The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-12-08


l shSuld think, standing at the curb
playing away on an awful fiddle. NO
tones and no tunes came from 1t. A
little old wisp of a woman stood by
him, to receive the pennies. Then there
are blind beggars and lame beggal's,
and beggars manned for life IN any
number of horrible manners, so un-
slightly that you would give them PEN
ny to send them away; and the worst
of all these beggars is that you do not
know which are deserving and which
are not. Some of these lame, halt and
blind beggars are only made up to be
lame, halt and blind, so that sometimes
the most deserving are those who look
as though they were not, by far.
Persistent London Beggars.
But 1 must not pass the beggars by
without mentioning the beggar with
VOICE, the singing beggar. | saw one
the other day walking slowly along on
oxford street, singing in a dramatic
manner. in all the din and noise of the
afternoon traffic. No one seemed to
notice him at ALL There is a kind of
beggar, the worst l have seen yet, l
think who ask for penny or tuppence
"to get a cup of tea" l never had any
of them ask me for anything until
yesterday. When / was coming from
the Academy, l saw a woman on the
street-bald, bottlenosed, and in bad
state of preservation generally. She
was so ugly that I was rather fascin-
L., n hon
she spoke up and asked, Miss, tup-
pence for cup of tea, please?' But
/ was on my way down the street, and
her brandy was not bought by any con-
tribution of mine. / saw very anus
ing thing happen down on Regent street
the other afternoon, in which blind
and manned beggar was involved. A
pretty girl was going into one of the
shops, and at her heels walked BRAIN
less little dude. glancing worshipfully
at the little lady as she swept by. But
she had train to her dress, and just
as she passed, a beggar man, all bent
double, and hobbling along on one leg
at a snail's pace, held out his hand to
Mr.. Dude, auguring well from that gem
Dude, to get rid of him, was in the act
of giving him something, and in so do
ing allowed himself to tread on Miss
Beautys dress, which she smartly
pulled from under his feet, just as he
grabbed Mr. Beggarman in order to re-
gain his balance. Now, Mr.. Beggar-
man, as later Developments disclosed,
hpn1DpnC
to appear crippled, which he was not,
could not sustain 50 much as two mas
culine lives on his one leg, and so, fell,
bursting his bandages, all rags, dragged
Mr.. Dude with him, and behold! the
ground was instantly strewn with
ltdramatis personae. Whereupon the
Beauty sharply turned around, saw
Mir. Dude scrambling to his feet, and
Mr.. Beggarman with big bundle OF
rags falling out of the back of his coat
his former hump-and thinking they
had been in collusion, suppose, to pick
her pocket, promptly delivered both
into the fatherly care of a policeman,
who had by this time arrived upon the
| scene.
London S street UcaUtlcS.
] think | never saw so many pretty
girls as there are here. Their COM
pleXions are my daily and hourly envy,
they are so very fair and white, and
then they have such cheeks! Just as
pink and prettyas they canbe. Theaver-
age English girl does her hair up oddly,
to me. They have AN immense bang,
| something like the big Langtry, which
| we wore so many years ago, in Ameri-
! ca. and then they do their back hair up
| over little shapes made of wire and
hair which they cover with their own
hair, thus making it appear as though
| Nature had been very lavish to them
But this arrangement would not be
tidy or neat, as the hair would fail of
| the padding under it,and so they cover
all with a net, and consequently they
| have q big knob at the back OF their
heads. which looks for all the world as
| though their hair had been docked, like
their horses tails. This is the arrange
ment Of the average English girl. They
wear their hats very far back on the
head. too l don't admire their heads
at all, except the faces. They wear
| horribly thick shoes and boots, and nc
oyershoes at all. AS l do not indulge
in mems boots to wear, and will not
| indulge in damp feet, either, | wear my
overshoes. was putting them on one
day at the Royal Academy, a young
lady seeing me, cried out, "Oh, they
wear those In San Francisco. Do you
come from San Francisco" | in
| formed the lady, who had never been
| In any American town except that one,
evidently, that any sensible woman
the world over wore overshoes when 1t
rained, and that it did not Immediately
stamp the wearer as n San Francisco
woman. either. She loved San Fran
cisco, she said. Was / ever there? Re-
latives there? Yes? Was | ever going
out there? Yes? OF course? 1t is
needless to say that we became friends
at once, on the strength of the over
shoes. that they wear at San Fran
| cisco.
At Flute Recital.
Nov. 24.--Last night went to flute
recital in the Sale Erard, one of the
daintiest of the concert rooms in Lon
don. 1t was most interesting, all the
way through, as the flutist, who Is one
of the finest in England, had the as.
slstance of some very fine artists on
the oboe, horn, clarinet, bassoon, harr
and piano, besides a tenor and a very
fine soprano, Madame Amy Sheurln
who sang some exquisite songs. l can
not say how much 1 enjoyed the whole
concert. You see, so many wind in
struments made it rather unique, anC
there was not dull moment the whole
long evening through. The harp music
was perfectly divine, and the flute selec
tlons simply exquisite I must not for
get to say that | had the pleasure OF
seeing the celebrated composer, Ed
ward German, and of hearing him ac'
company Mr.. Oswald, the tenor, who
sang a song of Mr.. Germans COMPOSE
tion, which is written with wind quinn
tette and planoforte accompaniment
an odd one, but very beautiful. / hope al