Begging is a profession in New York. The deserving poor rarely come on
the streets to seek aid, but the beggars crowd them, as they know the
charitable institutions of the city would at once detect their imposture.
A short while ago the "Superintendent of the Out-door Poor," said to a
city merchant, "As a rule never give alms to a street beggar. Send them
to me when they accost you, and not one in fifty will dare to show his
face in my office."
The New York beggars are mainly foreigners. Scarcely an American is seen
on the streets in this capacity. Every year the number is increasing.
Foreigners who were professional beggars in their own countries, are
coming over here to practise their trades, and these make New York their
headquarters. It is estimated that there are more professional beggars
here than in all the other cities of the country combined.
Broadway, and especially Fourteenth street, Union Square, and the Fifth
avenue are full of them. They represent all forms of physical
misfortune. Some appear to have but one leg, others but one arm. Some
are blind, others horribly deformed. Some are genuine cripples, but the
majority are sound in body. They beg because the business is profitable,
and they are too lazy to work. The greater the semblance of distress,
the more lucrative is their profession. Women hire babies, and post
themselves in the thoroughfares most frequented by ladies. They
generally receive a considerable sum during the course of the day.
Others again provide themselves with a basket, in which they place a
wretched display of shoestrings which no one is expected to buy, and
station themselves in Broadway to attract the attention of the charitably
disposed. The most daring force their way into private houses and the
hotels and demand assistance with the most brazen effrontery. They hang
on to you with the utmost determination, exposing the most disgusting
sights to your gaze, and annoying you so much that you give them money in
order to be rid of them. They, in their turn, mark you well, and
remember you when you pass them again.
Perhaps the most annoying of the street beggars are the children. They
frequent all parts of the city, but literally infest Fourteenth street
and the lower part of the Fifth avenue. Many of them are driven into the
streets by their parents to beg. They have the most pitiful tales to
tell if you will listen to them. There is one little girl who frequents
Fourteenth street, whose "mother has just died and left seven small
children," every day in the last two years. A gentleman was once
accosted by two of these children, whose feet were bare, although the
weather was very cold. Seizing each by the arm, he ordered them to put
on their shoes and stockings. His manner was so positive that they at
once sat down on a door step, and producing their shoes and stockings
from beneath their shawls, put them on. Many of these children support
drunken or depraved parents by begging, and are soundly beaten by them if
they return home at night without money. They grow up to a life of
vagrancy. They soon learn to cheat and steal, and from such offences
they pass rapidly into prostitution and crime.
Besides these street beggars, there are numbers of genteel, and doubtless
well-meaning persons who make it their business to beg for others. They
intrude upon you at the most inconvenient times, and venture into your
private apartments with a freedom and assurance which positively amaze
you. Refuse them, and they are insulting.
Then there are those who approach you by means of letters. They send you
the most pitiful appeals for aid, and assure you that nothing but the
direst necessity induces them to send you such a letter, and that they
would not do so under any circumstances, were not they aware of your
well-known charitable disposition. Some persons of known wealth receive
as many as a dozen letters of this kind each day. They are, in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, from impostors, and are properly
consigned to the waste-basket.
Housekeepers have frequent applications every day for food. These are
generally complied with, as, in all families of moderate size, there is
much that must either be given or thrown away. Children and old people
generally do this kind of begging. They come with long faces and pitiful
voices, and ask for food in the most doleful tones. Grant their
requests, and you will be amused at the cool manner in which they will
produce large baskets, filled with provisions, and deposit your gift
therein. Many Irish families find all their provisions in this way.