| Show J- J E Eif if Q J lE Fw Q P dm u How CIver f Fool the Public Public- I I The New York Beggars Club Where Able Able- I s f r Bodied Men Are l to Look Like A 6 I I r r 1 Pitiful Human Wrecks and T 11 t p T Taught aug h t to l Make i a k e an E Easy i f J J JJ tt x 3 L Living b bJ by y Pegging Begging J ii t F Pretending to be bc pars pnra- d Y from the t waist wt down J 4 a and able able only to l lon P on the pavement pa as shown c i r I I F t in in the photograph on the t left is a favorite ruse of the fake 1 f i I 1 N the course of a recent crusade IN I against the beggars that infest Newy NewYork's Newy NewYork's New Yorks York's streets the police of that city y y have made some astonishing discoveries There are arc they say at least 1000 street beggars who a larger reve reve- revenue revenue nue from the the charity of passersby than public school teachers letter carriers and various white hite collar men earn What is known as the Mendicant Squad of the New York police force esti esti- estimates estimates r mates that in an an n hours hour's time the average beggar on a busy street street takes in no le less rJ than 5 The work is is not arduous g enough to prevent his putting in a ten ten ten- ten hour II hour day i ia 6 60 p II week a-week and more more than a year ear A large percentage of the beggars ar arrested rested in the recent crusade have ha been found to have bank accounts One of them had bank books showing deposits of in various savings banks All this would not be so astonishing if all these beggars were actually trip trip- crip crippled t 0 pled or t-r blind or in some other way terribly ter- ter terribly ter terribly handicapped But the police de- de declare declare de declare clare that a large percentage of those who ho go seeking alms on New Yorks York's streets are perfectly sound and and- able able- bodied able bodied persons Not all of the impostors pretend to to be physically handicapped A number of them put on the clothes of a minister or the garb of a nun and appeal f for r funds for some non existent orphanage or hospital Most astonishing of all the the police have ha made is the fact that there has existed for some time on the Bowery a beggars social club where these impostors were for a Ii price taught taught and equipped to dece deceive e the public At this club the man who wanted to make M some easy mo money ey street begging could be quickly shown hown how to make l makel himself appear either eithe a one armed man manor manor manor or a man with both his arms gone lIe could if it he preferred camouflage him him- himself self him self as a legle legless man one who has to squat on a little platform mounted on rollers This club on the Bowery to whose activities the police have now put an end carried a complete stock of every every- everything everything everything thing necessary tt tc tc transform an able able- bodied able bodied man or woman into an apparently hopeless cripple It had quantities s of splints surgical bandages to bind hands hands that are quite uninjured worn and bat bat- battered battered battered army uniforms and pitifully thin ragged sweaters to give the necessary appeal when the weather Is la cold For customers who did not care to assume the roles of cripples the club bad had minis minis- ministerial ministerial ministerial clothing and veils and solemn draperies which nuns wear The beggars club is reached after you save ave traveled a narrow neck of flat beaten down mud between two toppling old brick houses It upon a neglected neg neg- neglected neglected court court and when you tap on its door you are thoroughly examined by a two hidden eyes peering out ia peephole which looks like nothing but a knothole in the door But once inside once onto received and ac- ac accredited ac accredited cr credited you can go out as something far different from that which you went in in That is if you have the price cash eash money in advance to pay One Eyed One One-E Spanish Jack who serves the drinks and introduces you to his to-his his lieutenant who up- up applies ap applies plies the costumes when One Eyed Jack nods the nod But let members of the Mendicant Squad tell how New Yorks York's ingenious beggars are made up and what fate they meet as they ply profession along the hurrying streets r cf I e v 4 tir tiry y 5 4 A characteristic pose of one of the many un- un undeserving undeserving un undeserving deserving beggars who pretend to be shell shell- shocked shell shocked war veterans First of all and probably the oldest trick of all man everyman at headquarters agrees is is is the beggar who calls upon your pity and your our purse as an armless veteran This is the the wa way they made up Arthur Williams in in that Bowery joint Arthur Williams is the latest arrest and conviction f armless disguise Williams had had lost o one e arm ana anyway Well to make his case very appealing that lieutenant of One Eyed Spanish Jack had strapped Williams whole left arm down flat to his side palm against his lower hip and and had had bound i it there therewith therewith therewith with exactly five yards yards of stout surgical bandage the kind with the the strong glue on its inner side Then over this they had belted a good stout belt at the waist and then th they y had put the clothes on Armless Arthur His tWo two empty coat sleeves waved in the bland breeze ofa of a cool summer summer afternoon In Manhattan And ab about ut then Detective Green from from headquarters came up This Thu was was the dialogue the matter brother I was wounded in the left Argonne-left Argonne both of my arms over over in France Fiance Cant Can't C nt do nothing nothing-no nothing noman no man man can with both arms ione gone the government government do anythIng youl for t Not a What does docs the gov government care for fora for a wounded soldier without a pu-l pu And Ive I've a wife and two kids at home No wonder I am forced to ets to beg Ah Interesting I replied Detective I A bonafide cripple whose legless conditi condition n is being imitated in New NewYork York md and other large cities by many impostors ri jt y rl 1 f 4 1 i aa aaA yaa y f t k A genuine unfortunate not Dot only crippled but but blind and using a dog to guide him about the streets and andr r the coins which kind kind- kindhearted hearted passersby give Green He lie took a walk walk with the totally armless armless war veteran And there there he quickly discovered Wil- Wil Williams Williams Wil Williams liams one good arm Also that he wasn't a veteran Also that he l las has as no no wire wife and positively not even one child JIe He was single by all the records and now now his arm is freed from its five yards of swathing swathing and he is serving In tl the workhouse But as s all the authorities agree this this is is only one of the deviceS devices There was that gentleman gentleman from Yonkers For i days ys that stretched into a fortnight h had come ome in about a legless or seemingly legless veteran who rolled along Sev Seventh nth A Avenue venue and collected collected much scattering silver and not not not a few gre greenbacks n acks This day the headquarters men men followed a prosperous busineSs businessman businessman man wh who got off a Yonkers train tram at Grand Central lie lle made madEJ his way to a a garage guage on Thirty Thirty fourth fourth street They waited outside Let them tell the rest W Walter Jones went in to n as a brisk six six- one one foot young business man in 10 a well tailored quiet checked suit Bult dark tan shoes dim din gray tie Panama hat and malacca and malac malacca a cane Fifteen minutes later a man his two legs goner gone rolled out on one ne neof of those rollers o on which legless men propel the city city streets The man an who had gone gone in in could could laugh laugh had out loud and bold Once Once we had bad heard him The him laugh The mart man who came out crunched bent in his soiled khaki shirt when we d dropped a dime dime In his his tin cup thanked us with with a consumptive whine His Ilia upper legs to his knees were dressed in in greasy blue trousers trousers Ills His uplifted fac face was yellow and and pitiful pitiful I was gassed in the the tha war he whined to us that besides that besides that besides my legs We watched him for foran for an hour hour and a II half half Finally Finally we we followed followed him as he rolled his roller cp tp u a dark alley We hid among the shadows whilo he went through strange movements mo for a I leg lag legless g- g gless less man an Ho Ilo the leather knee bands which fitted into belts sewed into his trousers at the stomps just below his knees He these leather straps straps Then Then he slowly disentangled one leg which ended in a perfectly gool foot Last Last he disen disentangled tangled the other lIe He stood up straight his Then Thea stretching his cramped cramped members O un w f J run future laD IOp I Y 1 als F Apparently crip- crip crippled crippled pled by the toss loss of of fY one arm at at the shoulder but ut in f reality a per per- sound and bodied able man who has been taught to deceive the public and in- in increase increase crease his earn earn- earnings earnings ings as a beggar b by wearing his missing arm inside his cloth cloth- clothing ing and strapped t tightly i g h t I y to his body f k F r we e turned our flashlights on him and rushed him himL Walter Jones legless veteran veteran contrived to appear as suca by by means of two deeply cut grooves s sin in his roller roBer Into these fitted fitted hollows his two forelegs were sunken leaving to the gaze two twos s seeming ming stumps ending at his knees It was as if the legs had l n severed right at the knee When Walter Jones was coaxed to tell more of himself than appeared on his roller he admitted that he was tha worthless son of a well well-to-do contractor in Yonkers lie He had expensive tastes and little to support them on Four nights a week he rolled himself in and out among Nev Yorks York's theater crowds with a yellow up make-up on his face to resemble a gassed veteran The con con- conniving conniving garage Leeper supplied Arthur with a locker for his business suit whit whits whit's he left when he donned his frayed khaki And the same garage keeper collected 6 0 a week garage arage rent for keeping the cripples roller safe in its ita corner next to the limousine of a millionaire dowager The nearest Walter Jones got to the war was Camp Devens and that was only three months before the armistice Generally so the policemen who are experts on this question will tell you the New York mendicant comes from out of town but there is one case rather famous in the r records cords records ii u a substantial Brooklyn citizen who was arrested for begging and haled into court before II a judge who happened to be an acquaint acquaint- acquaintance acquaintance ance ante This beggar had been plying his trade at at a n subway entrance Ills His wife on the other side of the stairway and lower down als also alsi begged so that that no member of the crowd escaped this en- en energetic energetic en energetic pair The man wore dark blue glasses and on his chest was pinned the word Blind Deaf and Dumb was the sign the wife displayed to the world When they appeared as beggars beg ars before the judge he started Why he asked the husband what has become of your two apartment houses The beggar stretched his hands palms palms up toward the ceiling Ach ch he mourned I hat haf them no nomore nomore nomore more I-I I I I gif them to my wife Those two apartment houses were worth together and the mort mort- mortgages mortgages mortgages gages had all nil been paid off Probably the detectives never re- re received received re received a n larger surprise surprise- than when they called at nt 4 West Street This Is Isa Isa isa a very fashionable New York neighbor neighbor- neighborhood neighborhood neighborhood hood just off Central Park A uni- uni uniformed uni uniformed formed downstairs kept off the vulgar crowd from the exquisite dwellers above At last the two detec detectives ives made theIr way into the apartment jointly join ly occupied by one Carl Wood a man whose last name was Garret and a woman whose real name was never discovered There was a maid in attendance in black gown and whito white apron The furniture was luxurious They found Wood lying on a abed abed abed bed receiving the ministrations of ot an expert Later when he and his two companions were arrested as high class beggars Wood explained ra rather ther boastfully lIy I handle the pan for twelve hours some days along Broadway I go as ns a legless man on rollers In addition my left arm is strapped down down I I keep my right free to handle my funds And if itI I didn't pay that robber to rub me each night when I come out of my up makeup make Id I'd be paralyzed in a month The detectives found this begg z regularly regularly paid a massage massago bill of a month IThe IThe I IThe The stories are legion of men who Nho are beggars by day or night in New York and high livers when off duty Probably that of the blind beggar was fairly unique Each morning his hs blonde wife prove him hm to his stand in Wall Street just before the offices emptied for the tho luncheon hour lIe He reaped a rich har- har harvest har harvest vest for men Dlen arc re i rc more generous than women so the Mendicant Squad relates I and Wall Street is the richest street t in inthe inthe the world In the great bus busy city hardly any olny one ever passes a beggar by 1 I II I I c ci i |
