Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1901-02-06
GREAT BEGGAR DETECTIVE.
A Paris secret Service Omcer who
Seeks to Reduce Mendicancy
In That City.

art because he used it in his business, |
and his business in life is to reduce |
mendicancy in Paris. The Paris beg |
gar is the prince of them all He makes
the most money with the least effort,
and he saves the most He can lay over
the New York beggar a thousand times.
Yet, begging on the streets of Paris is
forbidden by law, and it is the proud |
boast of the gay French capital that
its charities are so plentiful and so ac-
cessible to all that street begging is un-
necessary, says the St. Louis Republic.
Thirty years ago Louis Paulian began
his connection with the prisons of
Paris, and his first work in learning
the criminal phase of life from the in
side was done more than quarter of a
century ago. Since then he has been
an inmate of countless jails in France
and elsewhere on the continent, and for
the most of the time not even his jail
ers knew his identity. He is quick
change artist" who would do credit to
any stage. Tall, fine looking, with a
big brown beard, bald on the top of the
head, he can stand before one in his
ordinary clothes and by a few twists
and turns convert himself into the
most woeful looking blind beggar that
ever happened.
Paulian says that one of the most
profitable forms of begging is in the
guise of poverty stricken gentleman.
clad in this way he says, 81 can sue
ceed without uttering word Sinking
silently along, peering out of the cor
ners of my eyes at the other pedes-
trians, every fourth swell will turn
back to drop a few sous in my hand.
With hasty word of thanks 1 hurry
on, as if ashamed to be found begging"
One of Paulian's most treasured keep
sakes is II model of the lantern carried
by the Paris rag picker. 1t was given
to him by the guild out of respect for
him, for he long ago announced that
the rag picker was the only honest per-
son, or rather the only person who is
so honest that he cannot be found in
Jail. The rag picker's implements are
a bag which he carries on his back, a
crooked stick with bent nail on the
i. end with which to pick up the various
!, kinds of stuff that he gathers, and a
lantern by which he can see in dark
alleys and cellarways. AS slight
token of their appreciation, and as the
. rag pickers obviously could not give a
bag or a stick to Paulian, they made a
model lantern and presented that to
him. The rag picker takes not only
rags, but every kind of refuse that can
be carried conveniently. A little
2 known industry of the neither world
was discovered by Paulian in his prowl-
ings around Paris. One of the city
( officials is a butter faster. He jabs a
gouge into tub of butter and tastes
of the butter which is brought up on
the edge of the gouge. 1t is impossible
of course, that he can eat all the little
4 pats of butter of which he tastes, and sc
8 after the test is made he drops the Bit
4 on the straw in front of him. These
4 pickings from this straw form one OF
Z the most valuable finds of the so-called
rag picker. The pats of butter are
: gathered up and taken home and there
put into a cauldron of boiling water
The butter rises to the surface in oil
4 which is skinned off and left to solid
ify Then it is sold to the poorer
classes.
There is absolutely nothing says
Paulian. (which is impossible for the
' beggar to get. Name anything yol
> like-an armchair, a crutch, a woodeI
leg, pair of spectacles, a violin, ;
cradle, food of any kind, medicine, ant
4 | will go out on the street and bes
4 it out of people, and it won't cost
z SOU"
For ten years Paulian begged, ant
Y at the end of that time he was abl
/ to compute that yearly the privat
= charities of Paris alone pay ou
% $2,0OO,OO0 to undeserving persons. And
q taking all sources of the swindler'
a income, fully S5,O00,OOO year i
a wasted on them in the belief tina
4 this vast amount goes TO the deserv
e ing poor.
One of the characters whose ac
Y quaintance Paulian made was Fathe
4 Antoine, pious hunchback VIII
- begged in front of churches. Tn
% hump on the fathers back was hi
,s strong box, which contained all hi
70 earnings, amounting at the time O
his death to $4,000. The father ere
ated for himself monopoly of church
door begging. Any other beggar VIII
d wanted to work the church doors ha
Y to pay regular rental to the father
d Possibly the most important dscov
20 cry which Paulian made in his year
!, of research along these lines was O
the existence of beggars' director
of likely victims, and also of the ma,
u who got it up and maintained il
Every professional beggar in Pari
1, known of and consults this directory
1t is in manuscript and can be bough
in a small or large edition at thre
;, and six francs, or, in our money, 6
70 cents and $1.20 The small edition
% called the Petit Jeu and the large on
u the Grand Jeu, all of which mean
the little and the big game. The bi