The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1897-10-01
FRAUDS AMONG BEGGARS
Continued from, First Page.
church of which they claimed to have
been members:

church of which they claimed to have
been members:
No one knows of such man or We
man. Doubtless they are swindlers and
liars of the first water. For twenty five
years have been helping such people
and don't know that have helped one
really deserving case. Of course once in
while | find people sick who are at the
time really needy, but all the moving
beggars have turned out bad. | wish
could find just one such as I read of in
the Sunday School books, but / fear they
are dead, and our good poor people, the
real gilt edged ones will spend all that
they can get hold of at the shows and at
the merry go-round. One really good
deserving man sold last fall patch Of
potatoes which he had ready to dig and
which turned out to have sixty bushels
of them, for SIS and spent every cent of
it at the merry go-round. In the winter
his family were in want. I fear | am
getting cynical. / trust you find few
of the Sunday School kind to brace you
up
'sAnother man who came to Morris
town about year ago pretending to be
an evangelist was given temporary EN-
ployment until inquiry could be made
about him. By comparing his testi-
mony given in the Methodist class meet
ing on Sunday morning with one given
in the Mission on Monday night, it was
evident that he had killed or otherwise
made away with his two darling
daughters He reported that he had
spent his last fifty cents for clean bed
at Summit, but his Undertaking was SO
filthy that he had to take a bath and be
furnished with clean clothing before he
could be put to bed in the Mission. 1t
afterwards transpired that he had not
slept in Summit on that night and that
several other stories he told were
false. Notwithstanding, he was SO
warmly received by some of the
good people that they actually hired him
to conduct series of meetings in town.
Before the meetings were over most of
them wished they had not. One pastor
in the city informed me that he had
known the man as fraud many years
ago.
''These fellows go to the charitably
disposed people who are very busy and
who will rather give anywhere from fifty
cents to five dollars than spend time in
investigating the case. A young man
from near Morris Plains raised a good
deal of money last winter in Morristown
by representing that his father had just
died and that he was the Oldest son of
the family and that they were in great
restitution. One lady gave him few
dollars and said that if he would bring
recommendation from the mission she
would help him further. He did not.
come to the Mission himself, but a few
weeks later the dead father walked in
and made his annual demand for help.
He was at once met with the question,
Why didn't you stay dead in this cold
weather.
ga few people have given a subscrip-
ton to our Charitable Fund on condition
that we shall relieve the beggars they
send up to the amount of their donation.
In one case a prominent business man
who was fairly worried with beggars
gave subscription about fifteen months
ago and the sum is still intact, none of
the many whom he sent having yet come
to make the demand for help.
"Of course there are many very worthy
poor people in town but they are mostly
well looked after by the churches they
belong to or by private individuals who
have known them when they were in
more favorable circumstances. Our own
Charitable Fund is very small, but when
we find such worthy cases we endeavor
to interest people in them, who are will
ing to help them. Nothing is more
needed than some kind of industry such
as woodward where temporary relief
can be given by supplying work. That
applies not only to tramps but to men
whose families are in need every winter.
Men of the right spirit would rather
work than accept charity and those who
would rather accept charity than work |
should be made to work. Only lack of |
funds to provide suitable accommoda-
ton prevents us from having such an in
dustry in connection with the Mission"
Another good suggestion in the line of
the charity problem is that made by DIR.
Macnaughtan, that all the churches COM
bine and form central bureau of
charity, not for the dispensing of funds,
but bureau of information, which
would include registration of the names
of those who receive help from the
several churches of the city. The
churches, as well as the community and
individuals, are victims. It has been
stated that there are cases in town where
parties receive aid from two or more
churches, claiming membership in each.
Such bureau would quickly dispose of
this difficulty. When new applications
for help are received it will be neces-
sary only to refer to the register. A case
was recently reported in New York city
where woman was receiving substan-
tial help from two churches; attending
one church in the morning and the other
in the evening regularly. If those who
have charge of the charitable funds of
the churches would follow out the plan
above suggested a decided improvement
in the matter would soon be noticed.
wires a Protection Against Lightningy
People living in the cities are prone
to believe that the increase in telephone.
telegraph and trolley wires increase the
douonr from olaofrf. ef<,,.,,.e x.v,+<e, III