The Morning herald., 1876-05-25
PROFEssIONAL BEGGARs,

When the sun has warmed the air, and
impaired the gentle feeling Of spring to all
nature, the beggar brigade marches forth
from their hiding places, and make the
housekeeper and servant girl the special
objects to whom their applications are
bent. Where they come from is mystery
to all. What they do for nourishment dur
ing the winter, is matter of conjecture,
and how long they have practiced that
"Please 'givn me suthin teat," excites the
wonder of the donor. Ii is reasonable to
suppose that like the great South Ameri.
can serpent they lay in enough at a meal
10 keep away the wolf for sometime. And
it is thought the professional beggar when
the torpor Of numbing winter has left the
marrow of his bones, ssand he has basked
into life again in the warm sunshine of
spring and summer, comes forth like the
beast from his hole ready for another
foragins expedition. He is the same this |
summer az he was last. Time does not
seem to have worn any deeper burrows
upon his brow, and his supplications have
not increased in sottness of musical effect
a particle. He has improved only in one
respect, and in that respect wonderfully;
he has at least. five more children to sup-
port than he did the last time he asked
you for "cold wittles,' and to further his
own troubles and increase the wonder of
the auditor, his wife is dead. and the Door
little ones are orphans. The story differs
somewhat in the number Of children to
what it did the last time, and the wifeless
man with an addition of four or five to his
progeny in one year, is loaded down with
what would otherwise have cone into
the garbage box or made saving
housewife an elegant dish of that
savory diet, which some give the name of
hash and others, to make it more sugges-
tive, call mystery.
1t is all coed enough for the professional
beggar He is not choice he will take
anything that is offered. 1t is policy to
do so, for he knows too we'll from expe-
rience that the old saying: Beggars
should not be chosers' is very applicable
to his own case, and it is in the spirit Of
"snall favors thankfully received" that
he expects to gain his highest rewards.
He exists on hope as much as he does on cold
potatoes and tough h, stringy pieces of beef
that the choice tooth has failed to pune
ture; and should good fortune cast few
stamps in his way, luxury in the form
Of liquid to take the cobwebs from his
throat is partaken of. As general thing
the professional beggar is economical he
is like the farmer, he makes the work of
the warm weather take care of him during
the cold, and when he asks for comfort
greater than he can get at the back gates
Of fashionable houses, he finds his death
quietly, and leaves behind him musty
old blue stocking crammed with bank
notes and coin. He is seldom seen in
winter, and only makes his appearance
after the stock Of provisions laii in in the
winter has been exhausted and necessity
compels him to make a tour of the back
gates through the redoubts of ash heaps
and garbage barrels, when "PIeas'um
gim'e suthln for fifteen starving children"
becomes familiar sound to the dowdy
servant girl with her head done up in a
sweeping cap and her dress looped more
with view to comfort than taste. Take
care Of the cold pieces, as he is ALREADY
about.