Part 36 (2/2)

They stopped a short time, and observed that the Child very soon disposed of her last bunch of matches, as she had termed them, gave the money to the woman, who supplied her in return with another last bunch, to be disposed of in a similar way.

”Is it possible?” said Bob.

”Not only possible, but you see it is actual; it is not however the only species of deceit practised with success in London in a similar way; indeed the trade of match-making has latterly been a good one among those who have been willing to engage in it. Many persons of decent appearance, representing themselves to be tradesmen and mechanics out of employ, have placed themselves at the corners of our streets, and canva.s.sed the outskirts of the town, with green bags, carrying matches, which, by telling a pityful tale, they induce housekeepers and others, who commiserate their situation, to purchase; and, in the evening, are able to figure away in silk stockings with the produce of their labours.

There is one man, well known in town, who makes a very good livelihood by bawling in a stentorian voice,

”Whow whow, will you buy my good matches, Whow whow, will you buy my good matches, Buy my good matches, come buy'em of me.”

~279~~ He is usually dressed in something like an old military great coat, wears spectacles, and walks with a stick.”

”And is a match for any body, match him who can,”, cried Frank Harry; ”But, bless your heart, that's nothing to another set of gentry, who have infested our streets in clean apparel, with a broom in their hands, holding at the same time a hat to receive the contributions of the pa.s.sengers, whose benevolent donations are drawn forth without inquiry by the appearance of the applicant.”

”It must,” said Tallyho, ”arise from the distresses of the times.”

”There may be something in that,” said Tom; ”but in many instances it has arisen from the depravity of the times--to work upon the well-known benevolent feelings of John Bull; for those who ambulate the public streets of this overgrown and still increasing Metropolis and its princ.i.p.al avenues, are continually pestered with impudent impostors, of both s.e.xes, soliciting charity--men and women, young and old, who get more by their pretended distresses in one day than many industrious and painstaking tradesmen or mechanics do in a week. All the miseries, all the pains of life, with tears that ought to be their honest and invariable signals, can be and are counterfeited--limbs, which enjoy the fair proportion of nature, are distorted, to work upon humanity--fits are feigned and wounds manufactured--rags, and other appearances of the most squalid and abject poverty, are a.s.sumed, as the best engines of deceit, to procure riches to the idle and debaucheries to the infamous.

Ideal objects of commiseration are undoubtedly to be met with, though rarely to be found. It requires a being hackneyed in the ways of men, or having at least some knowledge of the town, to be able to discriminate the party deserving of benevolence; but

”A begging they will go will go, And a begging they will go.”

The chief cause a.s.signed by some for the innumerable cla.s.ses of mendicants that infest our streets, is a sort of innate principle of independence and love of liberty. However, it must be apparent that they do not like to work, and to beg they are not ashamed; they are, with very few exceptions, lazy and impudent. And then what ~280~~ is collected from the humane but deluded pa.s.sengers is of course expended at their festivals in Broad Street, St. Giles's, or some other equally elegant and appropriate part of the town, to which we shall at an early period pay a visit. Their impudence is intolerable; for, if refused a contribution, they frequently follow up the denial with the vilest execrations.

”To make the wretched blest, Private charity is best.”

”The common beggar spurns at your laws; indeed many of their arts are so difficult of detection, that they are enabled to escape the vigilance of the police, and with impunity insult those who do not comply with their wishes, seeming almost to say,

”While I am a beggar I will rail, And say there is no sin but to be rich; And being rich, my virtue then shall be, To say there is no vice but beggary.”

”Begging has become so much a sort of trade, that parents have been known to give their daughters or sons the begging of certain streets in the metropolis as marriage portions; and some years ago some scoundrels were in the practice of visiting the outskirts of the town in sailors'

dresses, pretending to be dumb, and producing written papers stating that their tongues had been cut out by the Algerines, by which means they excited compa.s.sion, and were enabled to live well.”

”No doubt it is a good trade,” said Merry well, ”and I expected we should have been made better acquainted with its real advantages by Capt. Barclay, of walking and sporting celebrity, who, it was said, had laid a wager of 1000L. that he would walk from London to Edinburgh in the a.s.sumed character of a beggar, pay all his expences of living well on the road, and save out of his gains fifty pounds.”

”True,” said Tom, ”but according to the best account that can be obtained, that report is without foundation. The establishment, however, of the Mendicity Society{1}

1 The frauds and impositions practised upon the public are so numerous, that volumes might be filled by detailing the arts that have been and are resorted to by mendicants; and the records of the Society alluded to would furnish instances that might almost stagger the belief of the most credulous. The life of the infamous Vaux exhibits numerous instances in which he obtained money under genteel professions, by going about with a pet.i.tion soliciting the aid and a.s.sistance of the charitable and humane; and therefore are continually cheats who go from door to door collecting money for distressed families, or for charitable purposes. It is, however, a subject so abundant, and increasing by every day's observation, that we shall for the present dismiss it, as there will be other opportunities in the course of the work for going more copiously into it.

281~~ is calculated to discover much on this subject, and has already brought to light many instances of depravity and deception, well deserving the serious consideration of the public.”

As they approached the end of the Poultry,--”This,” said Dashall, ”is the heart of the first commercial city in the known world. On the right is the Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor for the time being.”

The moon had by this time almost withdrawn her cheering beams, and there was every appearance, from the gathering clouds, of a shower of rain.

”It is rather a heavy looking building, from what I can see at present,”

replied Tallyho.

”Egad!” said Tom, ”the appearance of every thing at this moment is gloomy, let us cross.”

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