Begging

“ I’m begging for myself.
And a begging, &c.
In a hollow tree
I live, and pay no rent;
Providence provides for me,
And I am well content.
And a begging, &c.
Of all the occupations,
A beggar’s life’s the best;
For whene’er he’s weary,
He’ll lay him down and rest.
And a begging, &c.
I fear no plots against me,
I live in open cell;
Then who would be a king
When beggars live so well?
And a begging we will go, we’ll go, we’ll go;
And a begging we will go!
THE END.
FOOTNOTES.
[24] This is the same tune as Fortune my foe.—See Popular Music of the Olden Time, p. 162. ”

“ It was amusing to observe their mode of begging, for all the nuns in this part of the world are licensed beggars. The younger and fairer members of the sisterhood came to the grate first; chatted, sung, and presented us with artificial flowers, and then retiring, made way for the old and the ugly, who requested a little money for the good of our souls and their bodies. ”

“ And being rich, my virtue then shall be, To say there is no vice but beggary.”
“Begging has become so much a sort of trade, that parents have been known to give their daughters or sons the begging of certain streets in the metropolis as marriage portions; and some years ago some scoundrels were in the practice of visiting the outskirts of the town in sailors' dresses, pretending to be dumb, and producing written papers stating that their tongues had been cut out by the Algerines, by which means they excited compassion, and were enabled to live well.” ”

“ People of rank and position are apt to complain of begging-letters. Surely England must be a happy country since its rich people complain mostly of begging-letters; for they are so easily dropped into the waste-paper basket. A country squire—any man with a handle to his name and place for a permanent address—is the natural prey and victim of the beggars. ”

“ They are so surprised at receiving unsolicited charity that they forget to offer any thanks. The man whom I have just mentioned, who had a parcel of food every morning, would rather you passed him by without giving him money, for fear a policeman would see the act and accuse him of begging, and move him from his favourite seat. As I have said, most of them know places where they can get food without begging, outside large factories and elsewhere. They are seldom to be seen in private streets, because they do not beg houses. ”

“ Five or ten minutes after hearing this sound, he dances out of camp, humming a tune, and goes begging as though he were going to a wedding, and he is often served with a hot dinner before the man of business can finish his own. But the poor English beggar makes funeral steps between meals, and asks for a mouthful of bread. The American beggar pulls the door bell, and makes himself heard the first time ”

“ No, Sir; it only admits the principle of Begging. If you like to ask your guide to give you his legs for nothing, or your workman his arms for nothing, or your shopkeeper his goods for nothing, and they consent, for love, or for play—you are doubtless both dignified and fortunate; but there is no question of trade in the matters; only of Alms. ”

“ The children in every country village, and those even of the best farmers, made a constant practice of begging from all strangers who passed; and one hardly ever met a person on foot upon the road, particularly a woman, who did not hold out her hand and ask for charity.
In the great towns, besides the children of the poorer sort, who almost all made a custom of begging, the professional beggars formed a distinct class, or cast, among the inhabitants ”

“ Don't you think it is a shame that people with nasty wounds or terribly deformed should be allowed to go about begging? The authorities ought to take care of those unfortunate people."
"I don't know. It is the way out here. Foreigners can hardly judge. I suppose they prefer to beg; they earn more that way." ”

“ He is likewise at liberty to walk with crutches, or to have one leg tied up behind him.
8. Every beggar may have a purse and a pocket, but must receive alms in their hats only.{135}
9. We command, that no beggar be so indiscreet as to divulge any of the mysteries of our trade to any but such as belong to our Society.
10. Should any beggar be so fortunate as to discover any new trick in the art of begging, he shall be obliged to communicate the same to the company, which ought to enjoy in common the benefit arising from the genius of any of its members. ”

“ There are no beggars, except a few cripples. 217 Begging or seeking presents is not the habit of the people. If boys are offered small change received in a shop they will generally refuse it, saying that they have done nothing for it. The cathedral carpenter sent his boy up a tree, at the request of a stranger, to get a leaf, and he was given a shilling for want of change. ”

“ Begging in England is certainly a fine art, and it is very difficult to live except beggars carry in their hands pins, needles, laces, wire goods, artificial flowers, a tin whistle, accordion, etc., and hide themselves as beggars behind these things. Even then they make very little, if they are indifferent to the art of begging; for it is not sufficient to sell a farthing pair of laces for a penny, but to tell such a pitiful story that the buyer—out of pity for your misfortunes—returns the laces after paying for them, and occasionally adds a piece of cake to her kindness. ”

“ Let neither Beggars nor Blind people, nor Fatherless, nor Widows, nor Cripples go a Begging up and down the streets, but that a house may be provided for them all, and meat, that there be never a Beggar among you; and let those great Fees of Gaolers and Garnishmoney be taken away. Through those Fees many have layn long in Prison. ”

“ The Observation which I shall add hereunto, is, That the vast number of Beggars, swarming up and down this City, do all live, and seem to be most of them healthy and strong; whereupon I make this question, Whether, since they do all live by begging, that is, without any kind of labour; it were not better for the State to keep them, even although they earned nothing? that so they might live regularly, and not in that Debauchery, as many Beggars do ”

“ Something might be done to prevent street beggary, and begging from house to house, which is rather a new thing in this town. The indiscriminate charity, which it is difficult to withhold from a needy and importunate beggar, does more harm than good.
Much may be done to promote temperance; much more, I fear, than is likely to be done; that is plainly the duty of society. ”

“ My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks;
O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,
Come thou on my side, and entreat for me,
As you would beg, were you in my distress:
A begging prince what beggar pities not? ”

“ At the same time, we permit the other beggars to relate their own{133} heroic exploits, as well as those of their ancestors, and even to illustrate the conversation by boasting of battles they were never in.
3. We command, that every beggar carry a good cudgel in his hand, with a spike at the end of it if possible, to be provided against emergencies, lest they repent of their neglect.
4. That each beggar take especial care never to presume to wear any thing new; that all his clothes be worn out, torn, or patched; nothing bringing more scandal on our profession than begging in good clothes. ”

“ The blind beggar soon became master of his trade, and, by the help of his dog, trudged often to London, and having the perfect tone, had the luck to return with his pockets well lined with chink. His way of begging became so pleasing to him that he would often sing as follows—
A beggar lives a merry life, And has both wealth and ease ”

“ Why the poor devils get licence for begging, and beg from house to house, making a speculation of it; they beg money, bread, and clothing, and then speculate upon it, and thus abuse their friends and their gifts.
There are thousands of houses in England kept by beggars, as fine houses as there are in that country, and their proprietors can ride in their coach and four: that there are such characters is well known among the people. ”

“ All he would then have to do would be to walk abroad, and give his address to such rich people as accosted him, so that they could send to his house food ready cooked, clean bed-clothes, money for rent, and other things.
XXXVIII
Beggars in the Making
I often feel upset to think that these articles on begging may rob honest men of charity; that people will become under the impression that beggars are born instead of made; aye, even born full-fledged, without having had childhood or youth. ”

“ He should decline to live like that, and should either steal or go on the rates, which is considered by many to be a form of stealing. As for begging, it is safer to beg than to take, but it is finer to take than to beg. ”

“ There would have to be an overseer or warden who knew all the poor and informed the city council or the priests what they needed; or some other better arrangement might be made. In my judgment there is no other business in which so much knavery and deceit are practised as in begging, and yet it could all be easily abolished. Moreover, this free and universal begging hurts the common people. I have considered that each of the five or six mendicant orders [211] visits the same place more than six or seven times every year ”

“ In some of the benevolent institutions the sick and the pensioners were provided from the endowment with all the necessaries of life, but it was generally thought becoming that they should beg them from the charitable. The very fact of begging seemed to raise those who shared in it to the level of members of a religious association. St. Francis, the “imitator of Christ,” had taught his followers to beg, and this great example sanctified the practice. It is true that the begging friars were always the butt of the satirists of the close of the fifteenth century. ”

“ Beggars of the old stamp, who consider it a point of honor to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors who have trained them to the profession of begging, will never allow their children to take any other trade than their own, nor to degrade themselves by entering into the service of any one ”

“ We are not patrons for stubborn and idle beggars, who, running from place to place, make a craft of their begging. Them the civil magistrate ought to punish; but God commandeth His people to be careful for the widow and fatherless, the aged, impotent, or lamed, who [376] neither can nor may travail for their sustentation. ”

“ The grown-up beggars generally, but not always, sit by the roadside begging, but the children run alongside of you and are often very persistent. There are nearly always beggars at the gate of any town, asking those who are starting on a journey to give them an alms, and so secure safety on their journey. ”

“ Objects, formerly the most miserable and wretched, whom I had seen for years as beggars in the streets;-young women,—perhaps the unhappy victims of seduction, who, having lost their reputation, and being turned adrift in the world, without a friend and without a home, were reduced to the necessity of begging, to sustain a miserable existence, now recognized me as their benefactor ”

“ They subsist by begging altogether. They are not vicious nor intemperate, nor troublesome particularly, except as beggars. In that calling they have a pertinacity before which a Northern mendicant would grow pale. ”

“ These are beggars who have neither the signs of the saints about them, nor other good qualities, but they come plainly and simply to people and ask an alms for God’s, or the Holy Virgin’s sake:—perchance honest paupers with young children, who are known in the town or village wherein they beg, and who would, I doubtPg 9 not, leave off begging if they could only thrive by their handicraft or other honest means, for there is many a godly man who begs unwillingly, and feels ashamed before those who knew him formerly when he was better off, and before he was compelled to beg. ”

“ Know, sir, there's a proud modesty in merit,
Averse from begging; and resolved to pay
Ten times the gift it asks. ”

“ Every day from ten to fifteen people come to our house to beg. Some among them are regular beggars, who for some reason have chosen that means of livelihood, and having clothed and shod themselves as best they might, and having made sacks to hold what they collect, have started out to tramp the country. Among them some are blind, and some have lost a leg or an arm; and sometimes, though rarely, there are women and children among them. But these are only a small part. The majority of the beggars that come now are passers-by, without a beggar's sack, mostly young, and not crippled. ”

“ Why have we hearts like other people, and anguish which breaks them?——Ah, the very beggar-women in rags in the street are less miserable! No handsome spy comes to them, to make their souls falter, and then flees-and after that their children are not taken away from them!——Your Empress would rather be a beggar, hungry and cold, but clasping her little one to her breast——Yes, a beggar I tell you, who holds out her hand to passers-by as she sits on the steps of a temple!—— [Sobbing, she throws herself on the terrace steps.] ”

“ Help the beggar. He is not a beggar because God cannot feed all His children, but because He placed him as a beggar on the street to test your heart.
Every penny that you give to a beggar, God counts double as His debt to you.
What is the first principle for humanity? ”

“ Till we two meet again:'
The beggar answerd cankerdly,
I have no money to lend.
Thou art as young a man as I,
And seems to be as sweer;
If thou fast till thou get from me,
Thou shalt eat none this year. ”

“ But, Sir, I am a practical man and I can plainly see that the beggar, so far from being a mere nuisance and eyesore, as charity-workers would have you believe, is a very useful and necessary member of the social order.
Beggars, Mr. Idler, are the natural scavengers170 of the human race. They live upon the scraps we throw from our tables; they dress in our cast-off garments. In short, Sir, they make to serve a useful purpose, that which would otherwise be sheer waste. These humble people are the economists of humanity. They save what we squander. ”