much as they please; at night they are shut up, two and even four in a cell.  If there are any boys in the crowd, they are made use of by all who care to have them.  If they refuse to submit, they are gagged and held down.  The sheriff seldom knows what goes on, and for the boys to say anything to him would be suicidal.  There is a criminal ignorance all over the States concerning the life of these gaols, and things go on that would be impossible in any well-regulated prison.  In one of these places I once witnessed the fiercest fight I have ever seen among hoboes; a boy was the cause of it.  Two men said they loved him, and he seemed to return the affection of both with equal desire.  A fight with razors was suggested to settle who should have him.[277] The men prepared for action, while the crowd gathered round to watch.  They slashed away for over half an hour, cutting each other terribly, and then their backers stopped them for fear of fatal results.  The boy was given to the one who was hurt the least.

Jealousy is one of the first things one notices in connection with this passion.  I have known them to withdraw entirely from the “hang-out” life simply to be sure that their prushuns were not touched by other tramps.  Such attachments frequently last for years, and some boys remain with their first jockers until they are “emancipated.”

Emancipation means freedom to “snare” some other boy, and make him submit as the other had been obliged to submit when younger.  As a rule, the prushun is freed when he is able to protect himself.  If he can defend his “honor” from all who come, he is accepted into the class of “old stagers,” and may do as he likes.  This is the one reward held out to prushuns during their apprenticeship.  They are told that some day they can have a boy and use him as they have been used.  Thus hoboland is always sure of recruits.

It is difficult to say how many tramps are sexually inverted.  It is not even certainly known how many vagabonds there are in the country.  I have stated in one of my papers on tramps that, counting the boys, there are between fifty and sixty thousand genuine hoboes in the United States.  A vagabond in Texas who saw this statement wrote me that he considered my estimate too low.  The newspapers have criticised it as too high, but they are unable to judge.  If my figures are, as I believe, at least approximately correct, the sexually perverted tramps may be estimated at between five and six thousand; this includes men and boys.