The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1877-06-16

| officers OF thls society penetrated To inc
| headquarters Of professional mcndlcancy,
and unmaskcd numerous schemes Of impos-
turc Of tho most ingenious aud audacious
kinds They discovered, for instance, an
| association Of forty persons, each of whom
derived comfortable income Of twenty-five
dollars week from an elaborate system of
devices and appliances. The affairs of this
remarkable company were managed with
the regularity and cxactitude of banking
house or railway corporation. An exhaustive
collection Of directories formed the basis of
| its operations, and in these more than three
| thousand names Of well-to-do persons DWELL
ing in London and the vicinity were found
marked with certain signs dcnotng diverse
degrees of crcdulity. II appears, too, that
the Morning Post was regularly taken
| i'm. and read aloud by the better-cducatcd
members of the club, so that all might be
conversant with the doings and personages
Of the fashionable world. The begging let
| tcrs sent out invariably bore the correct
names and residences of the individuals adj
dressed, n circumstance which was often
accepted as n guarantee OF the applicants
good faith. Another feature of the corpo-
rate apparatus Is a stock Of visiting cards,
either stolen from hall tables while the men,
dicant waits for an answer TO a note. or pur-
chased Of the family servants. II not
otherwise obtainable they are forged from
plates expressly engraved, and an instance
Is cited Of a baker who, on presentation of
what purported to he the visiting card of
one of his customers, lent two pounds to the
bearer, who passed himself Off for a relative
We may note in passing that the composition
| . 80
profession, vastly respected and handsomely
paid 10y illiterate mcndicants, the normal
tariff being twenty-five per cent. of the
amount secured by the application. Obvi-
ously, the old familiar contrivances OF the
mendicant vocation, the feigned blindness
or lameness and the apocryphsl tales Of
bed-ridden fathers. crippled children, and
dying wives. belong to the infancy of the art
and can yield but mcagre returns compared
with the new and highly organized institu-
| tons above described.
Another species OF fraud unearthed In
London. and Of which we have had examples
in New York. is the quasi-legitimate society
which collects subscriptions for charitable
purposes. and does, in fact, expend in that
way an inconsidcrabe fraction Of its re-
ceipts, but which IA really framed to fill the
purses OF its promoters. One of the most inn
pOrtant prosecutions undertaken by the
society from whose report these details are
! drawn, was that Of the " National Associa-
ton Tor the Diffusion of the Bible and the
Distribution of Clothing" founded by the
Rev. c. 5. BORE, who. arrayed in the regu-
lation white tie and high, black waistcoat,
had secured the West End with considerable
success. The clerical gentleman had placed
his enterprise on n regular footing; it had
board OF directors, of which he was Prcsi-
dent, treasurer, and with apparent re-
dundancy Of cautionl an inspector Of ac-
counts. Every year appeared an official re-
port seasoned with the customary edify-
ing anecdotes" and Gratifying results :"
and besides furtherng the specific ends Of
his society, the pious founder was credited
| with "a sunday school a mission and unrn-
mitted cxpounding of the Gospel to the poor.
1t turned out, however, upon inquiry, that
the committee of directors and Inspector Of
accounts had shrewdly declined to exercise
their functioEs that the treasurer, carpcn-
ter by trade, was the Presidents iuther-in-
law; the school mistress Wa his wife. who
likewise represented two sub-teachrrs,
highly laulcd in the report for their siugu-
lhl @'dl III lie LoIl > WtIh. W nat Was more
melancholy, the Rev. {. 5. BORE himself
proved 10 be no clergyman at ALL but to have
followed by turns the more modest voca-
tions Of janitor and tailor. This individual
had earned III his new calling the neat annual
income of three hundred pounds sterling.
but inasmuch as n few Bibles and some old
clothes had actually been given away, the
prosecution failed.
Another delinquent proceeded against by
the Society for the Organization Of Charity
had more substantial claims to the title,
which lac arliully turned To account. This
was the Rev. DR.. GARDEN, a workable doctor
OF divinity, who contemplating the world
and the oppori .nities thereof, built an iron
church ut Clapham, whence he launched
forth circulars appealing for aid in his pas
toral labors. pretended Christmas dinner
for five hundred children netted him three
hundred dollars, and an imaginary family
decinlated 10y the smallpox, the account of
whose distress seems ~ have be'n peculiarly
realistic and narrowing, put seven hundred
and nifty in his pocket post Office EN-
plOyee produced ninety-siX postal orders, all
payable 10 the reverend gentleman and en-
anating from religious persons eager ~
may add that DR.. GARDEN, having omitted
to cois"cratc IL 1.-THE Of his receipts to an
evasion If the statute, was condemned t.
nine months imprisonment at hard labor.
The number of fraudulent institutions ex-
posed 10y the society Is astonishing. We
might cite, for example, the Association OF
I'll" Friends of Sailors ana Fishermen, I'll,
Metropolitan Association for Gratuitous
Sleeping Rooms, the Flrcmon's Relief Com.
pany, and the Albert Institute. These estl-
nHbl" projects were commonly launched hy
persons Of aretOcratic name, such as CHAN
los LEIGH, Henry DE LEICESTER VrRSoN
MONTGOMLHY, and SO on la many cases
some Of the first names in London socict y
were coolly inserted in the list of Vice-p
dents, while the clever rogue who engineer.
ed the Albert Institute, and who had like.
wise invented an Institute Of Minerva. posi-.
lively cOntrived TO get letter Of approval
from NAPOLEON III. For n time, indeed
these establishments won't on swimningly
thoGratuitous Sleeping Rooms, for ms ance
having obtained two successive subscribe