Dublin.
_Hieroglyphics of Vagabonds_ (Vol. v., p. 49.).--I have a cutting from a
newspaper of 1849 confirmative of the truth of this practice:--
"MENDICANT FREEMASONRY.--Persons indiscreet enough to open their
purses to the relief of the beggar tribe would do well to take a
readily-learned lesson as to the folly of that misguided
benevolence which encourages and perpetuates vagabondism. Every
door or passage is pregnant with instruction as to the error
committed by the patron of beggars, as the beggar-marks show that
a system of free-masonry is followed, by which a beggar knows
whether it will be worth his while to call into a passage or knock
at a door. Let any one examine the entrances to the passages in
any town, and there he will find chalk marks, unintelligible to
him, but significant enough to beggars. If a thousand towns are
examined, the same marks will be found at every passage entrance.
The passage mark is a cypher with a twisted tail: in some cases
the tail projects into the passage, in others outwardly; thus
seeming to indicate whether the houses down the passage are worth
calling at or not. Almost every door has its marks: these are
varied. In some cases there is a cross on the brick-work, others,
a cypher: the figures 1, 2, 3 are also used. Every person may for
himself test the accuracy of these statements by the examination
of the brickwork near his own doorway ... thus demonstrating that
mendicity is a regular trade, carried out upon a system calculated
to save time and realise the largest profits!"