The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-06-20
THE MODERN BEGGAR.

The News lately published a story
about Charles Brown, the aged man
who posed here as a beggar, yet
stayed at an excellent hotel and
had frst-rate baggage with him. A
search of his room revealed that he
had a pistol and flashlights, besides,
several suit cases. Arrested in the
sheriff's office, he was found guilty
of disorderly conduct and vagrancy,
sentenced to thirty days for each Of
Tense and jailed. Brown claimed to
be paralyzed, but the county physi-
clan said that he had no such malady.
1t was testified at the trial that
Brown was here two years ago work
ing the same game.
The Abbeville Press and Banner,
edited by Judge William P. Greene,
reprints the story and makes this
comment:
"The facts in this case are illus
trative of the facts in most other
cases where the beggars come
around. Begging has gotten to be
n of the learned professions. Some
fifteen years ago we sat in the lobby
of one of the hotels in Columbia
awaiting the time to return home.
A young man came in who had lost
his arm. He was on his way to his
home in a Northern city, he said, and
was asking for assistance. Every
body gave him of their substance.
Nearly a month later that same beg
gar was in Abbeville asking money
Of the unsuspecting with which he
proposed to pay his way to his home
in an entirely different section of. the
country. Some years ago a young
man came through Abbeville walking
with a crutch under his arm, on the
toe of one foot, and saying that he
could not put his heel to the ground,
having suffered from white swelling.
Everybody helped him, but they
didn't notice that the heel of that
foot had worn off his trousers leg at
the back just like any normal mans
heel will do. He was a little late
getting to the next train, business
was so good, and when one of the
men who helped him saw him last he
Sas running like a college athlete,
SO as not to miss getting to the next
town on schedule for the purpose of
plying his trade. These are the
tricks of the modern beggar.
Sand it all reminds us that there
are people here we know to be de-
serving. They are too proud to ask
aims. They had rather die than be
classed as beggars, but they need all
the help which you and / can give
them, and it would be far better for
the country, for the needy and for
# we looked around US IN
the effort to lift up the fallen M 10
bolster the needy"
Under our observation have come
MANY cases where the beggar IS a
faker who secures aims under false
n~retenses. Not many days ago an
old man was on the Southern be-
Greenwood and Bolton who
had the outward appearance of a
seriously afflicted person. He passed
around cards containing an appeal
for charity and the collection that
he took up was larger than we have
seen in some churches. After ne had
passed on, a man volunteered the as
sertion that the old beggar owns at
least fifteen thousand dollars worth
of real estate in a nearby county.
The point that The Press and
Banner makes in the concluding
paragraph quoted is excellent. II
charity is to be shown, let it, indeed
begin at home. In every community
there are enough needy people VINO
deserve aid and who are genuinely
and poverty-stricken.
The best thing to do in the case OF