Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-01-21
Henry Ward Boeober on Reaa,ue.

Henry Ward Beecher contributes to the
New York Ledger a chapter on the pleasures
of Benevalence. He pnonounces the great
obstacle in the way Of charity, the intoler-
able imposition Of cunning mendicants. He
has he'd ten years experience, and pro-
nouncea "nineteen-twentietbs of the appli-
cations for charity unworthy any conf
dence." He shows up some of the cheats as
follows:
Among the iavariable cheats have been
young men asking help to get to another
city, or to get home. We do not doubt that
mary honest persons have found themselves
in New York without means of getting
away. But such persons have never honOred
us with q call. We have given (oh, that it
were in oar pocket againD a good deal
more than was creditable to our good sense,
10 persons who needed two, and three, and
ive dollars, to got to Albany, Boston, or
Philadelphia, and who would at once refund.
And i'll not one single instance, have we
ever had a man keep his promise. We
have shut up that door. Young men sacked
in New York have our affeetionate SYM
pathy, and oar advice to walk home, or
10 work their way.
We never knew an honest Jew to beC
And we never knew Jew that did beg that
was honest. There are, we suspect, fsw
! Jews addicted to mendiCity. The Jewish
| people are self-belpful, and they are apS to
care for their worthy poor themselves, and
not to suffer them to be cast on Christian
charity.
1t is very seldom that New Englander
openly and avowedly begs. If they do, it is
in cases where the intellect is feeble, or when
they have become discouraged and regardless
of character. Yankee begging belongs TO
another class, and is marked by that inge-
nuity and shrewdness which belongs to New
England people. In fact, the more intel
leetual classes of all nations are averse to
begging.
The same is true of Germans As class
they are industrious, frugal and self respect
ing. They almost never come to our doors
for money. Some times they solicit pro-
visions, and have round of patrons whose
doors they serve to accept broken food, as
regularly as carriers of newspapers.
But these are only the lower forms of men,
dicity-vulgar, witless, brainless. The in
genuities by which money is distracted from
one pocket and put into another, are among
the triumphs of the human intellect.
Books are good cork-screws for the pocket.
You may pay four or five prices to persons
who present you with books. OF course
they did not calculate upon your generosity.
Then some man has on hand poor fellow
whom he can not get rid of, and does
not like to support in chief He organizes a
=
Drawing up little note of introduction, he
puts down $5 or $40, and sends him to sew
eTal people of his circle and staRliDg in a
way that obliges you to honor the drawer of
the note. One opens the paper, and runs his
eye over DR.. A, Rev. W. II. O. and Y, over
your neighbor's name, and several others.
Now, every man of them, except the first,
signed because he did not wish to refuse a
friend or because he did not like to have all
those persons know that he only had refused;
and you give your money and a blessing re-
Yersed. TO the respectable mendicant.
There is a large business done by trading
mendieants. A Hungarian, strong Of to-
baceo and brandy, brings you some rare
specimens of Bohemian glass, obtained from
en- uncle, which he is enabled to sell you, on
that account, and on account of your own
sympathy for his distressed country, for
twice as much as you would have TO give at
the store in New York, where he has just
bought it.
Distressed Englshmen, who have a few
rare pictures chung to through all reVerses
offer TO part with their herlooms, II you will
: advance half their worth (which is ten times
their value, and allow them to redeem then
when a remittance from England comes
The remittance never comes, and the detest
able picture stays.
Men who are known to be kind, are studied
Just as are the habits of fish or game b.
I spoTtsmen. One sort of men come in on yOl
|. late Saturday night; they are about to b
turned into the stTeet-have no bread 70
Sunday. They know that you would not g
out TO investigate-that you would rathe
J. risk little than permit such suffering
5 Others take Sunday, and at church follow
!. up sermon with an unexpected inyitatio
: TO practice what you preach. Nothing ca
a be more exquisitely skillful A church-doo
/. beggar will extract what can not be touche
4 in any other way. But time would fail to te
|, the endless fertilities Of real want or simu
: lated want; Of lies half lies, quarter truths,
vulgar begging, refined solicitation, and e'
quisite sWindling, which belong to the exp'
8 rience of benevoence. The pious begging
a itself science.