DECEMBER 423 



are these people always either grateful or courteous. Take the 

 common example of autograph collectors, for instance I do not 

 suppose that more than three per cent, of them think it worth while 

 to say thank you to the person who, oh his part, has taken the 

 trouble to gratify their peculiar form of weakness. 



Occasionally, also, one has fallen into temptation, and, in re- 

 sponse to piteous appeals, sent such money as could be afforded. 

 According to my experience, however, this is not a practice to be 

 recommended. Once it involved me in a three days' journey to 

 Manchester and back, to appear as a witness against a miserable 

 scoundrel who had imposed upon me by pretending that he was a 

 poor young wife about to be laid by, with a sick and starving 

 husband dependent upon her efforts. Often I have sent letters 

 of this nature to that splendid institution, the Charity Organisa- 

 tion Society, and it is a fact that never in my recollection have 

 the cases detailed in them turned out to be genuine. Only the 

 other day through it I was avenged upon a female who has 

 pestered me for years. This time she has done it before 

 she sent me the usual pawn ticket with a request for a remittance. 

 I forwarded it to the local branch of the Charity Organisation 

 Society, intimating to my correspondent that she might call 

 there. She did call, doubtless expecting a remittance, and as she 

 was well known to the official in charge, I gather that the visit 

 proved quite lively. 



Impostors like these to my mind are truly wicked people, for 

 they poison the very fount of charity, make the trustful suspicious, 

 and, worst of all, give an excuse to rich men of niggardly nature 

 (' 'penurious retainers of superfluous wealth ') to shut their purse- 

 strings to many a good cause, * for fear lest they should be imposed 

 upon.' 



Curiously enough, however, the cases which seem the most 

 suspicious are sometimes honest. Here is one instance that I 

 remember. A lady, who was a total stranger to me, wrote, telling 

 this tale : That she and her husband were earning their livelihood 

 by some form of literary work ; that so soon as their gains were 



