New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-05-20

THE PASSING THRONG.

A man, the other evening, was seated on one OF
the lounges in the hall OF the Hoffman House He
was in that pleasant, dreamy state
NEW that follows a particularly good
YORKER dinner and seemed TO be wholly
MOVED BY enjoying his Havana cigar. Sud
A TALE OF denly the next him spoke the
WOE smoker did not catch the remark.
but conscious that he had been ad-
dressed, shook himself free from his day dream
and asked the other what he had said Gould you
help poor a bed?' the question The
smoker a thoroughgoing New-Yorker and
used to every form Of hold up by the beggars
a dime and TO get rid of him without further
and look at his neighbor more closely The appI-
cant Ior aims was short and stout and had a
rather good face While threadbare. his attire was
neat, and he carried and gold bowed
Speetdcies, ~ occurred to the smoker that gold
vaIue, but a CLINT of baser metal on one Of the
pocket the smoker handed out the IS cents he
found there TO the man with the spectacles The
turned TO his lounsing position and was straight
way forgetting the reality of things when the man
etaked me to exactly three times what have been
able TO raise in that time 1 can get a bed and
breakfast now. and as haven't had my shoes of
for three days I am very grateful 10 you The
smoker became interested. and asked some cues
The man N spectacles was lawyers clerk who
hau lost MS place in Cincinnati through the death
He had Stood We'll i' With his princ g 4 and had
so9d influence but other offices We're full and he
and German his knovvedge of courts and the COM
mand Of English he had acquired in copying
speeches might make IL possible for him 70 do
10 that, but could not obtain a place He got rec
concentrations to law firms and editors in Pitts
Durg but there he found no work He had thought
Philadelphia might offer something in newspaper
vention. but there he learned that only men OF
special training could be intrusted to DO the work
PhlIadeiphia ne had gone 10 Newark, and from
there 70 NewYork. He had sought vainly for
lad olV
picked up his food wherever he could he did not
seem as much depressed by the straits in which
ne found himself as one would have thought JHst
smoker handed the man enough money 70 carry
been given, and he went away with his friend
The more the smoker thought Of the story he had
heard the more it impressed him There hal been
ring Of sincerity in the teller's
HE HEARS voice and while he had given the
ABOUT THE man 81 as a reward for having
BEGGAR WHO told him story that served to
DISTRIBUTES kill certain amount OF time, he
HIS RE was glad he had done So for DIFF
CETPTS. ferent and a better reason And
as he reflected upon what he had
heard he realized that while he himself had known
moments when money scarce and the outlook
seemed dark he had never even come within tele-
graphic distance of such a position the one the
man had told Of. Without money friends, or
ffb ~ b;I,+ S 4a Ie ~ WI and Vet unabie
10 get work was as disheartening thing as could
well be imagined; and yet this was exactly what
the in the spectaceS facing And then
the smoker fell 10 wondering how many other men
and women, TOO. must be in the same condition
that night This depressing him stiLl more ne re-
peated the story TO his friend, who in turn told
him OF the Baker who gives loaf of bread 10 ap-
picants at his bakery each night. and where some
times the line is made up of hundreds Of the man
who nightly begged by permission and as ne re-
Ceived from the passer by called on oy name one
of the ''hoboes' who assembled there nightly; al
the word the tramp took his appointed place; ana
when the evening work was done, he who mad done
the begging led the crowd TO a lodging mouse
sometimes they numbered fifty or sixty The
samaritan beggar knew the ''panhandlers' or the
CITY bv sight and name. and gave his charity with
discretion. That is why permission IS given MN 10
beg without fear of moiestatton by the pohce.
man need necessarily starve on the streets OF
New-YOrk But he also felt that he might come
precious near il. and he almost wished that the
man with the spectacles had told his story 70