The Rock Island Argus and daily union. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1920-1923, 1922-03-15

! to find nothing else to do. and Il
reduced to his present lowly STATE
because of these facts.
Few Real Veterans Begged.
Some cities swarmed with thasa
parasites for months after the ar
mistlce was signed. An lnyestjga-
ton made by the war risk insTr-
ance bureau disclosed the fact thai
there was scarcely a single real
ex-soldier among this army of hag-
CARS. A great many OF them waTo
arrested, others were effectivaIv
warned, and the practice has
about been abolished.
The crippled peddler of pencils
wearing a uniform makes a sfle,f
appeal, as a rule, or if he "baIlv-
hoos" his wares, does not mention
any former fancied state as a SOL
der of the United States. He is
too clever to get into that trouble
He counts upon the association M
the old uniform and the MISSING
leg in the minds of passersby with
our directly prOclaiming that ba
left the missing member in France
or Cuba AS it happens, usually
he is right.
The men of this kind, when cues
toned by the police, will confess
to having lost the leg because of
a railroad accident or some other
way not in any way associated
with war. This is true Of nearly
every one of them.
Merchants strongly object IN
these men parking themselves On
the sidewalk in front of their
places of business, but often are
helpless. The same situation ex-
lists in regard to pushcart venders
of fruit and celery, and the side
walk dispenser of flowers. The DO
lice tried and failed to force a ne
gro to give up selling flowers on A
busy corner in Washington. at the
very doors Of one of the big de-
partment stores. The judge before
whom this man was hailed pointed
out that he could not under exist
ing law find him guilty of anything
forbidden. This man still occupies
the same public space, and does a
rushing business.
To return to the fake war vet
Grams, once in a while one Of them
talks himself into trouble. This
happened a few months ago when
a man wearing a marine corps uni
form invaded a restaurant. selling
bits of red, white and blue ribbon
for 25 cents each. He approached
everybody Systematically, finally
hating for several minutes beside
a man in civilian clothes who seem
ed deeply sympathetic. The pre-
tended veteran. to supply local
color and make his tale convincing,
wore on one sleeve four gold
stripes, indicating service Of two
years overseas. a couple of wound
enough campaign badges on the
breast of his blouse to indicate
every military expedition in which
the United States has taken part
since the War of 1912.
Talked Himself Into Trouble.
The sympathetic civilian seemed
particularly interested in the serv-
ice badges. The panhandler point
ed out to him ribbons supposedly
service in France
service on the Mexican border. the
Vera Cruz expedition, and several
others, running back more than a
score of years. He said he was one
of the marines who landed at Vera
Cruz from certain battleship. The
civilian gave him a quarter and
left the cafe. A few min
utes later he came back with po-
Iiceman and warrant.
Unfortunately for the fake hero,
the man to whom he had been pour
ing ont all of this misinformation
he had the campaign ribbons all
wrOng-was a marine corps major,
and, as it happened. had been in
charge of the marine contingent at
Vera Cruz from the very ship Sc
ected by the impostOr as his own,
Under police examination the fraud
llent soldier confessed that he mad
never been outside of the United
States and had never been in any
branch of the service.