The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-12-09

| Good heavens. no." laughed the u.
| p. man. only dollar and half. l
might give you security"
Yes. you might. that's a fact. Why
not pawn something?'
| The u. p. man looked rather discon-
certed II don't know" he stammered.
| Besides. it's against my principles"
| But not against your principles to
| beg. eh?"
"Beg?' The U. p mans voice trem-
bled with indignation.
yes. beg" replied the young man,
laughing. You are a clever begger.
and there is a policeman coming"
Good night" said the u. p. youth.
II must be getting on" and he lounged
away. laughing in the best-natured
way in the world.
He stopped another young man at
Broadway and 26th street, and got
some money.
The town is full of beggars. They
are thickest on the elevated stations
and In the elevated trains. In the an
gle or the stairway of almost every
downtown elevated station stands a
man or woman with extended hat or
hand. "A year ago the elevated station
beggars were altogether vendors of
lead pencils and trinkets. Now they
beg openly and without any pretext.
or course. there must be some sort of
elevated station and the beggar, as the
thing Is against the rules. Whether
this collusion rests upon sympath or
division of profits 1t is impossible to
say.
The extending Of the business to ele-
waited trains is a new departure. 1t is
as yet almost wholly confined to the
Third avenue line between Grand
street and the two termini-South Fer
ry and City Hall. The beggars can
ride back and forth for one fare, be-
cause the uptown and downtown
tracks pass the same platform at
Grand. at Chatham Square, at City
Hall and at all the stations on the
South Ferry branch. The beggars have
slips of paper with verses or prose ap-
peals printed on them, and sell lead
pencils. They distribute their appeals
and then collect the money. AS usual,
women are their chief prey Many of
these beggars are horribly dirty. Some
of them are much deformed. Others
have feigned deformities' which could
only deceive the foolish.
The most interesting and most sue
cessful beggars in the brown stone
district" are those who hang about
several clubs where young Anglomani-
acs congregate. These beggars some
times are pretended Englishmen, like
the youths upon whom they prey. They
all have the same mode of procedure.
The beggar goes up to the youth and
says:
II beg your pardon, sir, but can you
tell me whether there is any society for
the relief of Englishmen?"
Get along with you, my good fell
low" says the Anglomaniac.
Il beg your pardon, sir, very humbly,
sir. but I saw you were an English
man. and / thought"
A.. A.-s-
but fails and looks proud and pleased.
81 think 1 have seen you, sir. I used
to be groom, sir, at Lord Wey-
mouths. sir. and l tancied you was
one of the gentlemen 1 see hunting
there"
The Anglomaniac knows Ii Is a fake
that is. he often knows it-but he
cannot resist. He pays 10 cents or a
quarter for the tickling. And the fun
ny part of 1t is that the same beggar
can work the same man over and over
again.
Another curious departure in the
begging Industry is the young women
beggars. Formerly the women were
very old and very decrepit, thus maxi
ing their appeal to your sympathy with
dissolute old age. Or, If they were not
black circles painted under their eyes
and had the babies we'll made up for
the part. But the transformation of
the vicious districts of New York has
changed all that.
Young and comedy women now beg.
Not for food. They are too well dress
ed for that. They ask for car fare,
for railway fare to suburban town.
And they do very well, indeed. They
usually ask old men. But when they
ask young men they are not often
turned away. They always hang their
heads and speak in low, hurried tones.
AT night they sob a little. In the day
time they are dry-eyed because they
fear the hard-hearted police.
Taken as a whole, the begging indus
try has been much elevated socially
in the past year. The greasy tramp of
former years is still with us, but in
largely diminished numbers. The we'll
dressed beggar with the fascinating
tale to tell. has driven others from the
to the elevated stations.
Another development, and this is
most deplorable, is the larger increase
in the young girl peddlers and beggars.
These are hardly more than children
girls of 10. IL and IL. They usually
have carefully curled hair. floating
about their faces, and they have been
trained to exhibit the trembling lip and
the fearful eye. The police are very
strict about these girl beggars, but. for
all their strictness, the great profit in
this branch of the business is causing