San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-01-07
CHRONIC BEGGARS.
HOW MANY ABLE BODIED MEN MAKE
A PREcARIoUS LIVING.
How Mendicants Are Made-"Born Tired"
The Invalid Artist-Caught In a LEA
Pitiable Case-Trying to Get Something
for Nothing"

for Nothing"
The sturdy beggar who stretches out his
hand for aims wishes to gain something for
nothing. He finds it easier to obtain living
in this way than TO work for it Most of the
class of mendicants adopt the profession only
after such experience as proves to them that
they can live by it. The usual process is to
seek relief or aid in some temporary emer-
gency. a child is sick, or is dead, or disease
or a broken leg or arm has laid aside the
bread winner of the family, and after hard
struggle against adversely the larder is
empty. The sufferer asks for help, the char
table are quick to respond to the appeal, and
in the next emergency the needy one turns
more quickly to seek benevolence. Why
should he contend with want when so many
are ready to helpl So he gives up the con-
tention with but little hesitation and accepts
the bounty that is so freely bestowed. The
descent is more or less rapid, according to
the temperament of the solicitor, but he very
soon reaches the level of the chronic beggar,
and he wants TO be fed all the rest of his days
with supplies he has not earned.
BORN A MENDICANT.
There are persons who are said to be "born
tired and really untitled to win success in
any other character than that of the mendi-
cant. A young man of this class once came
into our office and asked for help. His story
was plausible, and his countenance had a
dreamy aspect that fitted the tale. He had
been an artist, he said; not great painter,
but painstaking workman who had earned
fair living in sketching and coloriDg pict-
ures that were always sold as soon as finished,
because he asked only modest price for
them Six months before he was seized with
a violent attack of infammatory rheuma-
tism. He had bed in his studio which was
turned up by day and let down at night, and
he took his meals at a neighboring restaurant.
He was taken sick at night while in bed, be-
ing unable to stir, and for two dreadful days
he suffered excruciating agony, not having
even glass of water to quench his thirst.
At last some one came to the door, broke it
open in answer to his feeble cry for help, and
took him to the hospital. During the months
that he was there the landlord had seized his
little property for rent, and he was now dis
charged, somewhat feeble but cured, he
hoped, and able once more to care for him
self All that he asked was little money to
purchase materials and to gather an humble
outfit, when he would soon be self support
ing. He would accept the money as gift,
or take it as loan, to be very soon repaid
Questioned more closely as to his style Of
work, he said his pictures were mostly done
from his own original sketches, bits of land
scape generally which he picked up in the
open fields. To test the truthfUlness of his
narrative we handed him pencil and sheet
of paper and asked him to sketch for us any
part of a landscape scene such as he had
drawn and painted. He took the paper and
stood for some time before high desk on the
the other side Of the room with his back
toward U.s. After waiting a while we drew
near and looked over his shoulder. He was
doing nothing then, but he had made four
lines with the pencil-one upright mark to
represent the trunk Of a tree, two shorter
lines meeting it at an acute right angle to
land for branches and curved line beneath
it as a mound on which the trunk should
rest. 1t recalled the baby effort of child of
years in the line of drawing, but we have
seen the latter much better done.
AN EMPTY, HELPLESS LOOK.
He turned his listless face toward us with
such an empty, helpless look that we were
moved with pity, and said: $50 you are not
an artist" No, he had never drawn a pict-
ure of any kind in his life What had he
ever done2 Nothing. He could not remem-
Der the time when he was not on the street
asking for charity, and he had followed no
other occupation in all these years. We gave
him enough for dinner and lodging, and babe
him never to lie again. He had no need of
such an invention, we assured him, for his
real story was the most pitiable tale that
could come from human lips. a man
who had never worked, and who could not
because he had no stomach for it; that would
lie down and starve before he would pluck
fruit growing at his side if this required an
effort, was indeed an object Of commissera-
ton. To be born tired is bad enough, but to
be born too lazy to eat anything but food
already cut up into mouthfuls is to reach the
depths of human misery.
We have no doubt that hundreds will read
this account and felicitate themselves that
they were generated for different sphere
But what equivalent do they give for food
and clothes and shelterl What return do
they make for the bounty they consume so
lavishly9 The noble army of toilers can
stand up and look this question in the face,
and set over against everything they con-
sumo, and the surplus, if any, they are hold
ing besides, the fair price they have honestly
paid for it all. They are square with the
world and have not eaten the bread of idle
ness or picked their living out of another's
toll worn hand.
But there ere thousands who ought to
hang theia hca| in shame before this search.
ing inqu.:',- I ley are not giving labor or
skill or t..ougA ) of any value to the world in
exchange for tleir bountiful table and
costly Surroundings. They are trying to get
something II nothing, and a cipher will
describe al they have given for months or