10
THE COUKIER
Zht Wilts
w .. of the Beggar
Conditions are such that no unfort
unate man, woman or child need ask
the public for aid in the city of Lin
coln. So if you listen to a tale of woe
on the street corner and fish out a
quarter in res'tonse, do not continue
your homeward journey with a sort of
glow of secret philanthropy permeat
ing: your inner conscienceness. Instead
just remember the chances are you
have been worked.
If you are a personal friend of the
suppliant and know the circumstances
it Is a different matter, but even then it
is far better to Inform the chief of po
lice or Secretary Prevey of the charity
association.
The latter will make immediate ef
forts to relieve the suffering one and in
addition may be able to provide work.
Whenever those philanthropic feelings
. come on It might be well to call up the
secretary by telephone and allow him
to judiciously place the alms which you
have to bestow.
For the city of Lincoln has not one
professional beggar. But frauds and
sharks are kicked off of every freight
train and their wiles are legion.
Perhaps the shrewdest fakir that
ever struck the capital city was cap
tured by Officer Joseph Mitchell about
a year ago. To the casual observer
this mendicant, squatting on the pave
ment, was doubled up like a jack knife
as if with palsy. His legs were curled
up under him, his hands resembling
the talons of a bird of prey, were
pressed against the lapels of his ragged
-oat He was a. heart rending, pocket-book-loosening
spectacle.
Officer -Mitchell looked upon the de
formed one and was straightway
moved with pity. Intending to take
him in out of the cold the policeman
reached down and picked him up.
"The fellow gave me a sort of mali
cious leer," said Officer Mitchell In tell
ing of the matter afterwards, "but I
didn't notice It much at the time. Fi
nally I got his legs straightened out
and was walking him to the station
when I noticed that one of his arms
was uncurling. I stooped over, he was
a medium sized man, and all at once
he aimed a right hander straight at
me. I tapped him once and after that
he came along all right.
"That fellow was the smoothest beg
gar I ever saw. He was a professional.
No actor on the stage could perform
like he could. He would drop down into
that doubled up position and if a man
had a nlckle he couldn't pass him with
out getting It out and dropping it into
the fellow's distorted palm. He fooled
me."
This mendicant was given a liberal
jail sentence and threatened with fur
ther prosecution if he did not leave the
city. There Is no doubt that many a
philanthropist contributed to his sup
port and felt the better for the deed.
Tramps with hard luck stories are
nearly always Imposters. The deserv
ing seek the police or the charity or
ganization and never fall to get aid.
As a general thing the fellows with the
blood curdling tales of woe seek their
fortunes in the smaller towns and in
the rural districts.
The dodge that succeeds best In Lin
coln is the-chlld-deserted-by-Jts-par-cnts-scheme.
The beggars move up
close to the city limits and encamp. In
the party are children, usually both
boys and girls, taught to beg from
house to house. They Invade the city
limits with tales that cause tears of
pity to fall from the eyes of affection
ate mothers and set matter-of-fact
business men to thinking. After their
day's work they go back to their mas
ters and are petted or scolded accord
ing to practical results.
The little fakirs tell all sorts of stories
and are well drilled so that they fall
easily into their various roles. They
are taught to elude the officers and re
turn safely to their abettors without
bringing in their wake the minions of
the law.
Of course it Is just a little while until
the children begin to note Information
about their benefactors much prized by
thieves and" burglars. The next step
in degradation is generally picking up
articles of small value. Then they
gradually perfect their education and
emerge full fledged into the world of
graft.
Smearing an arm with acid, causing
a painful sore and wearing formidable
bandages Is a very common scheme.
When arrested these bandages are re
moved and the injured member soon
recovers. Some of the beggars are posi
tively heroic in enduring the torture
simply for the sake of gain.
"Plaster of parls moulds are frequent
ly worn by people who are uninjured.
In this way sympathy is aroused. Gen
uine cripples are numerous and always
express surprise when arrested. They
think that misfortune has given them
a perfect right to beg and make no
secret of their disgust when their voca
tion Is stopped.
Deserving cases are provided with
light employment by the authorities.
But when once the begging habit has
been formed the injured one nearly al
ways skip out to seek aid elsewhere. It
so much easier to work the dear public
after the art Is thoroughly mastered.
Mendicants of the professional sort
have nearly all been eradicated from
the city. During fair time, public gath
erings and rallies some of them take
advantage of the preoccupation of the
police and start out again but their
cases are generally attended to when
the excitement ceases.
Erratic giving can do no good in
Lincoln except when the generous one
has specific knowledge of the condi
tions. On the other hand it is capable
of much mischief. The professional
beggar Is always near allied to the
crook or criminal and by encouraging
one class, the other profits also.
Systematic giving through the regu
lar channels is the only intelligent way
and will produce the best results. Of
course It Is not spectacular or dramatic
but exactly fills the requirements of
that time honored admonition c' the
Great Almsgiver, "Let not your right
hand know what your left hand doeth."
TONS AND TONS.
I thought of the good old question
that visitors used to ask the school
when I was a boy.
"Which weighs more, a pound of
feathers or a pound of lead?" said I.
"They weigh the same. A pound Is
a pound," said the children.-
"Correct," said I. "Now, which
weighs more, a ton of feathers or a
ton of coal?"
"A ton of feathers," chorused they,
showing that the Innocent are not nec
essarily undiscerning. Town Topics.
Qobr Styles
. . . in dorses
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VKt: l ?Jwmi
Miss Llllle McCauley, whose lat
est portrait appears above. Is the
chum of Miss Alice Roosevelt,
daughter of the president. The
girls were at school together.
Miss McCauley is the daughter of
Col. Edward McCauley of the cen
sus office. She is related by blood
to many of the most prominent
Virginia and Maryland families.
It was a countryman who made the
rather startling discovery that there
are no sorrel horses In this city. He
had come on from his native town
where the sorrel horse of his grand
fathers Is still in vogue to buy a pair
of carriage horses. In the course of
his equine shopping hundreds of
horses were shown him, and it was
not until he had requested a dealer to
bring out a certain pair that he had
looked at earlier in the day that he
made the discovery.
"Which pair Is it?" asked the dealer.
"That sorrel and gray," explained the
countryman. "Sorrel and gray," re
peated the dealer, and for a time he
remained silent as If In great perplex
ity of mind. "I guess you must mean
that cross-matched pair the golden
chestnut and the flea-beaten gray;"
and when the pair were brought into
the ring his surmise proved to be cor
rect. "If that 'golden chestnut,' as you
call him. Is not a sorrel, then I've
never seen one," declared the coun
tryman. "Oh, that's all right," explained the
dealer, "he's a sorrel a beautiful sor
rel at that up where you come from;
but in New York city never! Why,
he would eat his head off four times
before we could sell him to a New
Yorker as a sorrel. They won't stand
for 'em. They don't like the name. It
sounds too provincial for their taste.
And you know as well as I do that
even when we were boys the old sor
rel had a bad reputation 'no bottom,
no courage,' they used to say.
"It's a curious thing about a horse's
color anyway that Is, so far as It
influences his market value here in
New York. This pair you are looking
at now Is a good illustration. Their
color scheme Is about as near the
correct one as you could find some
buyers might want a blue Instead of
a flea-blten gray to go with that
golden chestnut, but there are Just as
many more who would prefer them as
they stand. For ourselves, I'm most
willing to wager that we would never
look twice at that gray horse if we
were not influenced by the fashion
that this city sets. In my native town
and I suppose the same is true of
yours we always considered an' old
freckled gray (they don't become 'flea
bitten until they reach New York)
about the meanest and cheapest beast
a man could ride behind. Here they
are looked upon as the smartest thing
in horseflesh that can be had. I've
handled horses long enough to know
that no good horse is a bad color; but
for bottom and for wear and tear in
all sorts of climates, I'm ready to con
cede that that same old-fashioned
freckled rascal can outlive them all.
"I know that you want a pair of
horses that are considered the proper
type and color here In New York, and
are not going to be affected by what
your neighbors say or what I say. But
what would nine in every ten of your
horse-fancying townspeople say if they
saw a man driving a cross-matched
pair? They would say he was color
blind. Take those men that travel
through six counties with a pair of
compasses in the pockets looking for
a bay horse with a white star on his
forehead or a four-Inch white stocking
on his off hind leg; what would they
say to the crazy quilt pairs that are
sold here every day?
"I do not mean to Imply that we
city folks know more about horses
than the countrymen. On the ques
tions of an animal's soundness I
should just as readily accept tne opin
ion of a farmer who has been 'tinker
in' around horses' all his life as that
of a city veterinary who makes $10,000
a year. When it comes to sacrificing
uniformity in action and conformation,
however, to a white star or a white
stocking, I think we are wise where
the countryman Is foolish. I can't
think now of any combination of horse
colors that we could not put together
and sell if the animals were evenly
galted and had the same conformation.
As for that sorrel horse, why, he's a
'golden chestnut here for the same
reason that the red-haired girl up In
Cattafaugus county is a Titian blonde
In New York. And you can't go wrong
on them, sir," said the dealer, sud
denly lapsing into his professional ver
nacular, "as sweet a going pair as you
ever drove behind, bold going and
cheerful, and both as sound as a brass
bell." New York Evening Post.
Carl Myrer
Hangs
Paper ....
Does Painting, Frescoing, Grain
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give you best service at rcasona
able prices would like to figure
with you.
The Brush and Paste Man,
Phoue 5232. 2612 Q STREET
m
Pi'
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-
6 i
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