Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1884-05-16
DEMOCRATIC COUNTY COMMITTEE.
G. A. Champlin, Ch'm., IIOpkinsYille.
SPANISH BEGGARS.

The Is,tpecuntOus Inhabitants Of Toledo.
George p Lathrop, in Harper's Magazine.l
The populace are instructive, free
born, Unsuitable beggars. The magnifi-
cently-chased doorways Of the cathedral
festered with revolving specimens Of hui
man disease and degeneration, appeal
ing for aims. Other more prosperous
mendicants were regularly on hand for
business every day at the cod stand"
In some particular thoroughfare. re-
member one especially whose whole cap
ital was invested in superior article OF
nervous complaint, which enabled him
to balance himself between the wall and
q crutch, and there osclllate spasmodi-
cally by the hour. In this he was en-
tirely beyond competition, and cast into
the shade those merely-routine profess
ionals who took the common line OF bad
eyes or neutrality-suspicious. de-
formities. It used to depress them when
he came on to the ground. Bright little
children, even, in perfect health, would
desist from their amusements and assail
us, struck with the happy thought that
they might possibly wheedle the
"strangers" into some untimely gener-
osity. There was one pretty girl Of
about 10 years, who laughed outright at
the thought of her own impudence, but
stopped none the less for half an hour
on her way to market carrying basket
on her ARM in order to poster poor Ve-
lasquez while he was sketching, and
begged him for money, first to get
bread, and then shoes, and then any
thing she could think Of.
D A hand opened toreceive money would
be a highly-suitable device for the mu-
nicipal coat Of arms.
My friends irrepressible pencil, by the
way, made him the center of crowd
wherever he went. Grave business men
came out of their shops to see what he
was drawing; loungers made long and
ingenious detours in order to obtain
good view Of his labors; ragamuffins ell
bowed him, undismayed by energetic
remarks in several languages, until
finally he was moved to get up and dis
play the contents OF his pockets, inviting
them even to read some letters he had
with him. To this gentle satire they
would sometimes yield. We fell prey,
however, to one silent youth Of whom
we once unguardedly asked question.
After that he considered himself perma-
nently engaged to pilot us about. he
would linger for hours near the fonda
dinnerless, and, what was even more
terrible, sleepless, SO that he might fast
en- upon us the moment we should
emerge. If he discovered our destina-
ton he would stride off mutely in ad-
vance, to impress on us the fact that we
were under obligation to him; and when
we found the place we wanted he waited
patiently until we had rewarded him
with half cent. II we gratifed him
by asking him the way he responded by
silently stretching forth his arm and one
long forefnger with lordly gesture,
still striding on; and he had a very-su-
perior- Castilian sneering smile, which he
put on when he looked around to see il
we were following. He gradually be
came for us a sort Of symbolic shadow O
the towns vanished greatness; and from
his mysterious way of coming into sigh
and haunting us in the most unexpected
places we gave him the name o
"Ghost." Nevertheless, we baffled hin
ct last. In the Street of the Christ o
Light there is q small but exceedingly
curious mosque, now converted into
church, so ancient in origin that some O
the capitals in it are thought to shoN
Visigothic work, so that it must hav
been Christian church even before tn
Moorish invasion. Close by this W
CHANGED upon charming old patio, O
court yard, entered through a woode
gate, and by dexterously gliding in her
and shutting the gate we exercise
UHhoofn for snma ttma