The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1877-08-23
THE ORGANIZED Fra UDS or LON
DON MENDICANTS.

DON MENDICANTS.
II appears from recent statistics that
one eighth Of the population crowded in
the British metropolis is wholly or in part
supported by aims. The average sum
received by each individual of the indi
gent class is not less than eghty-hve dol.
lars a year, or four hundred and twenty.
FIVE dollars for each family OF five per-
sons. This enormous eleemosynary
fund, without parallel or approximation
in the history Of the world, has in times
past been so disturbed as to attach in
practice premium to professional men
delaney. The attempts to check this
harmful tendency have hitherto proved
more or less abortive, but they have at
last borne fruit in vigorous and efficient
agency Of REFORM known as the Society
for the Organization Of Charity. The
last report of this association, which now
exercises general supervision over the
public and private charities, not only Of
London but of many other large Eng
lish towns, recites some curious facts,
which attest the necessity of its labors,
and the nature of the obstacles encoun>
tered.
In the course of their Investigations the
officers of this society penetrated to the
headquarters of professional mendcan-
cy. and unmasked numerous schemes Of
of imposture of the most ingenious and
audacious kinds. They discovered, for
instance, an association of forty persons,
each of whom derived comfortable in
come Of twenty FIVE dollars week from
an elaborate system of devices and ap-
pliances. The affairs Of this remark
able company we're managed with the
regularity and exacttude of banking
house or railwaw corporation. An ex
haustive collection Of directors formed
the basis Of its operations, and in these
more than three thousand names ofwell'
to do persons dwelling in London and
the vicinity were found marked with
certain signs denoting diverse degrees of
credulity. Itappears too that the MOrH>
Hg Pest was regularly taken in, and
and read aloud by the better educated
members of the club, so that all might
be conversant with the doings and per
sonages of the fashionable world. The
begging letters sent out invariably bore
the correct names and residences of the
individuals addressed, circumstance
which was often accepted as guarantee
of the applicants good faith, Another
feature of the corporate apparatus is
stock of visiting cards, either stolen from
hall tables while the mendicants wait for
an answer to a note, or purchased OF the
family servants, If not otherwise OBJ
tainable they are forged from plates ex>
pressly engraved, and an instance is
cited Of baker who, on presentation of
what purported to be the visiting card OF
one Of his customers, left two pounds to
the bearer, who passed himself off for a
relative.
We may note in passing that the
composition Of begging epistles seems
to be veritable profession, vastly re-
spected and handsomely paid by litter
ate mendicants, the normal lariff being
rs per cent ofthe amount secured by the
application.
Obviously, the old familiar contri-
vances of the mendicant vocation, the
feigned blindness or lameness, and the
apocryphal tales of bed ridden fathers,
crippled children, and dying wives, be.
long to the infancy of the art, and yet
can yield but meagre returns compared
with the new and highly organized instl'
tutions above described.
Another species Of fraud unearthed in
London, and of which we have had ex-
amples in New York, is the quasi legiti>
mate society which collects subscriptions
for charitable purposes, and does in fact
expend in that way an inconsiderable
fraction of its receipts, but which is re-
ally framed to fill the purses of its pro.
moterS.
One Of the most important prosecu>
tons undertaken by the society from
whose report these details are drawn,
was that of the National Association for
ihe Diffusion of the Bible and the Dis
tribution of Clothing, founded by the
Rev. c. S. Bore, who, arrayed in the
regulation white tie and high, black
wastcoat, had secured the West End
with considerable success. The clerical
gentleman had placed his enterprise on
a regular footing it had a board of di-
: rectors, of which he was President, a
treasurer, and with apparent redundant
cy of caution) an inspector of accounts.
Every year appeared an official report
seasoned with the customary edifying
anecdotes and gratifying results; and
besides furthering the specific ends of
his society, the pious founder was cred,
tied with Sunday school, mission, and
unremitted expounding 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 functions that
the treasurer, carpenter by trade, was
the Presidents father>in>law the school
mistress was his wife, who likewise reps
resented two sub>teacners, highly laud>
ed in the report for their singular zeal
in the Lords work. What was more
melancholy, the Rev. c. S. Bore him
self proved to be no clergyman at all, but
to have followed by turns the more mod
est vocations of janitor and tailor. THIS
individual had earned in his new calling
the neat annual income of three huns
: dred pounds sterling, but inasmuch as a
few Bibles and some old clothes had
actually been given away, the prosecu>
ton failed.
Another delinquent proceeded against