Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-01-07
TRICKS OF STREET eEooARs.
Devices Ssed to Excite the Interest and
Pity of the Public.

Pity of the Public.
Cool weather is here again, and with
it the usual hordes of beggars, who
flock to the city about this time every
year. The ingenious schemes and tricks
with which some of these children
of fate" seek to gull the unwary are
marvels of cleverness and originality.
or course, every one knows of the
starved, white-headed old man who
surreptitiously places a crust of bread
on the sidewalk and on the approach
of some well-to-do looking person dives
wildly for the crust and begins to
chew it ravenously.
Another figure that is becoming quite
familiar is the hard luck young man,
out of work, with a mother and sister
or two in Galveston, about whom he
is very uneasy, and who is trying to
raise enough money TO go and hunt for
them.
Yet another familiar figure is the
pitiful little newsboy with dirty face
and ragged raiment, and an mvariable
story of hard luck today, Boss-ain't
got no mother and me sister and de kid
is sick and got ter support 'em.
Won't yer buy paper, please, Bossw
At first ones heart is touched by the
pitiful appeals of these ragged little
urchins, struggling for a living, but if
one bought paper from every de-
serving little fellow some of us would
soon be insolvent.
Then there is the well dressed young
man with red nose and bleared eyes,
who lives somewhere in Jersey. We
all know his little story of how he
just came over last night, and INDUCED
in little more liquid refreshment than
he could carry. OF course he never did
such a thing before, and now he finds
himself in the humiliating position of
being forced to ask the loan of car fare
home.
This little story repeated perhaps a
hundred times day often touches the
hearts and pockets of the kindly dis
posed, of whom there are more to be
found in New York than many persons
believe.
Another venerable but clever trick,
similar to that of the crust of bread,
is known as the dog and bone" A
very seedy old man apparently half
dead from starvation, and Il very dis
reputable, knowing g-looking little cur.
are the actors in this play The prop
critics consist of a single bone, which
is placed in the gutter and at the ap-
proach of some benevolent looking
lady the dog is released And then
follows a "short sharp struggle" be-
tween the man and the dog for the
possession of the much coveted bone.
The man is always the victor. Secur-
ing the bone he begins to gnaw it with
an eagerness that can not fail to be
convincing to the uninitiated.
For q long time two men operated
very successful trick along Broadway,
almost every night One of the men
was thin and emaciated and seemed to
be in the last stages Of consumption.
The other was apparently an honest,
hard working man. The thin man
would place himself in the glare of
the electric light and straightway go
off into paroXysms of coughing; the
other would then come up, pretend to
assist his accomplice and finally take
up collection to enable him to go
home to Missouri, or some other place,
to die.
There is an ordinance against beg
ging in New York, and a special squad
of policemen is detailed to prevent it.
The men are sent out in plain clothes;
but it becomes necessary to change
their beats often as the beggars soon
learn to know the officers, and their
usefulness on that particular beat is
at an end.-New York Mail and Ex-
press.