Morning journal and courier., 1890-07-22

skinning a cat, so is there more than one way of begging here in England. The ser wants in every public house are beggars. You patronize restaurant or cafe, and you must give the waiter who serves you e fee. In many instances the proprietor of the place makes the servant divide this fee with him, and in some instances the proprietor ooolly gobbles all the feesl
 At the thesters bsggary takes the form of a charge for programs. Herein Is much dis crimination practioed. The program which costs the patron of the boxes twenty-five cents is vended in the gallery for tu'pence. At Mir. Charles Wyndham's theater the ex- torsion is of a pitiably humilisting chArso- ter. You ask, "How much for this pro- gramr and you are told (with an anxious look): "Anything you please" At Edward Terry's theater, in the Strand, you never get back any change unless you stoutly stand ont against the imposition.
 It Is fair to say that Mir. Henry Irving and MT. Beerbohm Tree practice rigidly the ds- termination that no fees of any kind shall be paid in their theaters, the Lyceum and the Haymarket. But in most instances where the legend "No Fees" is exhibited you may expect high handed extortion.
 The late Earl Sidney, who had the hand | ling of the queen's personal affairs, hsp- pened to be standing In front of Bucking- | ham palace one morning when e party of \ tourists came up. Mistaking the earl for one of the official guides, the party asked to be conducted through the palace. It was sur prising enough that the earl should have | consented to serve as their guide; but 1t was preposterous that he should have accepted, | as he did, e shilling for his services.
 The guinea practice is one of the extor- tions of the genteel beggar. There Is no | such coin as a guinea now, but tweaty-one Il shillfngs represent 1t. The sovereign Is
 twenty shillings. When, therefore, the de-
 mand is for a guinea, you pay sovereign
 and one shilling. The guinea lsctually 6
 myth) is the standard of the fashionable, the
 ornate, high toned beggar. Professional men I-lswyeEs, doctors. actors, artists, singers, ct id genus omne-reckon by guinsas.
 | The task of enumerating the methods
 practieed 1y these curious people in this isl
 and to mulct you of your pennies Is too big
 @ one for me 10 attempt upon the scale which
 their number and their ingenuity would
 seem to demand. The government itself mol
 only eeuntenances beggary, but actually
 practices extortion. The practice of impo.
 sing and collecting fine on overweight let
 ters is @ mesnness which no progressive folk
 would tolerate. But the most outrageous
 evil is that which obtains during the Christi mas holidays, when government and munici- pal employees are suffered to go about extort-
 ing sums of money from the individual pub-
 lie. Every letter carrier has to render ar account of the moneys thus extorted by him
 and the grand total is divided among the
 r7an iH the service, even the postmaster gen
 srsi coming in for his share of this pictur
 esqre addition, d;viaion and silence booty. Yet, when you come to study the whole situation here calmly and dispassionately,
 Ssn you blame these wretched little creatures . who hasten to open your cab door for you 1 and stand waiting with an obsequious I'm. lud" for your grateful pennyi Can you won der at the spirit and practice of beggary ths
 certainly degrades every sense of manhood in this islandf But what else can be expect | ed of the subject when the ruler sets an ex , ample which justifes beggary and extortion Fl Her majesty, the queen, has enormou wealth; she is, perhaps, the richest individu B al in all Europe, and her enormous riche {; have been contributed largely by the peopl a over whom she rules. For fifty years thi
 queen has practically been a besgar; when i
 that period has she not been @ supplicant fo 3 more, and always more and morst Aoun s dantly able to provide for her children an , for her grandchildren out of her prfvai store, she has religiously refused to do ss
 and has as religiously called upon her peo
 | pie to provide her with money wherewith
 pay for dowries, weddings, funerals, equipi n ees, households, pensions, etc, etc. Hel = we fiud Dean Swift's epigrsm inverted, ft
 here the big hsss have bigger fess to bi |. lem, "and so proceed, ad infnitum."
 So, on the whole, you will perhaps sgr r with me when say that the little begga a and petty beggaries of England would see
 However annoyipg) to be justified by u l. shining example of mendicant and miserl e royalty.