Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-12-20

In turn they were condemned to be
whipped, were warned to leave Paris or be
hanged, and we're sent to the galleys for life.
Their heads were shaved "a measure
which, as Du Camp remarks, at least had
the virtue of being hvgienic). Their ears
were cut off They were branded 'M''
(mendicant). But severity could not anni-
hilate them. Finally the city began to
distinguish between the worthy and the un-
worthy. At that time the beggars OF Paris
were recruited mainly from wornout and
crippled soldiers. Accordingly, about the
middle of the seventeenth century the first
Soldiers Home was founded, the now famous
Hotel des Invalides Soon after came the
first city hospital and the Home for Old Men
and Old Women.
Filming the Almsgivers.
Still the beggars thrived. The city tried
fning those who were seen giving aims,
but that did not attain the end Just then
Law was blowing his Mississippi bubble for
the entertainment of Paris, and the Gov
eminent tried Transporting young beggars
into the New World. The transportation
scheme came to grief 30 years after Laws
day when it was attempted to apply it
wholesale. The Government began quietly
The fraternity missed few OF its members.
A horrible suggestion was set in motion.
The King, Louis XIV, was suffering at that
time from the leprosy, and it was rumored
tered to provide him daily bath of human
blood. There was riot and the Govern
mept abandoned its colonization scheme.
The revolution of 1889 brought in the
ideas which Paris uses to-day in controlling
mendicancy. The city's theory is that it is
her duty to take care of all her deserving
poor. If she takes care of the worthy none
but the unworthy will be begging on the
street; these she must punish or reform.
That is, in Paris beggar is miscreant.
The French laws against mendicancy run
something like this: ANY person found
begging in place for which there exists a
public establishment for relieving want
will be punished by from three to six
months in prison, and at the end of this
term will be serlt to this depot of mendi-
cancy or, as we would say, to the poor
house.
Plan That Was Modified
These depots are Government institutions,
founded in 1908. 1t was intended originally
that there should be one in each department
of France, and that in them beggars who
had finished terms in prison should be kept
at work for at least year. By this means
it was hoped that they would learn indus
trious habits and would lay up small sums
VI WHICH W stdit iSSpectaDle lives Wnen
freed. The original plan has been greatly
modified. There are but % depots instead
of 81 Instead of being temporary work.
houses for the able-bodied. they are filled
with class similar to that in our American
poorhouses, old, sick, imbecile persons
whom, for one reason and another, no ex-
listing institution can take in. Instead of
the mendicant being detained for year, Is
days to two months is as long time as it is
possible to keep them
The Department of Public Relief in
France has advised return to the original
conception. 1t desires to see institutions
similar to the English workhouse estab-
lished, but as yet no action has been taken
by the Government.
The penal code orders further, that if a
beggsr is foreigner he shall be expelled
from the country and that if he belongs to
another province he shall be sent home.
Formerly his route was laid out for him
and he was given so much kilometre; now
he receives ticket on the railroad.
The Laws Are Not Enforced.
The insolence of the Partisan begear has
become proverbial, and so the penal code
provides from six months to two wears in
prison for menace or for carrying arms. IF
it is discovered that be possesses more than
100 francs, S2O, he pays for it by six months
behind the bars. He is punished in the
same wav for feigning sickness or deformity
or for begging in company with another
person, excepting it be husband or wife,
father ol mother, or young child OF, if he
is blind, leader.
There is no great severity in Paris in en-