BEGGARS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 2, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 47.

BEGGARS.

By Editor

THE people of this country should awake to the fact that a generation of professional beggars has developed, worthy to be compared for shrewdness with the most perfect artists in that line in the Old World. There it has long been common for a man to strap up one leg in such a way as to make it appear almost certain that he had but one leg, and beg as a maimed soldier. Every sort of defect or wound is affected in the same way.

Not far from this office a woman began to walk upon her knees about the house, assuring charitable ladies who visited her that her legs from her knees down were paralyzed and useless. She received a recompense that was meet, for in a few years she could not stand nor walk upon her feet. The same creature put her daughter, who was perfectly well, to bed, and half starved her into an appearance of invalidism. The daughter finally became genuinely sick, and died with consumption.

A recent case of the sort was communicated to us by an observer. An apparently poor fellow was seen wearing such a wretched pair of pants that a clothing merchant who was of the party was urged to give him something to wear. His reply was, "Well, that pair of trousers is a curiosity, and should be preserved as such." Then, turning to the beggar, he said, "I'll give you a dollar for those pants

you have on." Instantly the man began to take them off. They tried to stop him, but he was not to be dissuaded, and it soon became evident that underneath the rags he had a perfectly good, and nearly new, pair of trousers, the rags being simply the uniform he wore as a beggar.

The Good Samaritan in these days has to keep his eyes open. The best method is to give no money, but to carry a plentiful supply of tickets which will secure a worthy person relief after a careful examination.—Christian Advocate.