The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1880-02-05


tho People Llyo-Viocs and Vir.ucs of the Poo
plO--Iho Howell aud the Pala5o-suGrogo
Done Tor-The "0ats' and tho TINS.
correspondence Of The Herald,
WASuISGroE, Fehruary2.
A Texan in Washington is first amazed by
the number of beggms encountered upon
the streets. The stupidest Of them, and most
degraded, black, or Italian, or American, de-
tcct the stranger, if the apparel and hat
do not betray He surely looks about him
with widcopen eyes. llei amazed by the
vast number of that peculiar institution
known MS "traasury girls" They don't eX-
ist elsewhere, and are mainly Of the devil
may-care yankee sort, well calculated to
excite the WONDER aud, rs well, the nd
mWtion, of one accustomed to encounter
shrinking modcsty in womNn'S garb upon
the broad avenues Of the cities and villages
of Texas. "pleose sir, gimme penny" in
tcrruptcd at every street corner tho dreams Of
country bunpkins stupidity staring Mt a bevy
Of rollicking Treasury girls. Professional
beggars, like tradesmen on Pennsylvania NV
enue, discover in dress and manners the ver-
dancy of rustic originality, and by both are
these innocents loully plundcred. The beg
gar is the shrowder of tho two classes, and
Welding once to the eXactlons OF the bandivti,
tnrongs of supplicanis follow ones footsteps.
The rascnls, everywhere in the city, arc noti-
lied of the presence of a stranger who has not
learned the Value of"pennies" and wherever
he goes, becgars of high and low degree,
black and white, dog his footsteps. One
soon learns never to give to beg
gar in Washington and never to buy n
newspaper oven from the most minute
shadow,of ncwsboy. They know who buys
and who does not, and the generous are deaf
or cd by cries of these street Arabs, 1avenous
for "buckshecsh." "Only a nickel, sir" or
when tho afternoon papers appear, "only n
penny, sirr'-''it is onlj penny, sir!
"Plcase buy from me, SIR" sang out little
rascal as came Just VOW into my room,
"Pleaso buy from uIe, we have no bread or
coal Mt our hou,e and mother has n BRAN
new baby" I auccumbed then and there and
invested five cents in tho new baby. 1t was
the cheapest investment in that direction |
ever made suspected, of course, that the
ragged little rascal was lying but youthful
genius like that should never go unrewarded.
sUFFEBINGs OF rHE POOR.
When snow fell and it was very cold, ne
groes swarmed out from their odorous dens,
aud from ilreless hearthstones. They came
shivering ut night TO beg for "enough, just
enough sir to buy little coal" People
here do not seem to know that there are beg
gars by the score in Washington, but if one
would learn how countless these are and how
uumberlcss the very poor, he need only
visit the soup house Of Mrs,
Roberts, where rich soup is supplied
at Il cent u gallon. Soup tickets are bought
by many people, that when bcggars become
troublesome they may be cheaply appeased.
Very certainly there is no such device as a
soup house for the million to prevent abso-
lutte starvation.
now IT Is MAINTAINED.
A wagon goes to the hotels and boarding
houses-and Washington, except the public
buildings, is n great boarding house-gather-
ing the bones removed from myriads OF
tables. These debris of feasts of epicures are
| deposited in u steamboat or other boiler and
dissolved by fervent heat. The fires never
go out, the boiler is never empty. There can
be no absolute suffering in n city where each
poverty-s,ricken denizen can beg for n penny
soup ticket and fill himself with dissolved
flesh and bones. Mrs. Roberts says that her
regular customers grow enormously fat.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE PICTURE.
Everybody ia maintained in Washington,
directly or indirectly, by public pap. The
Government itself is a gorged and fattened
Mrs. Roberts, and these mighty structures OF
marble and stone, the costlicst the world ever
saw, ars the soup-houses of the two hundred
thousand citizens and strangers in this uni
que and INDUSTRIOUS capital. The self-reliant,
self-supposing countryman looks on in rap
ture and wonder. He soon learns that these
people have learned to believe that they own
the machine. They look upon the government
as their property" while the stupid, poor
devil, on the outside, has been thinking
about il and voting at II MS a matter Of patri-
otism. They deem officers their personal
effects as the farmer does his horses and
broad acres. When another set of hungry
fellows on the outside come mouthing
around the place and talking about sutsti-
tuting themselves for those inside passion
and haze, and selfish greed for power and
gold become dangerous to the country's
peace, as 1t was found to be in ls60-6l.
Then Lincoln's election sent only $4,000 bar