THE BEGGARS OF NEW YORK.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7731, 15 June 1903, Page 2

THE BEGGARS OF NEW YORK.

A PEST.

Mr, J. Joseph Goodwin contributes to "Munsey's Magazine" an article on "The Beggars of New York." The worst beggars New Yorkers have to deal with ai*e, he says, the fellows who have seen better days. Some of them are college men. Drink, has made them lose home, family, anUl fortune. They drift into the Bowery froni all parts of the United States, and when their money is gone, they start on, a career of panhandling, begging from everyone they meet. All they want is enough to buy whiaky andi get a night's lodging. At first they approach you im a gentlemanly way, bub when you refuse to listen to their tales of woe, they grab your arm, a.nd hold you while they plead desperately for something to t'xt. Most men and women thus held up become frightened, and hand over whatever coin they have handy. The western panhandlers are still more desperate beggars. They are not like the lean, scraggy, weazen-faced, ill-conditioned veterans of Park Row ; they are big, burly fellows", who will turn to robbery with vibkiice when the " begging graft " is not good. > The western panhandler will dart from a doonvay om a dark night to stop you and demand assistance. If you take- out your pocket-book, he will snatch it. If you give him a dime, he will curse you because the amount is not larger. If you hand over a bank-note, and tell him that it is all you possess, he will give yo\i his benediction, " Tanks ; you're a gorilla !" It was due to the appearance of the western panhandler in New Yfirkr— where he first arrived in 1894, after the close of tho World's Fair im Chicago — that the beggar squad, composed of Central Office detectives, was established. These detectives are detailed to the special duty of arresting beggars in the hotel district, and they aver* age a hundred arrests a month. (