The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1894-12-08
SOME SHREWD BEGGARS
BABY IS ALWAYS a GOOD.
DRAWING CARD.
A Church Portal Makes q Paying stand
But tho American Beggar Il q poor,
Feeble Amateur Compared to His Eu-z
ropean Prototype. WOMB "

|
seems to be superfuity, an un-
leemly prodigality Of natures gifts,
serving no known end or purpose,
being altogether Objectionable, and
ret the excrescence, whether it be
IF the outicle or of society, has at
Iached unto itself a degree of curl
BUS interest. -
There is distinct distinctiveness
ibout it all it's own; man is identl-
led by the wart on his nose; a city
by it's beggars. Here the analogy
;eases. A wart on nose is always
wart on a nose; nothing more,
| nothing less. A beggar is by turns
| Iarious things, save one-he is never
beggar. He is an unfortunate
nan, man who has met with re-
verses; often he is sick man, often
sr one just out of the hospital and
trying to make his way home.
Again he carries a bullet in his left
hung and Grand army Button on
his coat; or, if fortune has favored
| him at some time in his checkered
career he has really been bereft of a
limb; then a sawmill becomes the
| piece de resistance, fanked by g.
7arying but always numerous pro-
yeny. He is times without number
man out of work, and he has never,
never, never had anything to eat
since last night.
Having tested a hundred devices,
more or less, and being unable to de-
eide which is the most profitable, or
! slse fearful of missing the fetching
characteristics of any one of them by
adopting one at time, he combines
them into one odoriferous, Ieft-to-
ihe-imagination abomination of filth,
and rags and general pitiableness,
md then it is he becomes a plain
'object of charity"
Opinions as to the merits of a
| specific as general rule are divided
lmong the members of the profess
zion, says the Chicago Inter-Ocean,
Tor profession it is (and in these
mushroom days, no doubt, will soon
be not only profession. but cult,
having it's masters and mistresses,
tor sex cuts no figure here at least,
unless, indeed, the preference goes
TO the gentler) some holding that a
better business is done by possessing
q small but sure and steady patron
age than the more brilliant, but also
uncertain, range of the plunger.
True, the steady-going plodders
look on with envy and speak with
pride of the member who begs in the
forenoon and dimes in the evening at
The fashionable hotels, whose rags
and dress suit repose in the same
trunk, yet there is always a dubious
shake of the head.
The churchly beggar, too. although
soft be his couch, is apt to be rudely
awakened. From sitting in the
mourners' seat and being the recipi-
ent of silver dollars he is apt to be
sat upon. Therefore opinions vary.
But beggars like the above are
| meteors of the American genus.
Some smaller stars shine as pitiable
fellows with running sores, these
same being produced and kept in an
liberated state by means of chem
icals.
One such made his appearance dur
ing the worlds fair: The other day
he was met plying his vocation.
s.H'm. That sore has been a long
time healing"
''Yessum, he meekly replied, and
wendell his way across to the next
house, and rung the bell.
Not so sure, but less painful is
| the painted ulcer which another fell
! low wears on the back of his neck.
| The angle at which his head is tilted
and unainchingly held excites the
| pity of a stone man without even
glancing at the fearful looking thing,
half swathed in dirty linen.
Armless men are almost too COM
mon for notice. Blouses are favored
articles of apparel with such, these
convenient garments being capable
of harboring a pair of stout arms
any day. If only half an arm is de-
sired the hand is laid near the
| shoulder and the forearm firmly
bandaged to the upper part.
IA But an American beggar is tact
less, imam bilious, sluggish, grovel-
ing sort of a creature compared
with his brethren of the East.
He begs because he wants some
thing for his stomach or back; that
being obtained, he is at rest and
satisfedly lounges until nature
necessities again prick him. Despis
ing himself and despised by others
he is included in the generic term
''tramp," though this is misnomec
as he never, by any chance, tramps
! He is merely weak, senile, might
| have been of the real, genuine article
as it comes from the older European
countries and is known in Chicago
| The imported beggar is a self
I respecting beggar And his earlies
opinion Of himself is in ratio to his
/ (seeming) abnegation and nothing
ness.
A woman-a woman! crouchins
on the extreme edge of the ston'
| pavement, as though fearful 0
I! touching even the hem Of society
d "A head bent low over an innocent
Ii sleeping babe, exposed to tn
/ weather, ill-c1ad, miserable, like
: y =.