THE " BEAUTIFUL CITY."

Southland Times, Issue 1178, 18 June 1869, Page 2

THE " BEAUTIFUL CITY."

Cork has always appeared to us (says the ' Cork Eeporter ') one of the most beautiful, one of the pleasantest, and the most disgracefully disorderly cities in. Ireland. "We have no hesitation in Baying that the disgraceful scenes which daily and nightly go on in this city would not be tolerated in San Brancisco or Cairo, not to speak of Birmingham or Lyons. In the fiirst [lace, Cork is visited by a plague of beggars absolutely unequalled in their numbers, their insolence, their powers of annoyance. Any man who dwells outside the city has, if he be of sensitive temperament, bis nerves shocked, his temper soured by the manner in which he is every morning assailed on his way to hit* place of business by the insolence and the servility, the muttered curses, and the whining prayer of the professional beggar. If during the day he turns into a confectioner's shop for lunch, his digestive powers are not quickened by the presence of three or four whining urchins, whose nosea are' flattened against the glass door of the shop, and a couple of more daring adult mendicants who have forced their way into the establishment itself. . Even our amusements are poisoned and embittered by the crowd of wretched creatures who beset every ?isitor thereto, and the mob of blind and lame, cripples and idioti, who beset every entrance to a Cork raceground is quite unparalleled in the world for its exhibition of insolence and filth, rags and imposture. "We speak, be it remembered, of professional mendicancy only, God forbid we should say a word against the deserving poor, but with the former class society can and ought to make no trace. Another and more disgraceful side of Cork misrule is the extraordinary and unprecedented license allowed to prostitution in this city.