THE BEGGING TRADE.

Patea Mail, 14 August 1882, Page 4

THE BEGGING TRADE.

The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, whose remarkable career is celebrated in the ancient ballad, has found a humble imitator in an old man, who was so successful in his calling that he was able to bequeath a legacy of £7O to the girl who acted as his guide. It is not surprising that a blind beggar should make a decent living by soliciting alms; the pathetic helplessness of the blind appeals so strongly to human sympathy that even officials of the Charity Organisation Society would hardly press the law rigorously against them. But it is rarely that a blind beggar, whose misfortune is his unfailing stock in trade, is provident enough to save up such a sum. The man in question showed his gratitude by leaving his savings to the one person who had cared most for him. The room of an old apple woman seems at first sight a most unpromising field for robbery upon an extensive scale ; but the girl who had come into possession of this money happened to share lodgings with a person of this class. The old apple-woman died, and the girl attended her burial, to find on her return that a thief had broken into her room and robbed her of every penny of her treasure. Happily the culprit was discovered and arrested; and now follows the strangest part of the story. The man was convicted last sessions, but sentence was deferred —probably to afford him the opportunity of making restitution. The thief has actually paid over £IOO, which will provide the costs of his prosecution after the girl has recieved her money in full. The easy circumstances of these blind beggars, thieves, and apple-women’s ledgers are sufficient to excite the envy of many industrious workers who labour from dawn to dark, and seldom see a whole sovereign from year’s end to year’s end.