MONEY-MAKING TRICKS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

MONEY-MAKING TRICKS.

BUDAPEST'S EAST END.

PROFESSIONAL BEGGARS

GOODWILL rN " BEATS."

Details, not without humour, of tho money-making tricks of tho inhabitants of Budapest's East End are given by tho newspaper, Pesti Ilirlap. Tho quarter, inappropriately named Angyalfold (" Angel Field"), harbours 4000 destitute por sons, who receive a Government grant of 70,000 pongo a month. Fifty per cont. of tho nnmber are illiterate, but education will shortly bo made compulsory among them, and schools organisod for tho purpose.

Although tho greater part of tho population of Angyalfold aro professional beg gars, members of better classos are to bo found among them, such as lawyers ejectod from tho occupied territories, bank rupt merchants, and even a count. Free dinners, consisting of soup, vegetables,, and bread, aro provided for those without means, but others who are ablo to pay

may receive dinner every day for a week lor tho sum of one pengo.

A man who came to tho free kitchen declaring that he had not eaten for days was discovered to be owing 1-10 pengo to the grocer, who arid that he was a good customer and paid promptly. The source of his income Was a set of caves which ho had dug in the earth with his son, and which he let out as lodgings. Others owning small shanties built against a wall, with a piece of sacking over the opening, hire them to seven or eight persons for the sum of two pengo a week. Another man who took his free dinner away from the kitchen each day was discovered to be rearing pigs on the food.

The professional beggars, who apportion tho various " beats" in the city among themselves, often clear a considerable sum by selling the " good-will" of a boat in a profitable district. A favourite industry, by which many parents subsist, is'that of sending a small child into tho city to pick up the (lowers discarded by the flower-sellers in the evening and offer them to passers-by. The few coins which nobody refuses a crying child mount up so rapidly that a few days ago a policeman found a five-year-old beggar at 2 a.m. with 21 pengo in his ragged pocket. Another favourite occupation is shoepohshing, which is pursued with such zest that pedestrians in the streets near the

quarter who panse for a moment get their shoes rubbed for them, willy-nilly by a whining wretch with a bundle, of rags, who usually succeeds in soiling light summer footgear.