Roseburg review. [volume] (Roseburg, Or.) 1885-1920, 1886-09-03

Territory of the Professional Mendicant-
The Thousand and One Trials of Street
mpostors-Hideous Sights and Pathetic
6cenes Refinement of Infamy.
What, indeed, can be done with the
mendicants Of Paris? Arrest them. What
then can be done with thems The depots
de mendicite are full, the hospitals are
full; the prisons are too small for the as
sassins and robbers.
It must not be forgotten that among the
professional beggars there exists species
of tacit conventions. They divide Paris
between thenlselves-the ACCOMPLISHMENTS,
the quarters, and even the houses At
certain yard or court, for example, there
will come every Monday a blind man,
every Tuesday paralytic, every Thursday
one-legged man. 1t is not chance that
regulates that This particular place be-
longs to them, and If an intruder is found
in possession the three -proprietors" join
forces and turn him away, with awarning
not to come back. Or, in some instances,
If he is humble and modest, they may au-
thorize him to CLEAN after they have gath
cred the harvest A beggar's location is
property-it is sole, it is transferred, it is
left as an inheritance to his children.
do not know how many mendicaRts
there are in Paris. Statistics would give
you the exact figures, 1t would even de-
compose the latter into the number of
men, women, boys, and girls. What can
say is that at the lowest estimate there
are certainly arcasineurs (house beggars),
ramasliqueurs (court or yard beggars), and
beEgars of the street. or tendeurs de demi
arae, something like 900.
an cgrcc 1rrr
Of these there are more than one quar-
ter that are worthy of sympathy-the
aged, the MANNED, the INDECENT; the others
are artists" will not stop to relate all
the stories about the sfalse cripples," the
beggers that feign epilepsy by putting
piece of soap into their mouths, the "false
one-armed" impostors who stretch their
arm down their body, hold the hand on the
hip, and leave the empty sleeve Tapping:
the humbugs on crutches, who carry leg
as If it were paralyzed. There are hun
'dred tricks. There are substances, plants,
that have blistering effect on the skin
and produce hideous sores s-eyerything
that can move the public these rascals
never fail to employ.
The arcaSineur who forms the elite of
mendacity in Paris resorts to the most in
genious schemes. He does not weep for a
sou. He must do better than that He
demands-pardon, he accepts-assistance
If he does you the honor to apply to you it
is because he eSteems you. He does not
take everybody into his confidence in such
delicate matters. So If you give him only
100 sous he puts on wry face.
my dear friend" said one of them to
me, Il have splendid offer. A deputy
wants man to run newspaper. 1t is a
place worth 5000 or 5000 francs, in the
country-a fortune. But what am to
do? must go down there to see him;
that takes money. With a louis l am
saved, but have no louis. Oh, if some
friend would come to my aid"
give him the louis; the next day met
the same fellow, who imperturbably accosts
me with: "My dear fellow, missed the
train.o
Those that the police are most occupied
with arc the street beggars. Look at them
displaying their hideous wounds in the
full gaze of everybody Ugh!
And what is the saddest of all, see at the
corner ef he square that woman with an
air Of suffering, face on which are writ
ten the traces of want and despair. In
her arms is baby, at the right lies a little
girl, at the left is couched little boy.
The whole form group knowingly ar
ranged, and pathetically interesting.
Well, all that is sham. The woman is a
fraud, the young ones on hand for the oc-
casion. Frightful, is it nots Yet it is
true. They hire these children, the
wretches. They hire them to make Yaga-
bonds and thieves of them.
The child is trained to assume a sickly
and woe-begone air, to weep, to beg. Who
has not been moved to pity at the sight of
little boy or girl of or 6, who was weep
ing bitterly because, as she said, she had
to take home 20 sous as she had not been
able to make them.n The child was ly-
ing; she was repeating her role. Her pro-
prietor was near by laughing in his sleeve
at the young ones falsehoods and well
,And 4