“Two classes of tramps I have met openly declare their preference for homosexuality.  They are men who have been in the army and sailors and seafaring men in general.  It is said that ‘Jack has a wife in every port,’ but I believe from my experience that the wife in many cases is of the male sex, and this among those of all nationalities, as is the case with soldiers.  Among these also jealousy is more common than amongst ordinary tramps, and if you are ‘dandy’ to a soldier, if you make advances or receive them from a senior, trouble is likely to occur between them.

“I could give many instances of my own personal experiences to show that ‘tramps’ are looked upon by men in the country districts as legitimate, complacent, and purchaseable objects for homosexual lust.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[276] This is the home of the fraternity.  Practically it is any corner where they can lay their heads; but, as a rule, it is either a lodging-house, a freight-car, or a nest in the grass near the railway watering-tank.

[277] All hoboes carry razors, both for shaving and for defense.  Strange to say, they succeed in smuggling them into gaols, as they are never searched thoroughly.

[278] This word is of Hebrew origin, and means girl (Maedchen).

APPENDIX B.

THE SCHOOL-FRIENDSHIPS OF GIRLS.

I.

A school-friendship is termed by Italian girls a “flame” (flamma).  This term, as explained by Obici and Marchesini, indicates, in school-slang, both the beloved person and the friendship in the abstract; but it is a friendship which has the note of passion as felt and understood in this environment.  In every college the “flame” is regarded as a necessary institution.  The relationship is usually of a markedly Platonic character, and generally exists between a boarder on one side and a day-pupil on the other.  Notwithstanding, however, its apparently non-sexual nature, all the sexual manifestations of college youth circle around it, and in its varying aspects of differing intensity all the gradations of sexual sentiment may be expressed.

Obici and Marchesini carried on their investigation chiefly among the pupils of Normal schools, the age of the girls being between 12 and 19 or 20.  There are both boarders and day-pupils at these colleges; the boarders are most inflammable, but it is the day-pupils who furnish the sparks.

Obici and Marchesini received much assistance in their studies from former pupils who are now themselves teachers.  One of these, a day-pupil who had never herself been either the object or the agent in one of these passions, but had had ample opportunity of making personal observations, writes as follows:  “The ‘flame’ proceeds exactly like a love-relationship; it often happens that one of