The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-01-10

letter. When he became a professional beg
was hauled i'm couple OF times ana run
over on the island. This interrupted ms
business badly. and. besides, the island dIa
Portable and well-furnished fiat mp IN har-
lem. for which he pays SIS month rent
always well dressed. and the children go TO
school. When the wife goes out In the after
moons she looks like a society lady.
one afternoon / was leaning over the
Harlem bridge, feeling bad enough almost
TO jump over. when this man spoke TO me.
/ thought there was a chance or employ
ment, SO answered him ciVilly. L toid num-
l was a clerk, could read and write wei
and was in sore need OF employment ne
brought me home with him ana asked me
to read. l did so. Then / wrote, ana al
though he could not read or write hlmseiI,
he knew enough to admire my clean, neat,
five cents and told me TO be back AT 4
o'clock next morning. When l arrived next
was lighted from the air shaft he had
all the morning papers In a pile every one
of them. Under his instructions TOOK
them up and read over the meanings, COZ,
umn by column To him. Every now ana
again he would stop me and tell me 10
mark an item or an article with blue
pencil. These items would relate TO some
person who had given charity, or that had
got married. or had met with some piece
safely given birth TO a child, or TO some
accident in which number OF people would
be injured or have their household goods
burned and news OF that kind -.
When we had gone over the papers In TINS
way, he produced paper, ink ana pens. we
then took up the marked articles and he
would dictate letter suitable for each
case. He represented all kinds OF charac-
ters. from a mechanic with sick wife ana
in fire and were living in a bare room'
lying on the floor without bed or clothlng
to a teacher of music and languages, or an
old clerk broken down in health. unable to
get employment, and with several Small
motherless children. He always brought IN
TO ladies who had become mothers them
selves. 1t would be about / o'clock when
we would get through. He would give me a
good dinner and 80 cents each day. When
the kind of cases / have told you about
did not pan out well in the papers, he , had
had money, saying he was poor inventor,
and was trying to get model made OF
world and make somebody rich. He would
ask for a dollar or two to help him with
his model and to get patent oo,,,,,a
of dollars. He used TO say, with laugh
that people would be best plea ed with
modest t 6esET ana ef wGu Tbe n9' il was oniv
dollar or two. He took all kinds or names,
and had letter boxes rented i'm two little
stationery stores. and also had letters sent
from a couple OF other places In one ne
Rad rented the letter box at the front door
from old lady who occupied "A Hat she
had very little correspondence, anu II =
letter did come TO her he gave IL TO her. He
ALWAYS devoted the afternoons TO collecting
his letters. He opened them, took out the
money and kept the letters until i read
them to him next day. l placed all the
addresses in n book he had and then de-
stroyed the letters. He told me he sold
copy OF those addresses to a man down
town for $40 a hundred. For the three
weeks that was with him. ! should say
ne averaged $50 To $50 week, while his
expenses for papers, letter boxes, station
cry, postage stamps and my salary came To
He told me one day when he had been
taking some rum and gum for cold that
he had organized n charity society of his
lars. But he was near getting into trou-
bic Somebody sent a copy OF his circular
to the State Board of Charities. He de-
MED all knowledge of the thing and indig-
nantly charged that somebody was trying
to ruin him. This bluff saved him. but he
had to give the charity society up. OF
the ground that / was not doing it,
working honestly for my dinner and %
How did you come to leave hlm:'' the
reporter asked. Well replied the eX-
private secretary TO a professional heggar
''he said one day he was sorry to have II
dispense with my services, and i believe be
was, for we got along nicely. But a neph-
come from Buffalo to look for something
TO do in New York. He could get nothing
to do, and was on his hands, SO he would
have to utilize him in doing my work
OF course / could not object, and that
was how 1 came to lose Fly very unique
position. A couple of times when sorely
pressed by hunger I called on him
and he helped me- He is really good
hearted man, and that is why / would not
give his name or place of residence or do
anything to njure him.
The reporter saw n number OF prominent
citizens known TO give considerable I'm char
ity, and they all say the number of begging
letters they receive is beyond belief Many
of these letters display great ingenuity and
a remarkable knowledge of human nature.
One lady, known TO be wealthy and char
liable and prominent in business and social
life received as many as seventy begging
letters in one day recently. This was the
day after her name appeared in the press
as subscribing TO some charity Thus we
have the statistical fact that there at
the lowest seventy professional beggars by
letter such the man described above. Ii
would be safe to double. and treble
the number, for not more than one-third of
the whole number is likely To write 10 the
same person on the same day. This would
give 30 letter-wrting beggars, who sit in
comfortable homes and play on the strings
of the common human heart. extracting not
mere empty sounds, but solid cash. Many
are the ways of getting the needful i'm a city
like New York.