The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-07-25
THE BEGGARS OF PARIS.
A LIVELY DESCRIPTION OF THEIR
HAUNTS AND HABITS.


Paris-recniiar Characteristics Of the
Becgars' Special 0uarter-in Bygone
Times Heavy Penalties.
To take n census of beggars--an opera
ton which. more probably for the tiftietb
than for the first time, has just been per
formed by the Paris prefecture OF police
mist in many respects be regarded as
tael; about rs thankless. If not ~ useless,
a. that of weaving a rope OF sand. To
ascertain the aggregate of professional
mcndiciucy IN great metropolis ike
Paris i by no means trustworthy crin
RON of the amount Of poverty existing
As in London. the vast majority OF the
becrars in Lutetia are the professional
! orn--thlt is TO say. rank impostors-
thair numbers will probably show ten
| deucy "a increase raj her than to diminish
with the Improvement in trade and the
NH -mentation Of aiIluence among the
classes who are begged from but do not
| beg
our Paris correspondent tells Us, in
dnad that the "gueux." or habituI beg
cars. are at present In an exceptionally
| thriving condition, and are making money
| more easily in consequence OF the more
| lir4s ly developed liberality Of the aims
ci-i,p public IL is even stated That
| hose professional paupers have two iii
rectories of their own i'll which the names
| and addresses Of Good Samaritaus with
| nleutv of money are duly entered, to
| qefbor with description Of the strata
| Gems which experience has shown TO be
most cticacous in extracting cash from
the unwary. The first directory Is called
the Guide of the Grand Jeu. or Zig
| Game and costs no less than six francs.
| There is a smaller Guide OF the Petlt
| Icu. which only costs half the money,
and gives the addresses Of more middle
class philauthropists. These red boks for
roguos contain full instructions to the
| "rueux" as 10 what shall be their de
meanor in the presence Of people who are
likely go unloosc their purse strings when
ritifal tale is told
Whatever NAV be the statistical worth
of the census Of vagrancy just compiler,
! there can be little doubt that the returns
| obtained bv the patient enumeritols OF
| the prefecture Of police have considerable
| social valuc. inasmuch as they denote
changes in national manners and prove
that. although the Partisan bcggars are
| numerically still formidable folk. they
have almost ceased to be picturesque
| THO Corr des Miracles which Victor
| Ure-o has inmortalizod in "Notrc Dame
| de- Paris" still nominaiiy exists in Il
! pclcoablc passage near the Rue Monitor
| gUcil: bHf 1t IS vastly different pace
from the filthy area, surrounded by tuin-
bic down tcnemcnts, 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 bv an elective king, who was as
sisted by council including sundry
dukes Of Egypt" and mobiles Of the EN-
piro OF Galilee-all beggars.
One of the peculiar characteristics OF
the place was its utter silence and aban-
lonment in the day time not even the
lame the halt or the blind fingered i'll its
precincts They were all abroad cadglng.
| The paralytics. beds and all, had been re
moved and laid down at the street cor
uers. there to excite the pity OF the
passcrs by. The dogs, OF course, wero
Engaged on business leading the blind
| NllI flfIDb llAt rlAtItSf Nh' 10Y
had been taken ont begging. But al
night this mute and deserted Cour des
Miracles became Gehenna, a carnival Of
noise drunkenness and proiiigaey; ana 1t
,.a5 seldom that the carOusals Of the
"nanCsmitous, or beggars, and the
..refodcs. or tramps. terminated without
bloolshed
The beggars Of bygone times in France
may not have had their directories, which
even had they possessed them, would
have been questionably beneficial, mas
much as the bulk Of TIE vagabond com
nunity were unable . read or write
Nevertheless, it is worldly o. raIn?rk tget
50 long 9g9 2s.,555I, when kind Of pauper
, isc.iisus was taken bT order OF henry ~,
the ,mpostors therein unsnasked answered
almost exactly to the character OF Tue
professional mendicants who III modern
times have infested, and who continue to
| iufest society. not only in Paris but IN
| London Shivering beggars and eplleptic
baggars-so far as epilepsy can be sIinu-
| lated by chewing soap-yarlets who pro
| tended TO be dropsical or who exhibited
sores. bogus cripples and spurious hunca'
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 tue
roll of rapscallion drawn up in Paris more
than three hundred years ago.
| II may be said that ever since the de-
str,ictiou 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 ana
the sufferers from incurable ailments.
have been forbidden, under heavy penal
ties, TO beg in the public thoroughfares
ond the police have often made raids upon
the begears en- masse, and, without sub
iectiug them to any form of trial, have
consigned them to criminal prisons OF dc
pots.-London Telegraph
4Ixice "IamDers Out.