The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1877-06-24
Mcrnlng Star and Catholic essen ger.
.SG SRr.EANS. SUNDAY, JUNE "a 1877
TIE ORGANIZED FRA UDS OF LONDO1
MENDICANTS.

=. .nnears from recent statistics that one
a,oht 81 the population crowded in the british
metropolis 10 wholly or in part supporteo Dy
aims The sum \; no 0y s ss0f than
eighty Ave dollars year, or four nu9a n ana
tyenty-five dollars for each family OF ave per-
sons. This enormous eieemosynafy ,o no.
h;story of the world, has in times past been 80
aistributed az to attach in practice premium
to professional mendicausy me attempts h; TO
nroyed more or less abortive; but they nave
at last borne fruit in vigorous aud efficient
agency of reform, known as the Society for tne
Organisation 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
facts which attest the necessity of its iaoors,
and the nature of the obstacles encountered.
In the course of their Investigations the
ofaoers of this society penetrated to the head
quarters of professional mandicancy, and nm |
masked numerous schemes of impostnre OF tine |
most ingenious and audacious kinds. !ney
discovered, for instance, an association OF iofGy
persons, each of whom derived q comfortable
income Of twenty-five dollars q week from an
elaborate system of devices and Appliances.
managed with the regularity and exactitude OF
o banking house or railway corporation. Az
exhaustive collection OF directories formed
than three Thousand names of we'll per-
sons dwelling in London and the vlc,nity
were found marked with certain signs demo-
ting POST was Regularly
in and read alor by the better. educated
members of the olab, so that all might be CON
faahionable world. The begging letters sent
out invariably bore the correct name ana resi-
denoes of the individuals addressed, ctrcum-
stance which was often accepted as gnaran'
Zee of the applicants good faith. Another
feature of the corporate apparatus Is etoch
of visiting cards, either stolen from hall tables
while the nendicant waits for an answer to
note. OF purchased of the family servants: II
nos other wise obtainable they are forged from
plates expressly engraved, aud an instance 10
cited of baker who, on preseh'ss 10 VI " h;S
purported to be the visiting card of one CT ms
customers lent two pounds to the bearer, VINO
passed himself off for q relative. we may noSe
In passing that the composition OF begging
epistles seems to be q veritable profession,
vastly respected and handsomely paia by
illiterate mendicants, the normal tarin oelng
twenty-five per cent. OF the amount secure n ~
the application. Obviously, the old familiar
contrivances of the merdicant vocation, the
feigued blindness or lameness, and the apocTy
phal tales of bed-ridden fathers. crippled enlid
ZEN, and dying wives, belong to the lnfsncy
of the art, and can yield but meagre returns
compared with the new and highly organized
institutions above described
dom and of which there have been examples II
New York, is the quasl-legltmate soclst!
which collects subscriptions for casrltaoi'
purposes, and does, In fact, expend In ina
way an uncomfortable fraction of lite receipts
buS which is really framed to fill the purses O
it's PROMOTERS One of the most importa
prosecutions undertaken by the society 1ror
whose report these details are drawn, was ina
Of tho National Association for the Difuslo
of the Bible and the Distribution of Clothing
founded by the Rev. G. s. Bore, who, arraye
in the regulation white tie and high, biac
waistcoat, had secured the West End Wit
considerable success. The clerical genelema
had placed his enterprise on regular footlni
it had board of directors, OF which he wa
President, treasurer, and with apparent r
dundancy of caution) an inspector OF account
Every year appeared an official report sesso,
ed with the customary "edifying anecdotes
and Gratifying results;" aud besides furthe
in0 the specific ends of his society, the plo'
founder was credited with q Sunday school
mission, and unIemitted expoupding of I'll
Gospel to the poor. 1t turned out, hoWeve
upon inquiry, that the committee of directo
snd inspector of accounts had shrewdly q
clined to exercise their functions that G
treasurer, q carpenter by trade was the Pre-
dents father-in-law; the school mistress :"
his wife, who likewise represented two su
teachers highly landed in the report for the
angular zeal in the Lords work. what "
more melancholy, the Rev. G. 8: Bore hims
proved to be no Clergyman at all, but TO ma
followed by turns the more modest Vocaton
ianisor and tailor. This individual had cart
IN his new calling the neat annual income
three hundred pounds sterling, but lnaenn
as a few Bibles ard some old clothes had
tually been given away, the prosecutor iAii
Mr. Hayes will spend portion CT July
all the month of August at the Greenbr
White Sulphur springs, Virginia. mum
of Southern Senators and Governors as
several leading Northern Democrats will sp'