The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-03-10
In New York
By PAUL HARRISON

New YOrK.-Ine DeSSdIS oI Manhattan seem to have heard somewhere that money is freer and spirits are better hereabout. Along Broadway, at least, there's more whimsy than whine in their voices, less affectation of pain and urgent necessity.
 Mister, kin I have an or rusty dime you ain't usin'?" Mac, if you knew how I need drink you'd give me a quarter" MIRA, brother, means Never Re- fuse Aims" Buy pencil. mister. I'm workin' my way trough collitch."
 It's a prosperity approach, and 1t seems to be getting results. One panhandler, who keeps fairly well dressed, always asks for dollar. The sheer audacity of his request usually stops the prospective suck CT, and the donation, if any, is seldom less than aquarter. Scores of mendicants put on "acts" for their money. One banjo-saxophone team of supposed blind men lives comfortably in a midtown hotel and last summer attended the Chi cago worlds fair.
 A singing pair, made up
 like crippled war heroes, one
 in q wheeled chair, appear on
 Broadway every few months
 and reap shower of coins.
 Subway Racket
 A fellow with no little dramatic talent works the subway trains. He'll leap to his feet with groan and a glance, looying so wild-eyed that other passengers are fright ened. For Gods sake, help mel" he'll shout. i've got to do somc- thing-my wife and little girl are both sick and starving!" Collections are generous. When anybody takes his name and address, they're al- ways found to be fictitious. Newspaper publicity not long ago broke up dramatic racket that was being staged on street corners. The cast included a fag- ged woman and two little children, all accomplished weepers, and a second woman who appeared fair ly prosperous. The mother would pause, and among them would be into her purse, and begin sobbing bitterly, the youngsters whimper- ing in sympathy. Passersby would pause, an damong them would be the confederate. Gently the latter | would draw out the mothers
 story, loudly repeating all the de- | tails, like a minstrel show inter- locutor: "So you went to the char ity people and they gave you | five dollars you were going to buy food and medicine for your
 babies and you looked in
 your purse and the money Was The kind lady then would say,
 There, there-I' insure these nice people will help me make 1t up to you" So she'd press dollar into | the first of one of the little girls, | and the bystanders would tumble for their spare change. If con- tributions weren't up to par the
 kind lady would berate them roundly and end with flourish
 from the Scriptures. She always got results. A 7 fellow who fol-
 lowed these charity racketeers one
 day estimated they collected $50 | in four hours.
 Sort of PeOrIe Who Beg
 Now and then one of the thou sands of panhandlers arrested an- l nually by the mendicant squad will turn out to be the owner of a big limousine or the occupant Of | a fancy hotel suite. But most of them are less provident folk who
 toss their money along as fast as it's thrown to them. A scientist made a survey of the city's vaga- bonds few years ago, and out of each hundred men he discovered that AS were advanced alcoholic cases. with only one a total ab. stainer. Twelve were drug addicts, were mentally unsound, 19 were illerates and one a college graduate. Seventy were native. born Americans, 12 were ex-con- victs
 It Is estimated that there are at least 10000 professional beggars in New York city. Not bums, you understand, or those thou sands of broken-spirited down. and-outers who haunt the munic!- pal lodging houses and the bread lines. Or mission stiffs," who deliver their souls each night in exchange for java. punk and hop"-which means coffee, bread and bed. The 10000 are men and women who work hard at their
 trade. make a good living. and
 wouldn't take an honest job # they could get one. [@ ts ----------------------- SPEAK FOR YOURSELF. JUDGE Montreal, (UP)--There is no such thing as a born criminal. ac- cording to Judge Amedee Monet, of
 Montreal. "rhc only difference be-
 tween the average citizen and the prisoner In the dock," he says. "is that the latter has been caught. Otherwise, everyone is . crimniall ] in some way or another"