Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1899-10-18
HE DID NOT FOLLOW COPY.
The Printers Joke Resulted in the
Beggar's Arrest

James Connors, a lower town char
acter, who can beg, peddle pencils
clean cuspidors and steal. has for sew
eral weeks been making a speciality o
begging. His method has been to Jig
GER his arm, appear lame and pass OH
to persons in street cars small cards
containing four or five verses headed
"A Beggar's Appeal" It is understood
that the recipient of the so-called ap-
peal will give to the author whatever
he cares to give.
Three or four days ago Connors ran
out of cards. His business had been
exceptionally good. He went to a
printer on lower Main street. and left
an order for five hundred cards. giving
the printer one of the originals as a
copy. Two of the verses read as fol-
/ lows:
Many bright, good hearted fellow,
| Many a noble minded man,
| Finds himself in water shallow,
Then assist him if you can.
| Do your best for one another
Making life a pleasant dream,
Help worn and crippled brother
Pulling hard against the stream.
Armed with a supply of these things,
Connors, made buoyant by the pros
poets for good business and a good
drunk, set out last evening to pick up
| some money. He selected the Lacka-
wanna railway station as the scene of
operations. He passed through the
waiting room, handing a card to each
of the kind looking men and women
he saw, and, few moments later, re-
traced his steps with his hand out
stretched One man laughed at him.
woman sneered and handed back the
card, and a young man said to Con-
nors:
Some one ought to strap you to the
tail end of a railway train with your
head hanging down and start the
train"
Connors allowed this slur to pass I'M
answered and moved on to the street to
make an effort at solving the secret of
his i'll luck. Hitherto persons had Civ
en- literally on reading his appeal. Now
they snickered or sneered. He decided
to try again amid other surroundings
So, entering a saloon in Main street.
near Perry street, he gave one of the
cards to lakeman, who appeared to
be prosperous. The lakeman read it,
looked COnnors over from head to foot.
You look it, he said emphatfcally
Every word of it's true, sir" re-
turned Connors, plaintively.
Whereupon the Iakeman seized Con-
nors by the neck and dragged him to-
ward the door. Connors objected to
the treatment and resisted. He was
arrested by Patrolman Carr Of the
First precinct just as he was emerging
from the door in advance of the lake
man. When he was searched at the
station house about fifty cards We're
found on him. This is the way they
read:
Many a bright, good hearted lobster,
Many a dirty, low born bloke,
Has 'trun' the guys that put him wise,
And become a top-notch soak.
I haven't worked in fifteen years,
And I'm a healthy. husky man.
I'm a lying lout who's always out
For the price to chase the can.
I'm a worthless, shiftless, drunken bum
And a thief from hat to shoes.
I never spent a blooming cent
For anything but booze.
You know what it is to be q bum,
To your pals you should be kind, sir,
Recall your woes and frisk your clothes
And hand me what you find, sir.
When Connors was asked by the desk
sergeant if he could read and write he
said he could not do so. He was locked
up on a charge of vagrancy.-Buffalo
Express.