The Anaconda standard., 1895-12-14
BEGGARS AND BUNS
They Are Becoming an lntolerable
Nuisance in the City.
THE POLICE ARE HUSTLING
How the Vipers Work Their Little
Game to the DIsmay OF the
Tender-Hearte Housewife
Their Brazen Effrontery.

This cold spell has set the buns,
vags, hoboes and common back door
beggars to guessing. They are becom-
ing desperate. Winter stares them in
the face with an ironical smile that
they cannot well meet. Their mode of
existing must be changed now that the
barrels of the alley are frozen up and
the tumble-down shacks of the suburbs
and the leafless trees on the creek
banks afford cheerless shelter. These
humans will not work. They are too
pretty to work. They propose to live
without working. and in order to do
that they have started out on a cam
paign of begging from door to door.
Late in the afternoon a stalwart, ro-
bust man appears on the rear steps of
a house, hat in hand, a look of anxiety
and forlorn hope pictured on his face.
please ma'am, would you kindly assist
me to a little something to eat. Just
got in town an don't know nobody.
Am tryin' to find work" In most cases
this bum, adamant and brazen, leaves
the yard with a handful of bread and
meat. He's the "feeler."
Later another man shows up at the
same place with the same story. He,
IL successful, puts another one "on"
and the request Is repeated by another
individual These are the FOUNDERS. :"
combination is broken by the arrest of
one or all of their number as vags.
Yesterday a six-foot-two negro, who,
stripped and in the ring, would send
Peter Jackson to the ropes from a
| square look into his eyes. That coon
asked a housewife for something to
eat-he was hungry and unable to pro-
vide for himself. When he was, as he
| thought, well out of sight of the house
| which he had just ''braced" he shot
| into an alley leading to the bad lands,
near the high board fence.
/ Twenty minutes later a measley sub
| ject with horror painted on every feat
ure emerged from the alley into which
| the buck had gone. To this same lady
he applied for the price of a bed, 'if
you please, lady" and IF don't sleep
in my bed tonight I'll take a relapse
and die, sure ting" Well, he didn't
| die
| These movements were all witnessed
by a Standard reporter yesterday. One
| man started in well towards the west
| end of Park avenue and struck" every
house on the south side of the street
clear down to the Montana hotel. He
| wanted money.
The ladies are alarmed at the i'm
pudence displayed by these insolent
wretches. whose visits are no doubt
made merely to give them an oppor-
tunity to size up" the place for later
| and more determined raid
The police are doing all in their pow
| er to round this vicious class up and
put the beggars where they will do the
| most good. But 1t is work that can
| not be done in a day-a condition that
every one understands. However, they
| are gathering them in; six or seven
sleep in the jail. as a result Of the last
two or three days hunting. II there
is any reason why a healthy man
should be without legitimate occupa-
| ton, II has not been explained. Men
who beg in Anaconda will bear watch
ing. and for their benefit and study. II
may be stated candidly that they are
| being watched.