The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1890-06-29
BUSTED" AMERICANS
How Our 0ilcials In London are Wor.
flod by Dsadbeats.
People Who Haunt the "CryIng
Room" of the United States
Consulate In London
Queer Cases.

(which adds a large and highly pol
zee brass plate to the historical
associations Of ST. Helen's place. Bishops
gate, says the London edition OF the New
York Herald, there is an apartment known
by various titles, among which are ''The
Swearing Room" and "The Crying
Room" The word swearing is not TO
be taken as an indication of disrespect for
the third commandment; the term merely
expresses the fact that this is the room
where oaths of an official character are
taken. The term 'Crying ROOM" which
has long attached to this glass-roofed de-
partment, refers to a fact, or series of
facts, which form the less pleasant side OF
consular life in London.
Out of the throng of daily callers at the
consulate there is an average Of from Is
to 20 who are OF the opinion tina the
United States or the world i'm general
owes them a living, and who nave
dropped i'm to collect something on ac-
They are of every variety, worthy
and unworthy, There is n familiar type
which says bluntly: "Well, I'm an
American and I'm broke, and I want you
to send me home" If respondent the APP
plicant says no more. IL the proud con-
seriousness of American citizen expands
him, he mentions the steamer he would
like to return on. A first-class saloon
carriage to Liverpool is i~nferentially his
expectation. When he is inform ed that
there is no fund at the disposal Of the
consul-gcneral for purposes of that char
acter he shrinks in size and looks troubled.
At times he is reduced to confessing that
he has eaten nothing for days or weeks
or since he arrived here, and would he
grateful for f~ragmentary coin. If he is
worthy he gets il IL not he gets nothing.
The empty-handed army who thus as
sail the consulate fall into several distinct
classes. The first comprises the large
army of beggars. high n low degrees,
who frequent London and work every
possible source of revenue. These in
clude the letter writers, who come with
their own letters i'm their hands. The
second class are the W~hitechapel contif-
gent of people who have lived or claimed
To nave lived in America, and who conse-
quently hold a permanent mortgage for
food purposes on the Amer lean eagle.
These are perhaps the worst lot who
alilict the place, because IL an Ingenious
story taps the official sympathy to an ex-
tent of 2 shillings, twenty more with the
same story are certain to come the next
as ~, which they do not get.
All the stories which begging
ingenuity can devise are told by these
two classes, and many of them would he
IlffOWlllR III tlltN were nDl more OF less
theatrical. The real distress existing
among unfortunate Americans here is
quite sufficient for any one man To listen
to-. The consul general, early in his adj
ministration, lost flesh daily through this
cause, but as he now ~sympathizes with
them vicariously he is in excellent health.
The vice-consul general now walks the
floor i'm official misery.
A third, sufficiently numerous at pres
ent to constitute IA class, consists of the
cattle men. About 10000 live cattle are
annually shipped to his country from
New York, Philadelphia and Boston. A
large number of men are employed to
look after the cattle on the voyage.
These are paid $50 downs on their arrival
here and promised IA free passage back.
Through some hocus-pocus, which de-
mands investigations, a large number OF
them fail 10 get n return pass. They are
stranded in London without "a cent, to
starve. As a large number of London
residents are perpetually engaged in
starving, the prosecution of the business
by a foreigner and an amateur il not
usually attended with good results and
the consulate has to feed the hungry. The
number of cheap eating house s~tipendaries
on the hands of the consular officials
costs them an amout OF money which Is
not only a credit to their sympathy, but an
inroad on their salaries, and there is no
doubt that the secretary of state should
have some kind of provision made for
worthy cases of need.
Then comes the miscellaneous class.
Prominent among these are wives who
have been deserted by their husbands.
There seems to be quite a number of hus.
bands who look upon London as an al
mirable place in which To lose their wives
and who come 1900 miles for that very
purpose. That the wife has children also
seems to rather increase the pleasure OF
the parting, and most of the describes
rave enough children clinging To their
dresses and looking sadly up into the Of
fetal eyes To move the Official heart and
spoil the official appetite. One old woman
of ~, from Boston, was brought to the
consul-gencral by n benevolent society.
Her son brought her over, installed her in
lodgings, and disappeared i'm less than an
hour, leaving her without a penny. A num-
bcf of very well dressed and apparently
respectable people borrow from General
New, being without money sufficient To
cable To their friends. Whether or not
their friends respond the percentage of
cases is very small in which the generals
money is returned. One woman came
over with "A little baby to ask assistance
from a sister who was wealthy. The sis
ter refused to see her, and would not let
her enter the house. The consulate con-
seuuently had to feed her and send her
back. professional people in difficulties
are numerous. They come over with lit
tie or no extra money, hoping for an en-
gagement, and are compelled To beg their
passage back. with food I'm the interim.
old American sailors are not Uncommon.
One veteran, a pensioner in Wisconsin,
got a 3O-days' furlough 10 visit his people
and came to London. The consulate had
To write for money To his institution,
aud sent him back. An American
sewing-woman, who had broke her
spectacles and could not work with
out them appealed To the general
for "a new pair. The COMMUNICATIONS
who become stranded here appear to be
the most helpless. They cry most pro-
fusely. They give up nj once-meekly,
~mildly-and do not know what to do.
while the microscopic office boy, with pre-
te%rnatural feet encosed in colossal shoes,
pauscs in his laundering career and stares
at them with a small but sturdy British
stare.
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