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Show GOTHAM'S MENDICANTS. now tho Beggars of Now York Olty Ply Tholr Arto. An Indmtry Thl Is Inpottcd by Thow Who Knft-ftC In II Americans Mot BilCMMful Alms (etters. Tho comradeship ot bi'K'Kari,i to which nil writers on tho Riibjoctof tho nctlicrsldo of llfo in tho bltr mutropo-ta mutropo-ta of New York delight to refer, does not manifest itself at courts or police po-lice stations, for no individual ur-rcKlcd ur-rcKlcd for mondlqancy In Now York for a very long tltuo has described hiniM'lf as B, beggar when nr-rnigned nr-rnigned or arrested. Thero nro about fifteen hundred professional licggarn In New York. Ilcggtug an a Alio art or fixed bcIcuco is not airAmorlcau In. stltntlon. Americans do not nmlio gooil licggars, if tualt nn oxpresslon may bo used to describe ability In almsR-cltlng. ltcgt;ing, (ays the Now York Bun, hi a forulgn industry, temporarily transported so far as this city is concerned. con-cerned. Thoro is ono peculiar thing about it which does not find Us way. uiunlly Into tho columns of iiowh-papers. iiowh-papers. Tho professional beggars of New York belong In groups, divided by questions of nationality. Thero Is tho I tnl lun group, tho tipunish group, tlio Danish group, tho French group, tlio Russian group, tho l'ollsh group, tlio Scottish group, tho Swedish group, tho Greek group, nnd so on. Each ot theso groups has a certain placo of rendezvous, and tho way they operate Is about as follows: If a prominent Italian comes to tho United Ntates ou a VIr.it und tho nuwtpuper chronicle his movementd, It Is not long beforo he It bc!.ct. by Italian mendicants who claim to bo temporarily ombarrasbcd, and lo huvo heard from ubroad of his lltiernllty and benevolence. A French tourist bus tho fcmu exporluiico from his bowpatripts.fcnilstfjyls'all through tho list. " Tho professional beggars arc close readers of obituary notlcas, and when a man of prominence lit tho foreign colony dios his family is pestered with importunities by beggare from that country. Not very long ago a well-known well-known Now York merchant died, and Ids obituary notleo contained tho Information In-formation that ho had been born in a certain town of Holland As hoon as tho Dutch group of beggars got hold of this fact they ovcrrau tho members of Ids family with clnlm3 for charity nnd assistance. All professional beggars in I-iow York read tho published nawsp.ipcr accounts of accidents of an unusuul character, and whon sumo member of a family has mot his death in ri peculiar mauncr they profess to members of tho family to huvo suffered from u similar atlllctlon, nnd hopo to stlmulato tlictr generosity. Thc:o mendicants go about their work of almsgottlng systematically, Ono group docs not Interforo with another. Facts lcarucd by ono member mem-ber of a group are at tho earliest opportunity op-portunity communlcatcit to tlio others, oth-ers, nml thus, almost automatically, theso beggars dtnfonil from all parts of tho city on common object of ut-tack. ut-tack. They evade (ho provisions of tho law regarding mendicancy by piohccutlug their demands within doors, nnd not oil the streets. They nro earoful about this, or tho distinction distinc-tion which many tiersons would not observo Is a vital one In law, Tho great majority of New York pro-fcfcsinnul pro-fcfcsinnul beggars ure Intemperate, and tin larger amount of what may bo do-fiirlhcd do-fiirlhcd as their earnings Is evponded in drink. ThU fact does not comport very well with their known system and prccli.lou in wcurlng victims for at-t.tuk, at-t.tuk, but it eun bo easily explained when It 1 1 dated thut tho beat organ-hod organ-hod group of fomlgil-born meudieuuti roiuii from countries ivhurn drinking is general, but iutnxli'uthm Is raiv Tlm llul U-d Chaii ties orgAnlution has ii bout drlvoii out from the Held of activity the Englluh-speaklng boigari, h u ilaiH, In New York, but thu foruign-burn foruign-burn beggars survive lu iiulmpaliud numbers, und seem to flourish, despite-thu despite-thu hard times. |
