Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-07-06
BEGGING AS A TRADE.
NINE OUT or TEN APPLICANTS
IN NEW YORK FRAUDS.

tfoIessAohAA anppitoRuta VINO NeceiNo
More Than They Gould Earn st a Trade
--Deserving Poor Harmed 10y the Pro-
fessionals- Coming the College Dodge
on the UnwHry.
New YORK, July 3.-A person who
gives money TO beggur in this city, in
nearly nine oases out of ten, is throwing
Il away, or at any rate gives it TO one who
is undeseryjng. Mendicaucy has become
a crying evil of enormous proportions
here. How unworthy are the recipients
of indiscrimiuato charity ia shown by the
result OF the investigation Of 1000 cases
made last year by II society organized for
the purpose OF relieving the deserving
poor and exposing professional baggars.
| out Of this large number but per cent.
proved to be deserving That is, less than
fifty were persons who were objects of
charity through the fault Of circum-
stances, who could not get work, or Were
unable 10 work if they could. SiXty-tve
per cent. We're ahle-bodied men who could
better work than the majority of people,
but who preferred to beg instead. The
other cases were undeserying for other
reasOns-hecause of general bad charac-
ter, bad habits. etc,
=
A professional Deggar who has route
on which live wealthy and benevolent
people can make more 10y begging than
either he or she could earn by labor.
Private persons are not the only distribu-
tors Of charity. Hbe city IN winter sup
plies coal 20 the poor aud often TO people
who are perfectly able to purchase II.
Families whose members are earning
sufficient for their support cUi upon the
city to supply them with coal. Parents
who are ashamed TO beg themselves do
not scruple TO send their children out 20
beg, and in that way add 10 an income
already sufficient for their needs. And
this is what renders meudcancy such an
evil. When people see their neighbOrs
obtain coal by little judiciOus lying, or
entirely support themselves hy lying on IA
larger scale still more judiciously, they
become demOruliZed. Why should they
work, they think, when others live in idle
ness at the expense Of those who can well
afford itg Consequently one beggar makes
another. MendicanCy is contagious, ana
those who once catch the dire disease sell
dom or never get over it. Once beggar
always "a beggar. is far truer than once
| bishop always bishop.
THEN, BEGGING DOES GREAT HARM IN
ANOTHER DIRECTION.
The number OF undeserying applicants
is so great that, their stories not being he
lieved, the really poor are not assisted
| when in their greatest extremity. People
| grow callOus aud refuse to consider the
most obvious outward and visible signs of
poverty TO be anything hut counterfeit.
| Knowing that the half-elad little girl who
/ sOlicitg them on a cold winters night for
a few cents to buy something warm for
| her poor sick mother has already collected
| in all probability more than labOring
man could earn by days work, and that
| her mother, il she has one is perfectly
well and comfortably housed, they come
| to believe that there are no genuine cases
of real need, or, If there are, that they are
not to be found among street beggars.
! The people who give 10 aforesaid
little girls are seldom New Workers..
| IL is the unsophisticated stranger within
| our gates from the country who plays the
| part, as he thinks, OF good Samaritan
| when he meets what he presumes To be
| one who has fallen among thieves. The
| New Yorker, If he does not, like the Priest
/ or the Levite, pass by on the other side,
/ equally ignores the appeal TO his pity.
! Yet he is perhaps even wrong from his
| own standpoint. The little girl, even. il
| she be Il little liar and impOstOr, in fact
/ all the more for that reason, will perhaps
| be saved suffering by his contribution, for
| she will be well thrashed If she does not
| bring home a certain required sum, and his
/ Offering may be- what she lacks. just now
| it is not the season for shiyering little girls
| 10 ply tleir trade with the best scenic
Objects, but the sick mother dodge is al
] ways available.
BEGGARs ARE PERsIsTENT-ONCEA A BIG
GAR FAsTEN6
/ himself or herself upon one, and he or she
| is as hard 10 get rid Of as the old man Of
/ a lawyer OF note ia this city, whose name
would be recognized by almost any Of
/ your readers, were ! 10 give him away, 20
/ TO speak, was beset by a woman who had
made him pay her rent, so she cOuched
| her demand, Tor twenty years He had
| originally known her name, but long since
had forgotten II, and yet he kept
on yielding 10 her demands when,
50 far as he knew, she had no more claim
upon bin than any other Of the quarter
OF a million OF women in New York. lie
thought he had got rid Of her when his
sou, not so amiable ~ he, turned her out
Of the Office and prevented her from ever
entering IL again; but one day she met
| him near his house, and from that time
his wife became the object OF her attacks.
/ Tue weekly tax would doubtless have
continued 10 be paid until the recipient
had passed TO another, and not better
/ AAf ItAA AVbs ~ 1bhAH oiAtA'htf AhN
woman thought that the servant who
gave her her beneiact0r's bounty asked
her name. II was the name Ofa house
which she pretended 10 wish 10 enter
which was asked. She grew ye~y iudig-
nant before the misunderstanding could
be explained, and declaring that she had
never been 80 insulted in her life, went
away and has not returned since.
BEGGARs ARE APT TO BE WHAT Is
CALLED CHEEKY.
! The same lady, who With her husband,
was YictimlZed by the woman who did not
want TO tell her name for fear IL would De
used 10 investigate her story and discover
/ her 30 be fraud. was asked the other day
/ for money to pay the expenses OF the APP
/ plicant 20 Newport. The beggar's regu-
| lar victim, a woman well known in eOcie-
| ty. had gone there and the beggar wished
| 10 follow her and be- supported by her in
/ Newport IN summer as she had been IN
/ New York In winter.
As illustrations OF almost equal cheek,
| let me tell you about two tramps, one Of
whom Ia or was quite famous In the
neighbOrhOOd OF The stock Exchange, aud
both sre certainly characters. The first
makes his demands on the charity OF
the good Samautans he finds IA Wall
street. that home of good Samarlians, IN
this wise; Scents. ] an Harvard man;
n graduate Of Harvard College by thun-
I der, who used ~ hold his head as high ae
Z apvhttNw What utnfa rsa IA frmfnf. vot