Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-10-30
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

tions and happenings as they seem to
be, but may not be, they run great
chances Of being poor police officers.
This professional suspicion, We sub
nit, we'll may be left to those who have
most need for 1t in their business.
The average man or woman may
accept a beggar on the street for what
he seems to be-a mendicant. Even in
wealthy America we seem to have the
poor very much with us, as was spoken
long ago.
The average passerby may trust in
the constituted authorities and give or
not give to mendicants as his heart
dictates.
If he happens to be man with a
kindly face he will be hit several
times every week by some able bodied
young fellow who sidles up to him
gently and says: Say, buddy, I amt
had anything to eat for two days"
We believe that a man who hands
out a quarter and pictures to himself
his man filling up on hot pancakes and
coffee has much the better of the pass
erby who gives the money but visions
his beggar purchasing bootleg liquor
with it.
While we recognize to the full the
tremendous work being done by the
institutions which have the experience
and time to lift fallen humanity" we
would say something for the honest i'm
pulses of sympathy as they arise in the
daily life.
we would be proud if we could feel
that our recent article had stirred any
one in life's mad rush to stop and drop
dime in some beggar's cup, just as we
would be more than proud If we could
know that our writing had stirred
youth Ito work for the correction Of
economic conditions which lead to
poverty"
The latter would be an achievement,
indeed-one which we rather sadly fear
is beyond the ability Of any one pen,
even though it were Bernard ShaW's or
that of H. G. Wells.
The American people at heart believe
in the law. They accept conditions as
they find them. They accept their beg
gars as they come. They feel that it
is up to the national, State and munich
pal governments to permit beggars to
beg or to keep them off the streets;
that If they find them there they are
there with the laws permission. The
problem of the mendicant then becomes
simply personal problem which each
paSserby considers or does not consider,
answers or does not answer, as his
mind and heart dictate.
said for the beggar, after all. He is a
visible reminder of lifes misery. He
sits in the midst Of hurly-burly, roar
and hustle. crying down the fallacy Of
SophiStication which would demand that
We think only of health and youth, life
and success, noise and speed.
Sometimes it seems as If the entire
energy Of modern man was given over
not so much to making living as max
ing himself forget that he Is mortal
We cannot think of death when our
blood pressure is raised by excessive
speed. We have our thoughts far away
from eternity as we watch the prancing
antics of a beautiful ballet.
The ministers of the Gospel stand
forth every Sunday to call men back to
a realization of who and what they are
in the eternal plan. And who shall say
that the street beggar, as unsound as
he may be from an economic stand
point, does not do something of the
same thing in an unconscious way?
The beggar Is an unpleasant re-
hinder that man is born to trouble as
the sparks fly upward" In the rush
of street life he sticks out like q sore
thumb. Maybe he is necessary as a
constant reminder that something,
somehow, Is wrong somewhere.