Show mendicants MENDI CANTS how the beggars of new york city ply their arts an that imported by atto masago la it american kot alma get the comradeship of beggars to which all writers on the subject of tho nether side of life in the big is of new york delight to refer doe not manifest itself at courts or police stations for no individual arrested for mendicancy in new york for a very long time has described himself as a beggar when arraigned or arrested there are about fifteen hundred professional beggar in new york begging as a fine art or fixed science is not an american institution ution americans do not make good beggars if such an expression may be used to describe ability in alms getting begging says the new york sun is a foreign industry temporarily temporo rily transported so far as this city is concerned there is one peculiar thing about it which does not find its way usually into the columns of newspapers the professional beggars of new york belong in groups divided by questions of nationality there is the italian group the spanish group the danish group the french group the russian group the polish group the scottish group the swedish group the greek group and so on each of these groups has a certain place of rendezvous and the way they operate is about as follows if a prominent italian comes to the united states on a visit and the newspaper chronicle his movements it is not long before he is beset by italian mendicants mendi cants who claim to be temporarily embarrassed and to have heard from abroad of his liberality and benevolence A french tourist has the same experience from his compatriots and so it is all through the list the professional beggars are close readers of obituary notices and when a man of prominence in the foreign colony dies his family is pestered with importunities by beggars from that country not very long ago a well known new york merchant died and his obituary notice contained the information that he had been born in a certain town of holland As soon as the dutch group of beggars got hold of this fact they overran the members of his family with claims for charity and assistance all professional beggars in new york read the published newspaper accounts of accidents of an unusual character and when some member of a family has met his death in a peculiar manner they profess to members of the family to have suffered from a similar affliction and hope to stimulate their generosity these mendicants mendi cants go about their work of alms getting systematically one group does not interfere with another facts learned by one member of a group are at the earliest opportunity port unity communicated to the others and thus almost automatically these descend from all parts of the city on a common object of attack they evade the provisions of the law regarding mendicancy by prosecuting their demands within doors and not on the streets they are careful about this for the distinction which many persons would not observe is a vital one in law the great majority of new york professional fess ional beggars are intemperate and the larger amount of what may be described as their earnings is expended in drink aliis fact does not comport very well with their known system and precision in securing victims lor attack but it can be easily explained when it is stated that the best organized group of foreign bom mendicants mendi cants come from countries where drinking is general but intoxication is rare the united charities organization has about driven from the field of activity the englis beggars as a class in new york but the foreign bom beggars survive in unimpaired numbers and seem to flourish despite the hard times |