Year: 1877

mas gone up. Inc american TOPu
lar" a company organized for tax
ing graded risks, passed into the
hands of the State Committee, and
a most frightful degree of rotten.
ness was shown. False entries,
false swearing, false everything wal
developed, and the officers are to be
prosecuted. 1t is TO be hoped that
the law can reach. these swindlers,
and that life insurance president
may be added to the States collec-
tiOn Of criminal curiOsities. The
good companies are suffering from
these exposes, but they are neverthe-
less glad. 1t will injure the interest
for a time, but it will be the better
for the really good ones when conf
dence is finally restored, as all the
frauds will be out of the way. They
will not be exposed to the unhealthy
competion of the frauds, who never
expect to pay, and who therefore
can do business for nothing.


HOW THEY LIVE.


There are at the present time one
hundred thousand men in the city
of New York who live, somehow,
without labor. They are nuisances
in the worst sense of the term, for
every mouthful that goes down their
throats is paid for by some one else.
They make no pretence of work, but,
filthy and impudent, they stand on
the streets and beg for charity,
when they lack an opportunity to
steal safely. You see them every
where on the streets, the Offices and
stores are infested with them, each
with his story of 'sfamily to sup
port, and no work sOr," and a curse
if you refuse them. And there are
as many women as men, and more
children than either, engaged in the
same calling. Women will sit by the
hour on curb-stones, with sleeping
child, its rags so displayed as to ex-
cite sympathy; the child, be it
known, drugged with laudanum to
keep it quiet, and with sores artisti-
cally painted on its little arms and
legs to attract attention. These
children are in most cases not their
own, but are leased to them by the
day, by women who make a bust
ness of collecting them and renting
them out. Then comes the vast
army of men, women and children
who have small articles like pencils,
pins and matches for sale, which is
only another form of begging, for
the articles are such as nobody
wants, and the offer to sell is always
an appeal to charity. "Please buy
a pencil, sOr, and hip a poor man
who has no work and large family
to support" or, "for. the love Nv
God, buy paper Nv pins and hip
poor woman who hez six small chill
der, and husband sick at home and
her rint to pay" The small chill
dren, the family and the sick hus-
band are all myths, the money OBJ
tanned going straight to the nearest
gin-shop, the food necessary to
keep life in the beggar being OBJ
tanned from the charities, and the
garbage barrels. An Office in the
vicinity OF the pOst-ofice that does
not have a hundred of these half
mendicants, half-traders and all
thieves in them every day is lucky.
And wo be to the Over-coat, pocket
knife, gold pen or anything else of
the value of a cent that is exposed
for minute. It is of no use to
post up notices forbidding them to
enter, it is of no use. to kick them
out-they expect that-they come
and come in one dreary procession
till the eye tires of them, and pa
tience is exhausted. They are worse
than the frogs of Egypt. Of course
ninety mine per cent. of them are
foreigners. The Irish predominant
ing largely. Thousands upon thou
sands of the very scum of European
cities are landed yearly, to swell the
Volume of mendicants, and they all
stick in the great cities. They won't
work, they won't go away. and so
they poster New York. 1t is q pity
that some law cannot be passed to
confne these people, and make them
work for their bread. 1t is a heavy
tax upon the city to support this
army, but there appears to be no
law to reach them.


THE TWEED CONFESSION.


As might have been expected,
every man mentioned in Tweed's
confession as having had money of
the ring, denies it vehemently, and
the Boss does not yet produce the
proof necessary to convict them.
The old fox is holding back his evil
dence till he is sure that his confes-
sion will bring about his release; he
has it in his hands to unearth the
villaIny of which he was the center,
but he will not do it till he has what
he wants, his liberty. In the mean
time, there is trouble enough among
the New York politicians; men, who
in the flush times of the ring receiv-
ed ten or twenty or fifty thousand
dollars, and who have almost forgot
ten the transaction, are turning pale
when they know that it is certain
that Tweed saved his cheque-books,
as we'll a. memoranda of all his
transactions, and that he can state