The Beggars Of London

In mest ot the capitals of Enrope the live at the back door of the rich. Wherever wealth makes an attemi)t to escape fcom poverty by s?gregation or colonization, poverty clingw to its skirts as meteors foilow in the trail of a cornet. It ir.ay be said th.at 100,000 persons inali Stages of poverty live in the east enl of London, because the rich earn their gold there. Another 100,000 live in the west end, because the wealch of the well-to-do classes is spent there. Within a bow-shot of Buckingham palace there are honses in which the rooms are rent ed and sub-rented to beggars, thieyes.seamstresses and a wholetribe of seedy ad venturera who earn a diibious livelihood. by preying on the credulity of their philanthropicneisbbors. For begging in London has been redneed to a fine art, and there areprobably ] 0,000 persons ui.worthy of any sort of charily who niake their living in thia way exclusively. Children are sent out. whole droves of them, in ragswhtchscrace conserve the vital heat in their tiny bodies, with a distinct understandiii! that there is no bed, breakfast, dinner or supper for them, except what they can earn in 'he streets by steaüng or begging, as the case may be. Woe to the little wretch who returns penniless to liis parents in tne evening. The boys are beaten; the girls are cufïed. In the very sewera themselves on the banks of the muddy Th.-nnes theso little urchins litenilly piek up a living, the extent of which is nieasured by the philanthropy orsenseof justiceof thejunksho) keeper. Still, as I have already remai'keil, beding is the mainstay of outcast London. The Street Arah oí St. James' uid ot. ei nes s could teach many a lesson to the rapacious Bedouins who exact baoksheeshfrom the sight8eer in the pyramids, or the lazzaroni who th reaten ingly demanda alms in the streets of Naples and on the slopes of Vesuvius. Comparad with the London strett Arab or the professional mendicant of the Strand and the llolborn viaduct, the importúnate widow of holy writ was an apreeable visitor. The beging-letter iinpostors of London, like all vagabonds, live in tribes and spend their nioney as frecly as they earn it. For obvious reasons, they select domicilea which shall pive them the greatest readiness of access to their intended victims, the nobility and the large class who live in independent fircunistances, liaving accumulated tortunes or retired on i nuities. Exofficers of the arniy and j navy are particularly favored by the berging letter-writer, and as a resul t Westminster, Pmilico and Chelsea, because of their convenienre tothehorse Rtiards and Somerset liouse, are large Ir patroni.ed by the fraternity. The dóciles of the beyiii!? letter-writer are innumerable. líe has the ftrmy and j nivy list at his finger'8 ends and can take up the peerage and baronelaeeol Di'brett and point out one after the other the peculiarities and especially ' the money-giving or parsiinonioua tendencies of each. Membera of parliament are invariably avoided, ior these gentlemen aa !aw-makers are great sticklera for the observance of I the laws, and on the 8ame principie that they never uive a liack-driver mure tlmn his legal fare, they pointedly refer the berging letter-writer to the relieving ofBcer of the work-house or to the nearest pólice maistrate.