A BEGGAR HUNTER

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1666, 3 February 1904, Page 19

A BEGGAR HUNTER

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 18.

One section of London society wiHl certainly rejoice at the retirement of Mr Bosley from his office of constable of the Mendicity Society, namely, the professional beggars —the woman with the borrowed baby, the soap-fits man* the “poor soldier home from the wars/' an/l similar defrauders of the charitable. For over twenty years Mr Bosley ho* been the arch-enemy of the begging frar ternity, and at his name I have seen, a “hopeless cripple” get up and run at a pace which defied pursuit. The experiences of this beggar-hunter would fill ai bulky volume, and would be good reading indeed, foi there are few of the thousand and one disguises and! tricks to which professional beggars resort which he has not in his time penetrated apl exposed. He had a natural talent for the work, and before advancing age limited his activity his convictions averaged about 200 a year. Thanks to hia efforts, fraudulent begging in the streets of London is infinitely less prevalent than in years gone by. The “old soldier” we still meet in the streets and the borrowed baby’s wail occasionally appeals to our tender feelings, but “Soapy Sams” no longer hafant our parks and thoroughfares, and few of those who appeal to our pity by means of “Deaf and dumb” labels nowadays are entirely frauds.

Mr Bosley’s unmasking of “Dumb Dick” is an incident worth recounting. For years this individual posed* as a deserving object for charity, no one suspecting him to be a humbug. Bosley, however, bad bis doubts, and one fine day completely cured “Dumb Dick'' in the space of a couple of seconds. Hia method! was sublimely simply. He gave “Dumb Dick” a sharp rap on the shin bone with liis foot, and lo! the dumb spake, saying—well—things that may not be repeated here, but which showed that the speaker was more than ordinarily proficient in Seven Dials invective. The original “Soapy Sam” was a harder nut to crack. This gentleman’s speciality was epileptic fits, oontrived, with considerable .skill and the aid of a tiny wafer of soap. Therewith he produced a frothing at the mouth which was simply irresistible to the average man or woman, and the “pore thing” made a tidy income out of his art. Bosley got [upon “Soapy Sam’s” track, and, catching him in a “fit,” played the role of Good Samaritan till it came to administering a drink to the pat ent. Then, in place of the expected brandy and water, “Soapy Sam” got a. mouthful of the vilest and most nauseating concoction the mendicity officer could procure at short notice. The results astonished the sympathetic bystanders. “Sam's” euro was instantaneous, lus arrest followed on the instant, and for some months honest labour was his unappreciated portion. Onoe convinced that a man was a fraud, Bosley kept on his track like a sleuth hound. So Mom was his judgment at fault, aiui'I 1 when Bosley proseouted the defendant usually became a gaol bird for a period.