The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-10-30

1 of charity. Many beggars are imposters, some outright pickpockets and thieves. A city whose streets are over-run by beggars suffers commercially Outsid- CTS come to believe that it is not pros- pering, that 1t is too careless and in- dulgent. Visitors dislike to do their shop | ping in places where they are unpleasant- | ly accosted The Italian government | found that the beggars in such cities as | Naples, which was notorious for this evil, | had a marked deterring effect upon the volume of tourist traffic. So the gov | ernment for commercial reasons has for
 years been doing its utmost to stop the practice throughout the kingdom.
 | Vigorous action in each community would do much to stop mendicancy. But l the beggar Is not stationary. When one city becomes too strict for his comfort, he
 moves to another. Concerted effort is the )n1y way to cope with him. Charity off
 | cials in different cities have found that
 they must exchange information to pro l tect their funds and prevent the abuse of
 l free transportation.
 l Though the officials of charitable socie- i ties incidentally learn much about beg
 gars, these quick-wited workers ordi- | larily steer as far as possible from the
 | regular channels for relief. But is it not | for the police to keep the streets free of ! beggars and imposters?. They do much to check begging, but they tend to devote most of their attention to more aggres- sive evils and allow mendicancy to four ish most of the time.
 The police have some excuse for falling to arrest beggars. Often when they do apprehend a fragrant imposter the mag istrate allows him to go on probation as wxtfx n n is to rely upon the sympathy caused by real or apparent deformity. In one great city a notorious beggar commonly known as "Shivers" gained a comforta- ble livlihood by stimulating epilepsy Se- | lecting a busy thoroughfare at an ap- propriate time he was taken with a severe epileptic seizure. After having secured generous reward, the imposter strolled away. Owing to the activity of squad l of mendicancy police in plain clothes, "Shivers" became junkman. When the special squad was abolished, he resumed his old trick, the effect of which is height ened by the fact that his nose has been partly eaten away by disease. which also destroyed his palate, making his voice indistinct. ''Shivers" was arrested, but the magistrate discharged him.
 The National Association for the Pre- vention of Mendicancy and Charitable | Imposture, with headquarters at 26 East Twenty-second street, New York. main tains bureau of Identification and in formtaion. We have 5000 photographs and finger print records supplied from sll parts of the country of all known impos- | tors. We disseminate expert information concerning all types of impostors and the standard methods employed hy them. When charitable societies and police of | fcials throughout the country unite to make the records of the central bureau | more complete and further call upon it more often for information, instances of
 mistaken sympathy, such as that just mentioned, will become more rare. Many an imposter is set free merely because
 | his past record Is not known.
 ] Another instance will illustrate this
 fact. In the summer of 1904 prQfes-