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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



beings who seemed so woebegone during the 

 day. A number of similar anecdotes follow, de- 

 scriptive of the demoralization produced by giv- 

 ing money to persons who have not properly 

 earned it. 



At a meeting held at St. Pancras in 187*7, for 

 the purpose of establishing a committee of the 

 Charity-Organization Society, the Bishop of Lon- 

 don made some remarks corroborative of the 

 practice followed by gangs of impostors in having 

 two houses — one in which to receive donations, 

 and the other in which to spend their ill-gotten 

 gains. His lordship said that money given with- 

 out previous investigation, instead of relieving 

 human misery, increases vice and beggary ; for 

 the impostors find it very easy to have different 

 places of abode, and receive three, or four, or five 

 families' allowances from the various agencies. 

 " It is easy to conceive that they thus have the 

 means of obtaining larger incomes than they 

 could receive if they were to devote themselves 

 assiduously to the paths of honest industry. And 

 can you conceive this going on within sight of 

 the laboring-people among whom the impostors 

 dwell without deteriorating the honesty of that 

 population? When men — honest working-men — 

 see another man, living in the same rank of life 

 as themselves, obtaining more comforts by idle- 

 ness than they can obtain by industry, and learn, 

 perhaps, that this is done by receiving visits from 

 societies, they, too, are ready to follow the ex- 

 ample, and independence is broken down. It is 

 a sorrowful thing when a working-man among 

 working-men finds that the wages of mendicity 

 are better than the wages of honest industry, for 

 he is tempted to continue the downward course> 

 in which he tempts others ; and, in nine cases out 

 of ten, from that downward course there is no re- 

 turn. But this is not the only evil. People who 

 have commenced life as good givers are hardened 

 into an opposite course when they come to in- 

 vestigate cases brought before them, and find 

 only one reliable case out of about thirty ! Dis- 

 covery of the deceit practised makes one have a 

 growing distrust of human nature, and so we sus- 

 pect everybody of being dishonest until we prove 

 them to be honest. Thus persons, after giving 

 large sums, when they have made these discov- 

 eries, feel that it is better to leave poverty to its 

 legal relief than to run the risk of being thus im- 

 posed upon. Having seen all these influences at 

 work, I have become interested in the work pro- 

 posed by this association," etc. 



Mr. Hornsby Wright narrates some curious 

 cases connected with begging-letter impostors. In 



1874, he says, the Charity-Organization Society 

 came into possession of thirty-four street direc- 

 tories that had belonged to a gang of these im- 

 postors. On the directories were five different 

 marks opposite names, each mark having a dis- 

 tinct meaning. A short dash meant " doubtful," 

 or "not called on before." A cross signified 

 " good," or " likely to give." A star was " very 

 good," or " very likely to give." A round sig- 

 nified "has given something recently." An 

 with a line across it meant " has given something 

 recently, and will give again if called on." The 

 members of the gang are said to have picked up 

 on an average five pounds apiece weekly. 



No abuse is on so widely spread a scale as 

 that connected with dispensaries and hospitals- 

 There seems to be absolutely no shame in trying 

 to procure medicines, or medical assistance, for 

 nothing. Ladies of rank are known to dress 

 themselves shabbily in order to get medicine gra- 

 tuitously at a dispensary. The hospitals are 

 crowded with people who are capable of paying a 

 fee to a doctor. In many cases, physicians are to 

 blame for the lavish way they encourage free con- 

 sultations. The writer of the book before us re- 

 calls attention to the well-known case of the late 

 Dr. Wardrop and the nobleman who imposed on 

 him as a pauper. " The doctor had for many 

 years given advice to ' poor people ' at his house 

 in Charles Street; he discontinued the practice 

 after the following occurrence : Returning one 

 morning from a patient to whom he had been 

 summoned at an early hour, he observed alight- 

 ing from a coroneted carriage a shabby old man, 

 whom he recognized as one of his gratuitous 

 morning patients. He made a detour, and, re- 

 turning, learned from the footman that it was the 



Earl of . By-and-by, when the sham pauper 



was ushered in, in his turn, the doctor addressed 

 him by name, and demanded as many guineas 

 as he had made visits ; which, under threat of 

 exposure, the noble deceiver reluctantly paid." 

 The writer adds : " Of scores of applicants to the 

 Children's Hospital, whom our inquiries have 

 proved to be utterly ineligible for gratuitous re- 

 lief, no mean proportion have sneeringly said : 

 ' Well, no matter ; we can get what we want at 

 the Hospital without any of this bother.' " 



It will be recollected with what zeal George 

 Moore went about gathering money from his 

 neighbors on behalf of his pet charitable institu- 

 tion, the Royal Free Hospital—" a hospital free 

 to all without any letters of recommendation " — 

 such were his own words. Listen to what has 

 been the upshot, as related by one of the faculty, 



