he most annoying of the street beggars are the children. They
frequent all parts of the city, but literally infest Fourteenth street
and the lower part of the Fifth avenue. Many of them are driven into the
streets by their parents to beg. They have the most pitiful tales to
tell if you will listen to them. There is one little girl who frequents
Fourteenth street, whose "mother has just died and left seven small
children," every day in the last two years. A gentleman was once
accosted by two of these children, whose feet were bare, although the
weather was very cold. Seizing each by the arm, he ordered them to put
on their shoes and stockings. His manner was so positive that they at
once sat down on a door step, and producing their shoes and stockings
from beneath their shawls, put them on. Many of these children support
drunken or depraved parents by begging, and are soundly beaten by them if
they return home at night without money. They grow up to a life of
vagrancy. They soon learn to cheat and steal, and from such offences
they pass rapidly into prostitution and crime.

Besides these street beggars, there are numbers of genteel, and doubtless
well-meaning persons who make it their business to beg for others. They
intrude upon you at the most inconvenient times, and venture into your
private apartments with a freedom and assurance which positively amaze
you. Refuse them, and they are insulting.

Then there are those who approach you by means of letters. They send you
the most pitiful appeals for aid, and assure you that nothing but the
direst necessity induces them to send you such a letter, and that they
would not do so under any circumstances, were not they aware of your
well-known charitable disposition. Some persons of known wealth receive
as many as a dozen letters of this kind each day. They are, in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, from impostors, and are properly
consigned to the waste-basket.

Housekeepers have frequent applications every day for food. These are
generally complied with, as, in all families of moderate size, there is
much that must either be given or thrown away. Children and old people
generally do this kind of begging. They come with long faces and pitiful
voices, and ask for food in the most doleful tones. Grant their
requests, and you will be amused at the cool manner in which they will
produce large baskets, filled with provisions, and deposit your gift
therein. Ma