“BEGGARS.”

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15679, 4 October 1922, Page 3

“BEGGARS.”

LIVE IN LUXURY. | The parasites who feed upon the charitable are never at a loss to : devise fresh methods of exciting j sympathy, and thus obtaining fur- J ther supplies of money, says the Glasgow Herald. -The “King of the Beggars” has just died in London, and his career well illustrates the amazing manner in which the charitable are preyed upon. This man’s activities were pretty wellknown to the police, but so subtle was he in his methods, that they were rarely able to record a conviction against him. He lived in a beautiful house, maintained servants, and kept a motor car. One of his cleverest devices was the collecting .of money for his own funeral! A wonderful begging-letter writer, he would approach tlie wealthy relatives of a deceased officer with a pitiful story concerning some “poogr private” who ; had just died and who knew “Captain well, having been in his company during the war.’ “The letter would go on to state that a fund was being raised for his burial , with an artistic touch that all possible was being done to stive him “from a pauper’s funeral.” Another profitable swindle was the posing . as a poor widow who wanted to buy a mangle “to keep myself and children from the workhouse.” All