The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-06-16
THE CLERGY AS VICTIMS.
Sly Swindlers Always Trying New
Games on Unsuspectfng Pastors.


The most persistent and unique adven-
turers in the national capital are the
fakirs who haunt the clergy and persons
connected with philanthropic work They
are frequent callers at all pastoral resi-.
dences in the city. day never passing
without two or more presenting them
selves at the door. Some are well-dressed
ana others are CARRIED like the poor. They
nave various methods of presenting their
cause, but each and all have the same
OBJECT TO obtain money. Sometimes their
stories are almost ludcrous, but at other
times they are heartrending, and it is
almost impossible for clergyman to de-
eide the merits of the case.
one prominent divine said last week
that in all his experience he had never
met stranger begging for help whose
case when investigated, was found
worthy.
The Rev. DIR. Mcleod of the First Pres
byterian Church, in conjunction with four
other leading clergymen. had an expert
ence not long ago which was as laughable
as 1t was eXasperating. A woman clad IN
deepest but shabby mourning called at
the church office shortly after noon, and
told a pitiful tale of woe. She said that
her only daughter had died the night be-
fore, that she had formerly been a men,
Der of his church, and her dying request
was that Dr., Mcleod should preach a
sermon at the funeral which would occur
the following morning at her residence.
She gave number and street in a SOME
what distant locality.
The doctor at once consented to officiale
at the funeral, and expressed the greatest
sympathy for the bereave1 mother The
woman then began to weep, and told DIR.
Mcleod that her finances were in a
straitened condition, and that she lacked
just 81 of having enough for her daugn-
ters burial expenses. The doctor had
been imposed upon before, so he told the
woman that he would go to her home the
following morning and bring the necessary
funds to defray the expenses. Thanking
DR.. Mcleod, the woman took her leave and
proceeded TO the pastoral residence, of the
assistant rector of Trinity Church. Tell
ing him the same story, she succeeded in
Obtaining s. and the promise that the doc
tor would officiate at the funeral.
This original fakir then went to the res
idence of DR.. Fiske. pastor of Gunton-
Temple Memorial Church, to whom sire
again repeated her story ard obtained a
like reward. She sought two ether cler-
gymen, on whose sympathies she worked
with the same tale and secured from each
s. and an assurance that the ministers
would preach her daughters funeral SER
mon. To each one she gave the same hour
following morning five preachers, armed
with Bibles and hymn books, serious
and sympathetic looks, appear at 10
o'clock at the quiet home of a very re-
spectacle Irish family, and each one an
nounced that he had come to conduct the
funeral of the young girl The Irish lady,
shrinking that some one had played a prac-
teal joke on her, promptly became in
censed and emphasized the fact that there
had not been a death on that block for
six months
Another funeral fakir was a woman in
st. Aloysius' parish. One morning she
called at the residence of a comparatively
poor Catholic woman, whose philanthropic
work was well known. She was weeping
so that she could hardly explain her wants.
between her sobs she told the kind-heart-
ed lady that her husband, who was a work
ingman, was dead, and she had no money
to bury him. She did not want to beg, but
to borrow some money, and said that she
would work afterward to repay the
amount ION, madame" she said, put
yourself in my place. If your husband
should die, it would break your heart to
have him buried in the potters field. and
it will break mine. Help me to bury my
john and l will work all my life to repay
you" The supposed widow threatened to
go into Mysteries, and the kind-hearted
lady tried TO soothe her. and told her that
she would take her the money later in the
day.
She took all out of her own pocket, and
finding II inadequate, she devoted the day
to taking up a subscription among her
friends, and by nightfall she had secured,
together with her own donation, some
thing over $35. She went Immediately 10
the house designated. where she was met
al the door by the weeping woman, who
led her into poorly furnished little Toom
liob ~, 10 nv Cba
a tallow candle stuck in a bottle, on n
small wooden shelf, in one end of the
room. At the other end of the room could
be dimy seen a rudely Impoverished bier.
Stretched on a board, supported by two
pine soap boxes, lay the rigid form of a
large man, covered with a white sheet
The woman, between her sobs, told her
benefactress that she wanted to see the
poor dead face" She turned back the
sheet. revealing the rugged features "f
laborer. The still face stood out in ghast-
ly relief against the shadows in the dark
corner of the room. The candle tlickered
and sputtered. and the woman dropped the
sheet and hid her face in her hands. The
kind hearted lady stayed quite while
endeavoring to console the woman, then
giving her the money. she departed.
She had not gone a block. however, be-
fore she fell to wondering If the man had
on a coat Thinking how hard II would be
to bury man without coat ana rSsolV-
ing to give one OF her husbands, she re-
traced her steps 10 determine whether or
not he had on a coat. Arriving at TIE
house she knocked, but no answer came.
She knocked again, and still there was no
response Finding the door unlocked. she
opened II and entered the hallway.
Proceeding 10 the little room where
few minutes before she had been consoling
the widow. she was Mortified 10 find the
corpse" sitting up and counting the
money. The couple were so intent upon
counting up their gains that they had net
noticed her entrance until she gave little
scream, which was echoed by the corpse"
and his widow, who dropped the money as
though they had seen a gost and ned from
the house, which they had utilized for the
purpose of their fraud. The kind-hearted
lady also ran from the scene OF the quick
and the dead" But an hour later when
she returned with her husband and son TO
recover the money. she found that the
corpse had preceded her aud had secured
the money.
Not an the fakirs deal with the deal.
Several days ago tall fore,gn-looking
man visited several prominent clcrgymen,