The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1892-06-17
BEGGARS MADE TO ORDER.
A REGULAR TRADE IN THE PRO-
DUoTIoN OF CRIPPLEs.
Weak-Lfmbed children Operated
Uponand Hired For Begging Pur-
pOses-At The Gingerbread Fair.

R.ouSA UAkGNk OE D0kktuk
poses-At she gingerbread Fair.
TT OW true Il Is that one half. Of
NJ tho world r. not the faintest
idea how y &ther half lives! |!
Any one shol wishes a con-
firmation of this maxim has only to see
the sight which have just seen at the
"Gingerbread Fair" writes Paris
correspondent of the New York Journal.
This fair is species of survival of the
Middle Ages. 1t is annually held on the
great Place de Trone, and the peasautry
comes from dozens of miles around to at
tend it,
Imagine a country cattle show multi
piled by about five hundred, aud you
have some idea of the "Giugerbread
Fair" Long lines of booths filled with
every conceivable kind of rustic show,
with acrobats, jngglers, tre- eaters,
tumblers, circus riders and historical
actors, display their gaudy sgus aud
tempt the gaping peasant to enter. And
everywhere there are mountains OF
gingerbread, made into quaint grotesque
figures of men and women, or elephants,
or camels, or windmills, or fishes, or
dragonsl
There is something Chinese, In the
oddity and childish in the simplicity of
this fsir,-to which Tens 6thousanda of
fashionable Parisians pay one visit at
least before 1t closes.
Not many people are admitted to see
the curious spectacle which saw in a
booth at the back of the fair yesterday.
It was colony Of professional beggars,
Of the peculiar variety known as the
wooden bowl men. "Sawed offs" would
be the American vernacular for them.
And the name certainly strikes one as
appropriate, when he sees the curious,
whimsically de.ormed creatures hopping
about under mis- very feet, looking up in
his face, ,aud in whining voice demand
ing aims.
These beggais have either lost their
lower limbs entirely,or they are withered
or paralyzed, SO that each man, aud wo.
man, too. present the singular spectacle
of the half of a body seated in large
wooden bowl, to which it is strapped.
The cripple then propels himself or her.
self by using the hand as feet, and max
ing the bowl clump, clump, clump along
over the pavements. It is almost i'm.
possible to refuse charity to one of these
humble creatures when you find him
blocking the way at the entrance of q
booth.
l found so many of these personages
1T the fair that was astonished. / con-
cluded that they must know each other,
and have SOME general place of rendez.
Vous. So I looked them up.
I found, as suspected, that there was
great gathering of these cripples to
"work" the fair. They were under the
:are of one man, who gave them regular
weekly wages, and very good ones. too.
and who was coming q fortune out of
what they brought in. About forty of
hem in a good days work, would turn
in nearly thousand francs ($2OO), which
allowed more profit apparently than snY
establishment on the ground was max
ing. ~%
venrureu TO express snst vpiuiyu w
the mau who had charge of the sawed.
,trs," and who, "for consideration"
Dad introduced me to some of the moro
renowned of the beggars.
''The investment Is heavier than you
iuppose," this man said, "for before q
good beggar of this kind is ready for the
market he represents quite large sum
N cash. There were plenty Of these
peculiar cripples in the Middle Ages,
when the making of artificial limbs was
almost unknown, and they used to get
about very quickly in their wooden
bowls.
'In modern days these cripples are
,ot numerous enough for business, so
there is a company which produces them
~ artificial means. Most of these poor
creatures whom you see hopping about
in their bowls come from Spain, and the
greater part from the villages near
rolosa, not very far from the French
frontier.
"rhe agent goes around amcng the
poor families in search Of children with
Iome slight defect in the lower limbs.
ae finds good many In the course OF
rear among the peasautry, and he per-
uades the parents to let the child be
eased for term Of years. This is gen.
,rally accompanied with the condition
:hat the child shall be transformed into
wooden bowl cripple, but sometimes
.hs parents are deceived.
''If the child has withered limbs they
!hey are amputated, aud In six months
he child Is first class sawed-off, pro-
vided with terrible story of "fright-
,ul accident" and he works tho large
titles for years with great success.
IF the limbs are simply deformed,
'he 'beggar- makers as they are called,
operate on the child by COMPRISING the
limbs with bandages until they wither,
topping the circulation of the blood
little by little. This is done with the
,roueoev sx,,,, -uud trf f6lr,a.ys.---.-....--
Iuaded to undergo the torture by the
assurance that, having sacrificed them
'elv IS for the good Of their families, they
will certainly 90 to Paradise. This Is
he great argument also used with the
mothers to convince them that they
ought to permit their offsprings to be
leformed.
"The families receive an annual sum
Equivalent to the interest on $400 or
ne sawed-offs are proud Of their pro.
e II. a. A.