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Show I WAS A PHILOSOPHER. A BEGGAR STUDENT OF HUMAN NATURE NA-TURE WHO HAD A SYSTEM. Mendicancy Carried Out Upon Practical Linos Why He Avoided the Rich Stood Outside a Restaurant, but Never Begged From a Hungry Looking Kan. IHe was a wretched looking chap, bo thinly clad that he was really an object of piry. He had sought a secluded oor-ner oor-ner at tho eufraucoof a cheap restaurant near Herald square, and for awhile it seemed as if he had chosen the spot merely to escape the ohilling blasts of the cutting wind. Many men passed into the place, but he spoke to none. Finaliy ono who had just oompleted his meal came forth. The man started forward, for-ward, hesitated a moment and then resumed re-sumed hie former position. Soon another man, apparently in a great hurry, came from the restaurant, buttoning his coat as he walked. In a moment the poor fellow stood in tho way and barely had he uttered his request for help when he was rewarded with a dima A momout later a group of young men in very high spirits passed into the restaurant To an ordinary student they would have been just the right men to approach for alms, but the beggar saw them not . It was only to certain men returning to the street that he made himself known. It was but the work of a moment to pick an acquaintance with the fellow, and when he found I was interested he talked freely of his plan. "I had to do a good deal of thinking about it when I first started in," he said. "I can't get work now, and when I have work I can only keep at it for a little, while on account of rheumatism. When I saw I had to beg, I thought I might as well do it right or not at all If you know anything about men's faces and clothes, you don't have to do any guesswork at all. I can tell long before I get near a man what my chances are with him, and if I don't think that it's ten to one I will get something I don't try him, for there's no good in wearing yourself out and getting common. Some fellows go along the street and try to touch every well dressed man they meet They couldn't do anything worse, for everybody sees what they're doing and knows they are professionals and steers dear of them. The only time to go up against well dressed men as a straight thing, without regard to their faces, is when they are full and feeling happy over it "The average well dressed man or woman is the hardest kind of a person to hit They do lots for charity, but it's in a different way sooieties, schools for kids, kindergartens and missions and they think they are doing enough. If any one hits them on the street, they put them down for a professional. Yon have got to judge the well dressed people peo-ple by their faces and general manner and let their clothes count for nothing. "Whenever I have to do any Btreet work, I always seleot the people of the lower middle classes, who don't put on any front women especially. I mean people who live comfortably, but haven't got any too muoh money to spare. Say, yon may think I'm stringing you, but I would rather have one nickel from one of them than a quarter from a fellow who could stand it and had it to burn. Funny, but I feel just as sentimental I about that sometimes as if I was earning earn-ing it, and I would earn it if I had the "Now, yon take this stand of mine here today. There's three men who gave me something two nickels and a dime. I have been here half an hour and I've only struck five men. I missed two. Well, three out of five don't look like bad guesswork, if you want to call it so, does it? This is the cheapest restaurant res-taurant in the neighborhood. There's the Imperial, Marlborough and all the other big hotel restaurants I could have taken, but I'll bet I wouldn't have got a thing from the people who came from any of them. The men who go in j here don't pay over 25 or SO oents for what they eat, and I'm willing to take my chances with them right along. "I always wait till a man oomes out Some people think it ought to be the other way, for the reason that a man who was hungry would be more apt to give out of sympathy for the man who was hitting him for money for something some-thing to eat But I didn't figure it out that wav. Yon hra. thesa ar nrfittv hard times, and there's more people in hard luck than there ever was before. Now, it's bad enough to be in hard luck, but it's worse yet to be hungry, and when a man is up against both games little things will bother him that wouldn't affect him at all if he had his Btomaoh full. I reason that pretty nearly near-ly every man who comes in here is either eith-er in hard luck or else he is a miser who don't want to spend anymore than is actually necessary. If it wasn't so, you know they would all go to the big restaurants in the hotels, for you know as well as I do that the right kind of a man likes good things to eat and nice clean service if he can afford it "Well, I am onto the misers, and I leave them alone. When the deoent man oomes out, he feels better for having hav-ing had his dinner. He is ready for business, and life is a great deal brighter bright-er to him than it was half an hour before be-fore I ask him to help me. He says to himself: 'Well, I feel pretty good. This fellow is in worse luck than I am. I know what it is to feel hungry. I won't miss the nickel very much, ' and then I get it When he hands it to me, he feels better for it, and he looks it, too, and if he has been doing things that are not quite up to the limit he consoles himself him-self with the fact that he ain't such a bad fellow after all. And he ain't either. eith-er. So you Bee there's two of us happy, and if there was more of it the world would be happier. Thanks, boss. " Then the philosopher went in to dinner. din-ner. New York Herald. |