BEGGARS IN SYDNEY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 103, 4 May 1931, Page 8

BEGGARS IN SYDNEY

A CROWDED, PROFESSION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 23rd April. Sydney's latest overcrowded profession is that of the mendicant —not the ordinary professional beggar, but the ■unfortunate who has been forced by stress of economic circumstances to appeal to the charity of passers-by. There was quite good -money in the business until it became almost impossible; for people to proceed a few yards, without the spectacle of "a humble petitioner for help either standing on the edge of the footpath or in a doorway.-. .'..-' One young, fellow who takes up a stanjcl in front of a big shopping block confesses that, in the good times, he took £6 on'a Friday,-:when business is at its height in the city. - ."But," ho laments, "there are too many in tho game now. It's no.good." Tt.is said that some of these individuals have made such a good thing, out. of this form of living that they have turned down jobs which have been offered them. For many of these .people there is not much sympathy; for. others, there, is a lot of pity. ■■-,-.'.'-\ In the latter class is a.young married man who scrapes away at a fiddlei not far from David Jones's, big-I"emporium. A metal polisher by trade, he confesses nis obvious dislike for this way of trying to eko out a living. He'admits that it is demoralising, and. that it hurts his pride, and says that even if it were returning him £10 a week ho would gladly abandon it for )i job on the basic wage. Every morning he does the round of the trade in search of a job, and then turns again to his violin to keep tho pot boiling at home. Behind a big pity's pulsating life there; is a tragic background. Behind its laughter there are tears. ',