THE BEGGING PROFESSION IN ENGLAND.

Dunstan Times, Issue 694, 6 August 1875, Page 4

THE BEGGING PROFESSION IN ENGLAND.

' The third annual report of the Fulham andHaniinermitli Committee of the Society for Organising Charitable Belief and Repressing Mendicity to 1)« presented at the forthcoming meeting, alludes to the increased amount of vagrancy in the district for the past year, and contains the follow. . ii g interesting account of the begging profession:—“ Begging is, in reality, a regularly organised profession, and the principal varieties of which are termed ‘ lurks’ (from the Welsh Here, a fit of loitering). The fire lurk (pretended leases by fire); the shipwrecked sailor’s lurk ; the foreigner's lurk ; the accident lurk ; the sick lurk (pretended Illness); some tie up their arms in a very clever way, others feign fits, others remain in bed simulating illness while they send out their companions to beg for them) ; the deaf and dumb lurk ; the servants lurk (pretended loss of place as a domestic servant) ; the collier's lurk, (pretended loss of employment through an explosion); the weavers’, calendered, and cottjn-spinncrs’ lurks. To these may be added ti c ‘shallow cove,’ or ‘shivering Jemmy,’ who goes about half naked, and the ‘high-flyer,’ who simulates the broken-down gentlemen officer, or tradesman. It is difficult to draw the line between the vagrant and the petty-hawker, as the pursuits of the habitual drunkard are of the most protean character. One day he is the ‘ linker,’ another day he is the * crocus’ or ‘ sham doctor,’ selling potions flavored with salt or some form of nastiness, or * vegetable pills, obtained ready-mado from the rabbit warren and rolled in flour, or he is the hop-picker just returned from the country with * genuine ketchup’— made from ‘Smithfield mushrooms’ (i.e., decayed bullocks livers), or he is the sham smuggler who sells brandy and tobacco, the samples of which are genuine, but the bulk of which consists principally of colored gin or hay. It would require a separate report to deal comprehensively with all the deceptions and disguises of these rascals, as there is hardly a source of human Buffering, or a pass!: g calamity of any magnitude wbic v> they do not. endeavor to turn to their advantage.” The signs chalked by the fraternity on doors and gate-posts, for the information of theibrethren, are given in the report. The respective meanings are as follows: 1. This road is better than the other. 2. They will buy if you have what they want. 3. Good for food or something to eat. 4. Religions but good on the whole. 5. No good. 6. Spoiled by too many tramps calling. 7. Likely to be taken up. 8. Dangerous, sure to be sent to prison. The expedients adopted by the high ranks of the fraternity have already been described in a letter published by C. J. RibtonTurner, the organising Secretary of the council, exposing the operation of a gang of over fifty lagging letter imposters.