“BEGGARS’ TRUST.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1019, 5 November 1912, Page 4

“BEGGARS’ TRUST.”

CONFESSIONS OF THE HALT, BLIND AND LAME.

Even in America, the country of big combines, it is startling to discover the evidence of a “ Beggars’ Trust.” An astounding story of its control of infirm people and of its vast operations has been told by a large number of its victims, who have been arrested on the public streets for begging. During the past few months there has been an enormous Increase in the number of blind and crippled beggars on the streets of the principal cities of the east and middle-west. Their number increased so largely in New York that the police received orders to arrest all persons who were found begging. Many have been taken into custody, and from their confessions it has been discovered that a Trust actually controls these beggars, and trades on their infirmities. From statements made by several of the prisoners, it has been ascertained that the men who ran the trust obtained inmates from public institutions by promising them comfortable homes and a share in the proceeds. The greed of the Trust overreached its discretion. After securing the crippled, the palsied, and .ce blind, and putting them on streets, the Trust appropriated all their receipts, and by a thorough system of checking what the beggars took in alms from the compassionate, kept their wretched assistants on the barest living basis. It was estimated that each beggar was worth to the Trust 5s a day, at least, in profit. The

Trust has wide ramifications, and it is believed that thousands of beggars turn their daily receipts into its coffers. The officers of the Bureau of Charities have taken the matter up, and are seeking by every means in their power to learn the names of the Trust’s managers, with a view to their prosecution.