A STRANGE STORY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1005, 16 September 1882, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

The Blind Beggar of Bethnal Green, whose remarkable conduct is celebrated in the ancient ballad, has funnel a humble imitator in an old man, who was so successful in his calling that he was able to bequeath a legacy of £SO to the girl who acted as his guide. ft 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 the officials of the Charity Organisation would hardly press the law rigorously against them. But it is rarely that a blind beggar, whoso 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 unconapromising field for robbery upon an extensive scale ; but the girl who had come into possession of this money happened to share lodgings with a woman 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 lur of every penny of her treasure. Happily the culprit was discovered and arrested : ami uuvr billow* tli« strangest part of (lie story. The man was cun vicied last sessions, but sentence was deferred -probably to afford him flic opportunity of making restitution. The thief has actually paid over £IOO, which will provide the costs of his prosecution after the girl has received her .money ,in full. The easy circumstances of (these blind beggars, thieves, and apple-women’s lodgers are sufficient to ercite the envy of many industrious workers who labor from dawn to clatk, and seldom see a sovereign from year’s end to year’s end,