Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-08-13

track TO find that real suffering de-
serving Of relief which does not expose
its wounds and wretehedness upon
the highways.
So much money has been made by
street begging that it has be-
come a science. A few days
since we read an account OF an enter
prising newspaper man in London,
who visited a professional academy
for instruction in the art of begging
which an adept had established in
that city, giving a regular university
course of lectures, which we're largely
attended, and having q laboratory in
which were collected all the various
humbugs adopted and used by prof s.
SIGNAL street -beggsrs. He taught how
sore eyes, broken limbs, blindness,
idiOcy, and pIaintive stories could be
learned, and used to good advantage,
and there is no doubt that hundreds
Of lazy vagabonds have found this
university's fee an excellent invest
ment. It is said to be a matter OF
surprise at how young an age the ne
cessary deception may be acquired,
and the younger and the more pitiful
and repulsiye the beggar, the greater
the success. In nearly all cities there
are laws to suppress street beggars,
but a fear OF the charge Of cruelty and
inhumanity prevents the enforce
ment of the law. But the evil can
be eradicated by the citi-
zens themselves, for the null
sance of street-begging is perpetual
ted by those people who, with entire
" false ideas of charity, contribute
largely and constantly to the support
of an object which is injurious to the
giver and ruin0us to the recipient. If
the public will refuse to give
to the professional mendieants the
nuisance of street-begging viii disap-
pear. 1t is no charityt to give to the
abandoned creatures who alternately
rob and beg. In this land of abund-
ance, and where labor is in demand
and commands a higher reward than
any other country on the globe, there
is no necessity for street-begging.
Those who are able to work can find
employment at their doors, and the
helpless poor are provided for by III
numerous charitable institutions. Ev-
cry cent given a s~treet-begger is so
| much given as a reward to idleness
and crime, for the beggers are gener-
ally little children, girls and boys,
hired for the purpose by corrupt men
and women, often by lazy, drunken
fathers and mothers, to beg daily a GER
tain sum, and failing to get it, are re-
quired to steal it. The beggars upon
the street would be at school, or
some honest employment, were
there no thOughtless humanitarians
aiding to make the trade of begging
profitable and thus increase the num-
Der. The beggars upon the street are
nothing but a growing crop of rogues
and prostitutes. From among them
the ranks Of our elder criminal classes
are filed, for when they grow too
old to beg, or beyond the control of
their masters, they enter upon a life
Of crime on their own account. The
matter is a more serious one than il
Is often considered by those who in
charity seek to rid themselves of the
nuisance at their heels bygiving aims.
The street beggars, who once reaped
rich harvest in Memphis, have near
~ all disappeared. Occasionally they
make their appearance and generally
appeal to the pumpkins who are un-
used to beggars and easily deceived
and moved by pretended hunger and
rags. 1t is as much the duty Of our
police to arrest children for street
begging as it is to arrest them for
stealing, for to permit the nuisance is
to encourage the procurement OF
money under false ~pretenses, and the
making OF criminals upon the street.
Starve out the beggars. Force them
TO some honorable employment and
good citizens will be made out of
many who, if encouraged in begging,
always turn out criminals.