Business-Like Begging.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue VII, 17 August 1901, Page 320

Business-Like Begging.

A sort of beggar's comic opera was rehearsed in a London Police Coin, recently. The principal part was played by Alice Mary Hunt,a tall lady of forty, described as a governess, residing in Eccles Hoad. Battersea Rise. She was charged with begging. As the evidence unfolded it appeared that Alice Mary Hunt was a very extraordinary beggar indeed. She was seen going from house to house on the south side of Clapham Common, and when the inmates refused to give her anything she banged the garden gate with an air of offended dignity. To the constable who stopped her. Miss Hunt declared that she had a right

to ask for assistance. Her mode of resisting arrest was to throw herself on the ground. She kept note-books containing a record of her doings. The entries showed that she had for years carried on a system of businesslike begging. Her earnings were sufficient to enable her to travel all over the country in pursuit of her calling. She appeared to have received most liberal donations. The magistrate amused the court by reading the following extracts from the mendicant's diary:— “School ruffled me very much; got all information, gave nothing; made me swear. Walked on to Petersham.” “Lady teacher —glass of claret and cake.” “Shrove Tuesday—enjoyed some de-

licious pancakes; went to Worcester Park, lovely place, lovely day, nature looked lovely; got 5/ at the Rectory.” “Hon. Mrs Shaw Stewart very kind to me—gave me a sovereign.” Her diaries mentioned sums received from, among other patrons. Lady Montague, Earl and Countess Montreal, Lady Frederick Cavendish P>entinck. the Hon. Lady Murray, the Countess Brownlow, and the Bishops of Islington and Manchester. From documents in her possession it apl»eared that Miss Hunt had begged assistance from the late Queen and King Edward. Mr Woolcombe. secretary of the Battersea branch of the Charity Organisation Society, said the prisoner had been under the notice of the society since 1884. Arrange-

ments were recently made to emigrate her. but on the way to the place of emigration she liecame hysterical. and was left behind. He held up a sheaf of reports relating to Miss Huut’s career. “It is impossible to imagine a more deliberate course of systematic begging,” Said the magistrate, after perusing the books and documents produced. The prisoner seems to have travelled by express trains with the sole object of preying on the charity of well-to-do people, and she even carried her profession to such a length as to draw up in her diaries a regular profit and loss account, deducting her expenses from the proceeds of her begging operations.” He sent her to prison for one month.