Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-22
PANHANOLERS BUSY
Streets of New York TEEN
With Begging Grafters.
COPS LOOK UNCONCERNED
Apparently No Attempt Made to
Abolish Nuisance.
NOT so IN DEVERY'S TIME
Strong-Arm Men, Pyromaniacs, Black
Hand and Other Crooks Now
Operate With Impunity.
NOT so IN DEVERY'S TIME

Special Correspondence OF The Star.
NEW YORK, December 81 1906.
One of the signs pointing to the democrat
ization of the New York police force under
| its present regime is the presence upon the
streets of an unprecedented number of beg
gars and panhandIers of both sexes. There
has never been anything in New York be-
fore to compare with it, The impudent
almsdemanders have spread themselves over
every quarter of the city but they are es-
pecially numerous and insistent in the the
alter district after nightfall. They work
their stick-up schemes directly under the
eyes Of the police without a semblance of
restraint. The beggar squad that reached
high state of efficiency In virtually abol-
ishfng this menacing nuisance of the New
York streets under the much-maligned Dew
cry seems to have disappeared since Dew
erys police craftsmanship. 1t is assuredly
nowhere In evidence under Gen. Dam
dam Bingham, as he is called over here.
The huge louis who demand money of pc
destrians in the theater district at night
are wholly different from the type OF pam
handlers who used to stink along in the
shadowy corners Of side streets of the ten
derloin when the New York cops made some
actual EFFORT to stop the panhandling graft.
These fellows are little short of hold-up
men. There's nothing beseeching in their
way of asking for aid. They don't, as
matter Of fact, asg at all. They demand:
Hey, bo, fix us out with two bits, won't
youse?" is the least threatening way they
have Of addressing the passers by whom
they pick out as likely victims. More often
the demand is couched: "Tsay, I'm in bad,
an I gotta have a piece o. change" and
vicious-looking lot, and the papers over here
SO TEEN with accounts of the lengths to
which they will go when their demands are
refused, that they more often get away
with their demands than not. These bully
ing panhandlers invariably brace the some
what understood man who is walking with
lady or two. for he knows, first, that no
sensible understood man is going to take
chance on mixing 1t with a brawny loafer,
and, second. that man accompanied by
women will generally yield to the demands
OF the most impudent of panhandlers rather
than start any muss, calculated to reduce
his women folk to state of hysteria.
New Schemes in Panhandling.
These panhandlers of the new breed have
developed several new ways of putting the
pressure on men who evince an obvious re-
luctance to give up at the first demand.
well" mutters the panhandler, when his
initial demand for "a piece O. change is
turned down. I'D jes' as lief ham youse a
poke an git pinched fr 1t as not rr amt
got nottin' t lose" and the average New
Yorker who is addressed in this way is
pretty likely to do bit of hurried think
ing. He is apt to conclude that he can't
take a chance on getting mixed up in a
fight with a panhandler. no matter what
the merits of the case, and he knows that
the merits of case don't cut much of
figure with the New York police. nor with
the New York magistrates for the matter
of that. He is impressed by the menacing
attitude of the looming panhandler. He
feels that. If he continues to fan the pam
handler. and the CRATER does tackle him.
the chance Is at least even that he will get
licked. He will get his clothes damaged at
any rate, he knows, and the whole thing is
more than liable to result in an unwhole-
some job. When it can all be saved by the
surrender of a quarter, the New York man,
used for many years to being imposed upon
and never very strong at best in standing
up for his rights, is more than apt to give
up to the panhandler The vast brood of
panhandlers of this new type have got it all
worked out in their own minds just how
their victims are likely to analyze the stu
alton, mat their edge on the game. and
their profitable manipulation of it, with not
a symptom of interference on the part of
the police, are not to be exaggerated
Female Aims Grafters.
The shopping districts are being preyed
upon by horde Of importunate female
beggars of a peculiarly irritating type
They are mostly sodden middle-aged women
who have discovered how easy it is to work
the begging graft when there is no police
supervision at all over it, and their method
is to worry shopping women into giving
them backsheesh solely to get rid of them.
One of these whisky-reeking female beg
gars will fasten herself to a couple of
shopping women and utterly refuse to be
shaken off until they have bestowed money
upon her. She tags after them, keeping up
a steady whine in high-pitched key not
infrequently adopting a threatening tone
when she finds that her whine doesn't
work. and shopping women thus annoyed
have foun. that 1t is even impossible for
them to seek to escape by hurrying into
stores.
The crones go right into the stores with
them and continue their opportunities. 1t
has become a common sight to see shop
ping women, thus preyed upon, giving up
money to the importunate hays while the
tears of modification and fear stand in
largest shops have complained to the police
in form of how their women patrons are
being constantly annoyed by this troop of
impudent begging hays who make the
shopping districts their field but the COM
plants appear to receive no further atten-
ton than bare acknowledgment
The New York papers are fond Of taking
shots at Chicago on account of that grisly
towns perennial lawlessness, and, a while
ago, when Pittsburg appeared to be In the
hands of a determined band of criminals,
of ridicule and villifcation by the New
York press.
If Chicago PittSburg or San Francisco
at their worst were ever as dangerous for
human beings to live in as New York city
at the present writing, a lot of people who
know a great deal about the three towns