The Lancaster ledger. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1852-1905, 1853-09-28
WE CLEAVE TO TRUTH. WHERE'ER
SHE LEADS THE WAY"

o u without recognizing its disIracefu
presence. We allude to the multifarious
trade IN Impostures of all sorts, which is
carried on during the few hours preceding
midnight, wherever the poor and the Ia,
boring classes are drawn together to spend
their hard earnings. Just on the same
principle as the shop-keepers and stall
owners prepare their goods and display
their various manufactures to tempt the
desires OF the moneycd customer, so do
the vile dealers in stimulated misery and
misfortune prepare their narrowing and
heartrending exhibitions 10 spccu,atc
upon the sympathy of the charitaily Door
Every Saturday night in London. the
lame, the halt and the blind, the MANNED
the mrtilated and the crippled, the
widowed and the deserted, are manufac-
tured 10y hundreds to reap the harvest Of
certain amount of benevolence which is
known to characterize the lower orders of
the London working populace, the major
lty of whom, it should be remembered.
are not Londoners born. but country bred
artisans who have come hi,her in nursu;t
OF employment.
These miscreants display a wonderful
ingenuity III the concoction Of their STRAIT
agems and disguiscs. Ii the weather be
dry and fine, as on the present OCCASION
they resort to some irrcpdrablc calamity.
as Their stock in trade, such AS total blind
hess or semparalysis. II, however, il
rain, hail, and blow tempest, and the
roads are running with streams of LIQUID
mud, then the domestic misery sham il
most profitable, and in the place Of one
paralytic subject jabbering on crutches,
yod will see regular pyramid ofmother-
less children, all with clean faces and
clean white aprons, standing barehcaded
in the rain, and headed by decent, re-
spectable-looking man, who intones a
doletul tale about his want of work, his
long sojourn in the hospital, and the death
OF iiis wife, who has left him with six
helpless babes, for whose hapless sake he
is compelled to appeal to your compassion
as sickness prevents him frem working
an hsair -bel,aifsi In sopse :sstzrcesz s,1el,,
appeals may be genuine, but the prob.
ability Is that he has bird the children OF
their beggarly mothers at sixpence "a head
for the night, and there is no toabt but
that he will make good speculation OF
1t before the night is over, and, in all
probability, get drunk with the proceeds.
Another very remunerative deception
Is, the poor gentleman" A young fcl-
low OF tivc-and-twenty, with pale, sallow
ana wobegone complexion, stands with
Lls back against gas lamp or the wall.
lie Is clad IN an undeniabe gentlemanIy
gnrb ofrefned black cloth, ,threadbare and
shabby by constant wear; a snw-white
wristbands Of unspotted cleanliness. but
irlnged and gged at the edges to denote
hls poverty and the hardness of his strug
gle to maintain a genteel appearance.
half conceal his skeleton fingers, in which
he grasps single box of lucifer matches
Around bis brow there is a fillet Of white
linen, AID he wears green shade over
hls eyes. His tout ensemble, as he hangs
his head in an angle indicative of broken
hearted detection presents a spectacle of
melancholy reverse Of fortuLe and un-
merited degradation, against which the
hearts OF poor men and their wives are
not proof and yod may see them with Il
halt-exPrcssed sympathetic moan, drop
ping into his open hands share of ,Ler
hard-won gains, which the unprncipled
fellow will dissipate before the dawn in
the nocturnal orgies Of some ofthe thieves
and cadgers among whom he is renown-
ed as universal genius.
Blind men, with pair ofexcelcnt eyes
under bandage, chant their lying dit
ties. Men, who could walk six miles an
hour if anything were to he got by it,
hobhle about OH wooden legs, bawling
ballads for sale by the yard, and begging
your custom for an old tar Iamed for life
in cruise against the slave ships off the
African coast. Wretchcd women. with
halt. clad infants at the breast-borrowed
babes, which will have to be returned in
an hour or two-unite their squalling
voices to the general hubLub. FictiouS
crippes- proof against any quantity Of
liquor, and STEPPED in falsehood to their
llps-arc chanting pious hymns to psalm
tunes, and turning their bleared ewes to
heaven as though they had hidden fare
well to hope upon earth. Even children
OF tender age, trained to these atrocious
deceptions, exhibit themselves upon the
curb-stones, crying and moaning with
anguish, in the character Of desolate or.
Phans without food to eat or shelter for
the night These villanous deceptions all
originate in the fact, universally known
that the poor are ever ready to help tn,
distressed; and il is true; beyond a doubt
that the unsuspecting benevolence of tn,
lower and laboIing ranks, has given ris,
to thousand devices Of unblushing frauC
which makes prey to their charitable ten
denotes.
1t is now growing late; eleven O'Clock
has struck; the throng, though it has moi
decreased in numbers. has been for the
last hour gradually changing IN .charac
ter. The middle class, housewives who
make good use of this market, and th,
more respectable order Of working mer
and wo uen, have nearly all lsft the spo
and their places are filed by lowe
grade Of the popnlation. Too many Q
these, alas ste in 4 state Of semi-iutosi