The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1891-06-06
WESTMINSTER, MD, SATURDAY, JUNE g. 1891.

the Lambeth police refused to surrender,
on the ground that Sir William Hardman
intended to make the culprit pay for his
keep in prison. Such an order, rejoined
Mr. DEyncourt, could, undoubtedly, be
made; but, apparently, it had not been
written down in the prisoners commit
ment. We must leave the aggrieved
vendor of b0otlaces, otherwise described as
hardened street beggar, to settle his
differences with the Lambeth police as best
he may, merely remarking that beggar
with banking account or in possession of
plenty Of money is a character well known
to ancient and modern history.
ANCIENT BEGGARs.
Juvenal speaks of man stationed on
the bridge" which is a Roman euphuism
for beggar-who lived on dainty fare
and turned in disgust from the filthy
scraps of rancid food on which wealthy
miser sustained his worthless life. In
pre- Reformation times special provision
was make at the buttery hatch of every
abbey, convent and monastery for needy
suppliants who solicited their daily bread,
and were supplied without ineonyenient
questions being put to them. 'Fhe Beg
gar's Daughter Of Bethnalgreen' had many
analogues in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries on the Continent of Europe,
and especially in Spain. The legend
immortalized by Bishop Percy in his
''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry was
that ''p pretty Bessy" was courted simultane-
ously by four wealthy suitors, to all of
whom she said that no man could win her
hand unless he gained the consent of her
father, the Blind Beggar of Bethnalgreen.
Only one suitor persevered after this an
nouncement of the fair maiden's paternity,
and to him the father at once consented to
entrust his daughter, adding for her dowry
gift of three thousand pounds, and one
hundred pounds for her trousseau. 1t
afterwards transpired that the ''beggar
was son and heir to Sir Simon de Montfort
and had disguised himself in rags and tat
ters to escape the vigilance of spies who
sought his blood No reader Of Victor
Hugos "Les Miserables' will have forgot,
ten the beggar's disguise assumed by the
French detective who discovered the iden
tity OF Jean PaDean.
BEGGING IN ROME.
Begging in Rome, says Mr.. W. w
Story, in his entertaining book "Roba d
Roma," is profession, and, in some cases
a very lucrative profession, too. Happy is
the man born in Italy with a withered
limb, or to whom Fortune makes the present
of hideous accident or loathsome malady
for they constitute stock-in-trade which
will keep him in affluence to the end of his
DAYS. Few visitors to the Eternal City
in the spacious days of Pho Mono and Car
dinal Antonelli can have failed to remark
Beppo, commonly known as King Of the
Beggars and Baron of the Steps leading W
from the Piazza di Spagna to the Trinita dC
Monti. His Majestys stand was on the
last platform, close to the top of the steps
and there he was daily to be found-a curl
Gus, squat figure, with two withered legs
spread out at right angles and clothed il
long blue stockings. This figure came
shufiing along on knees and hands, pro
tected by clogs, and on approaching ;
stranger it arose from its quadrupedal posi-
ton, and, taking off sombrero hat, dis
closed vigorous torso, with broad ches
and ruddy face, and smile in which jovialt,
and cunning seemed intermixed. Beppt
was formerly-so at least he alleged gen
tleman of his own country; but his Grip
pied condition cut him off from an activ,
profession, and he came to Rome to live al
a mendicant-t most lucrative employ
ment to which an italian cripple can have
recourse. Before he attained his 5Otf
year, Beppo was as well known as his Holi
ness or any of the Cardinals. Ever.
morning he came to his tryst on donkey
accompanied by his valet, little boy, who
though not lame, carried pair of crptches
as appeals to sympathy and pity. Mr
Story recounts that friend of his met al
italian tradesman running up the Spanisl
Steps as hard as he could. "Whither 81
fast?" asked the first interlocutor. "TC
my banker, old Beppo,' answered th'
second; che is going to lend me sixt,
scudi." Out of the baioeci of charitable
strangers, chiefly foreigners, King Bepp'
amassed fortune, which he left to hi
widow and seven children, who were bettel
endowed on starting life than the sons anC
daughters of many aristocratic families. Ii
his own home Beppo was indeed roya
host. He sat in the middle of the table
so as to be seen by his guests, and the vim
which flowed from the thatched bottle ii
his hand might have won the commenda
ton of Talleyrand. owe are all beggars,
exclaims the genial author of "Roba d
Roma" "but few of us, like BeppO, hav'
money to lend and banks to manage"