Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-08-14
THE BEGGARS OF PARIS.
A LIVELY DESCRIPTION OF THEIR
tiAUNTS AND HABITS.


Taking y Census of the Mendicants Of
Paris-Peculiar characteristics of the
Beggars' Special Quarfer-In Bygone
Times-Hsavy Penalties.
tion which. more probably for the fiftieth
than for the first time. has just been Per
formed by the Paris prefecture of police
must in many respects be regarded as a
task about as thankless. II not as useless,
as that of weaving rope of sand. To
ascertain the aggregate of professional
mendicancy in great metropolis like
Paris is by no means a Trustworthy critic
rion Of the amount of poverty existing.
As in London, the vast majority of the
beggars in Lutetia are the professional
ones-that is to say. rank impostors-and
their numbers will probably show ten
dency to increase rather than to diminish
with the improvement in trade and the
augmentation of affluence among the
classes who are begged from but do not
beg
Our Paris correspondent tells us, in
deed. that the "gueux. or habtual beg
gars, are at present In an exceptionally
thriving condition. and are making money
more easily in consequence of the more
largely developed liberality Of the aims
giving public 1t is even stated that
these professional paupers have two di
rectories of their own. in which the names
and addresses Of Good Samaritans with
plenty of money are duly entered. to
gether with description of the strata
gems which experience has shown to be
most efficacious in extracting cash from
the unwary The first directory is called
the Guide of the Grand Jeu," or big
Game. and costs no less than six francs.
There is smaller Guide of the Petit
Jeu. which only costs half the money.
and gives the addresses of more middle
class philanthropists These red boks for
rogues contain fuil instructions to the
"gueux" as to what shall be their de-
meanor in the presence of people who are
likely to unloose their purse strings when
pitiful tale is told.
Whatever may be the statistical worth
Of the census of vagrancy just compiled,
there can be little doubt that the returns
obtained by the patient enumerators Of
the prefecture Of police have considerable
social value. inasmuch as they denote
changes in national manners and prove
that. although the Partisan beggars are
numerically still formidable folk. they
have almost ceased to be picturesque
The "Cour des Miracles" which Victor
Hugo has immortalized in "Notre Dame
de Paris" still nominally exists In a
peaceable passage near the Rue Monitor
gueil; but it is vastly different place
from the filthy area. surrounded by.tum-
BILE down tenements. which throughout
the Middle Ages was at once the st. Giles
and the Alsatia of the French capital
The beggars' special quarter enjoyed the
privilege of sanctuary. and was ruled
over by an elective king. who was as
sisted by council including sundry
dukes of Egypt" and mobiles of the en-
pire of Galilee-all beggars.
One Of the peculiar characteristics Of
the place was its utter silence and aban-
donment in the day time; not even the
lame, the halt or the blind fingered in its
precincts. They were all abroad cadging.
The paralytics, beds and all. had been re-
moved and laid down at the street cor
ners, there TO excite the pity of the
passers by The dogs, of course. were
engaged on business leading the blind
men about the streets; the very babies
pttu ldAtu OUT UtBRlug- Dul NJ
night this mute and deserted Cour des
Miracles became Gehenna. q carnival Of
noise. drunkenness and pro6igacy; and 1t
was seldom that the carousais of the
"fraucsmitous," or beggars. and the
''refodes, or tramps, terminated without
bloodshed
The beggars of bygone times in France
may not have had their directories. which,
t...l es.1 l,ar.1
have been questionably beneficial. mas
much as the bulk of the vagabond com.
munity were unable to read or write.
Nevertheless. it is worthy of remark that,
so long ago as 1861. when kind of pauper
census was taken. by order of Henry II,
the lmpostors therein unmasked answered
almost exactly to the character of the
professional mendicants who in modern
times have infested. and who continue to
infest society, not only In Paris but in
London. Shivering beggars and epileptic
beggars-so far as epilepsy can be simu-
lated by chewing soap-variets who pre-
tended to be dropsical or who exhibited
sores, bogus cripples and spurious hunch-
backs-in fact, nearly all the unworthy
recipients of aims whose malpractices are
exposed in the periodical reports of our
Mendicity society-may be found in the
roll of rapscallion drawn up In Paris more
than three hundred years ago.
II may be said that ever since the de-
struction of the Cour des Miracles there
has been one protracted and almost in
cessant militant effort of successive gov
ernments in France to redress, If not to
punish, professional mendicity Over
and over again the blind. the cripples and
the sufferers from incurable ailments.
have been forbidden. under heavy penal
ties. to beg in the public thoroughfares;
and the police have often made raids upon
the beggars en- masse, and. without sub
iccting them to any form of trial have
consigned them to criminal prisons or de
po,s.-London Telegraph.