The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-01-15

Total Tor SIX m0ntnS nS.....,...,,............zzz .zzz
The total number of arrests for all otfenses IN
this city, in the six months Just closed, was 3746,
so that about seven per cent. of those arrested
were vagrants - homeless, shelterless
wretches "without any visible means of sup
port"
The vagrant system, and the kindred annoy
ance of streetbegging although less obtrusive
than in past years. are still nusances worthy Of
abatement. We hold to the opinion that the
easiest and most feasible plan to adopt in our
CITY is the one started several years since-the
establishment of house Of correction. When
this is lone and not till then, will vagrancy
entirely disappear.
IN connection with this subject, there are
some "words fifty spoken" in the report of the
Managers of the Home Missionary Society, read
at the anniversary on the oath of last December.
This simple paragraph, which we quote will
serve to point the moral of the entire story
''Idleness ands intemperance are the fruitful
sources of at least threetourths of the poverty
and crime in our city. The first is greatly en-
couraged and fostered by that abominable prac
tice-streetbegging. And the Managers earnestly
urge upon all to disoountenance it in every way,
as hardly one in ten OF these street beggars is
worthy of the aims they impore In fact, it is
regular trade with the great bulk of them, and
charity bestowed upon them is not only wasted,
but it serves to increase and encourage idleness
and vice. Intemperance, however, is more
gigantic and appalling evil, and one which 1t
of rumseling is considered at all legitimate and
respectable. Indeed, it can only be restrained in
its devastating and soul-destroying progress
when that nefarous business becomes SO dis
reputable and criminal in the Judgment of the
public mind that none but the most hardened
and wicked of men can have the boldness to en-
gage in it. This Society does what it can to
rescue the poor victims of this bad business, and
the Managers feel thankful that its efforts in
this direction, although necessarily limited, have
not all been spent in vain"
The walter girl nuisance has likewise been
materially abated in this city within few years.
There is one establishment, on Chestnut street,
below Fourth, professedly restaurant where
from ten to fifteen young women OF attractive
appearance are employed as "waiters.n If a
customer enters, he is asked to sit down by q
table, and finds himself tetedtete with very
sOciable demoiselle. He is asked if he is O
stranger in the city. If he replies in the negative
he is generally fortunate enough to get OF with
treating the ladies ''all round" Otherwise hC
stands good chance of being invegled, by hi
blooming attendant, into an appointment Il
meet her at some future "trysting time" II
Chestnut street, between Third and Sixth, ther
are three or four saloons of the same character
aud there are perhaps dozen low concer
saloons in the city, where, if females of imprope
character are not employed as walters, as il
former years, they are at least encouraged Il
congregate and hold their seaRoes; and wher
designations are made.
The evil is of New York birth, and merel
Philadelphian by adoption; while it is a matte
for pride and congratulation, that In our stat
and respectable city, Its proportions are yearl
diminishing, as the result of wholesome publ
sentiment. The concert saloons were frs