AMERICAN BEGGARS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7270, 7 March 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMERICAN BEGGARS.

TnE beggars are always here, says the Isew York Tribune, and in warm and pleasant weather, like flies and Jersey mosquitoes, they are most numerous. They have their regular " beats," just like policemen ; but, unlike policemen, are always to be lound. It is considered unprofessional for one beggar to trespass upon the "beat" of another. Thia acquisition of territory is acquired by pre-emption, as in the case of settling ou Government lands, and sometimes by main strength. A fourteen-year-old girl, who wants "only a penny" for her mother who ie dying with the pleurisy,, stands on the corner of Broadway and Twenty-fifth-street, and ventures up to the doors of the St. James's Hotel to unfold her apocryphal legend of woe. The little girl who is "working" the vicinity of the Fifth-avenue Hotel experiences a luil in business among the statutory "dudes," and ventures within the district of the elder beggar. A war of words ensues between the children, more remarkable for its expressiveness than its elegance. Often they resort to blows, much to the amusement of the bystanders aud the "cabbies," who encourage them in these disorderly and disgraceful exhibitions. The blind and the lame beggars, with the wheezy two-cent organs and cranky accordeons, all have their corners by a tacit understanding among the " profession;" and if the blind man should "see" the lame man encroaching upon his " beat," there would doubtles3 bo a fight or % foot-race. Beggars are found in front of all the up-town hotels, each one having his hotel square. They are there about meal-time in all their loathsomeness, under the mistaken idea that people are generally in the beat humour after eating, and consequently the most liberal. Those who eat at high-priced restaurants and European hotels are generally thinking cf the protective tariff charges, and are in no humour to be bled again. After dinner the beggars leave their " beats" on a roving commission, and roam at random on Madison and Fifth Avenuea like a blind freight train. They manage to get to the theatrea about tha time they are oat, and " work the emerging crowds for all they will stand." They know that a man is more liberal, or rather foolishly liberal, when with a laiy, especially if the couple are not married. But citizens who know these whining impostora do not consider it a lack of charity to refuse them. But a stranger frequently cpves, fearing his lady friend would deem him an " unfeeling fellow" were he to refuse. They thea lie in wait at the restaurants until the last theatre-goer has gone home. These beggars make from 10s to 15s, and even £1 a cay, They ask for "only a penny," but rarely receive less than a shilling. Citizens whosa sympathies are aroused, but whose doubts of their sincerity are scarcely removed, toss them a penny. Strangers give a shilling or sixpence ; frequently \Ye3terners, to whom begging is something new, toss the mendicants a half-crown, aad regard the look of surprise from the bystanders as a compliment to their generosity rather than their credulity. In the lower portion of the city, especially on Sixth and Third Avenue.', the beggars roam aft will. The districts evidently do not afford enough good picking to farm out. The claae of beggars on those streets are more persistent in their entreaties, and invariably' inssulting when refused. Perhaps it is owing ta> their desperation. They get comparatively few -pennies, and very rarely more than one penny from any one girer. They are mic at the doors of business plac j - T.ith a cold reception; and at the residences they do not fare much better. It mainly defends upon the frame of mind in which they find the servant girl and the condition of the pantry. Many of these beggars are so bold and impolitic as to enter a cheap restaurant and importune men who are stinting their meals because of their poverty. These emboldened beggars will stand on the corners at nightfall, and importune shop-cirls and poor labouring men who are walking home, 40 or 50 blocks, to save car fare.