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There are no tramps now but an air of crisis hangs over Washington

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US National Guards and a protester in Washington on Aug 26.

Members of the US National Guard and a protester in Washington on Aug 26.

ST PHOTOS: BHAGYASHREE GAREKAR

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In the fading daylight of September, a youngish man bumped into me along a street off Pennsylvania Avenue, about a kilometre from the White House. 

He excused himself, politely, and then asked, with an air of assumed gentility, if I could spare a few dollars. His wife, he said, was pregnant. And having had his wallet stolen, he had no money to buy a bottle of milk. 

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