, 1877-01-14
TIE DISEASE OF MENDICAECY.

The current number OF tScT1bHerS 4U0Nthlt
has brief but timely paper upon nendi
cancy as q disease, treating it in its various
| forms OF dead-beating, tramping, and gen
ernl paurerism. The prevalence and rapit
growth of the disease invest the subject Will
unusual importance, since ut the present rate
| Of progress it is only a question of time
| and of very short time, how soon mendicancy
! will reduce this country to the condition ot
Sicily and Southern Italy. The writer tt
whom we have alluded very truly says: '1Lep
rosy is not more incurnble than mendicancy
When the disease Inns once fastened itsel1
upon q man,-wAen, through long months
or years: he has willingly aud gladly lived
upon the industry OF others, and ron1ned
around without home,-he becomes hope
less case, and nothing but the strong arm OF
the law can make him self-supportiue
man." The writer might have gone fur
ther and shown that the natural result
Of confirmed mendicancy in ninety cases
out Of hundred is crime. The mendicant
comneuces with lazy and shiftless habit of
life, either natural in its origin or transmit
ted to him from hereditary sources, US any
other disease may be. He hangs round pub
he resorts, jobs about from place to place,
frequents free-lunch saloons, travels from
town to town without any fixed purpose ex-
cept to sponge living with as little work as
possible, until this mode of life becomes q
fixed habit. He s1lrinks from work Of any
sort. He tramps through the rural districts in
harvest, Aoelng, or husking time, but he is
never found in the field, although he might
earn his board and considerable more. He
will not work as long as his living can be
obtained without work. When the opportu-
nifty offers he picks up little things, and
steals on the sly, and it does not take long
for stealing to become a confirmed habit.
When this happens, he enters the
business of professional th1every, his depre-
dations depending upon his cunning and
courage. Ii he have any natural sharpness.
he becomes a sneak thief, stealing clothing
from halls, or light parcels OF goods from
stores, or picking pockets in crowds. II he
hare courage, he becomes burglar, in
vading houses at night or a highwayman,
assaulting and robbing travellers upon the
public thoroughfares, even in the broad day.
light. Thus gradually ythemendicant becomes
felon, the subject of the penitentiary, and
the object Of Gubernatorial sympathy and
benevolence. Chicago is today afflicted
with just this class Of mendicants ne have
been describing. They have docked here
in swarlns to stay through the winter, travel
ing in the country being difficult as well as
Improbable at this season Of the wear,
They hang about kitchens and front doors,
ostensibly seeking for work, which they will
not do when it is offered them, but in reality
seeking opportunities for stealing. They
are found in public places, on the street.
cars, wherever there is crowd, watching
opportunities for robbery. They infest even
the most public streets, and commit personal
assaults almost with utter impunity. This
is the condition we are in, growing out Of
the attack Of mendicaucy as a disease, now
raging like an epidemic.
What is the remedy? Evidently to treat
it as disease with heroic remedies. It will
not cure itself. Tie experience of the
English authorities in dealing with it has
valuable suggestions for our own. In Great
Britain mendicancy had become so universal
and SO dangerous thatamoststringent
law has been recently passed All strollers
without visible means of support who cannot
establish beyond question their means of
obtaining a livelihood, or who have
been arrested certain number Of
times, are thoroughly investigated, and, if
they come within the terms of the law, are
to the workhouse. Of course
this may swell the ranks OF the paupezs con-