Man Begs for Food with $83 In Pocket

1920

Claims He's a House Cleaner — "He Sure Is," Says Cop.

KANSAS CITY, Missouri. — Four pocketbooks and $83 were found on Steve Crumply by David Kepler, a Wyandotte County deputy sheriff, after Mrs. Kepler had responded to Steven's backdoor plea for food.

Crumpley explained the pocketbooks and cash by telling the dubious deputy sheriff that he was a house cleaner.

"House cleaner is right! Come with me," commanded Kepler. He led the man from the Kepler home to police headquarters.

Crumpley told Judge A. J. Herrod in the police court that he lived at the Helping Hand Institute. He refused, even tho he had $83, to pay a $50 fine, so he was locked up.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Aug. 7, 1920, p. 5.

Not to Be Reached

1895

The people of the extreme south of France, in the neighborhood of the Pyrenees, have a hard shift to live. Some of them gain a livelihood by taming bears.

Many others take to begging, which becomes a trade by itself, reasonably remunerative and not exactly dishonorable. Baron Haussmann, in his "Memoires," cites the case of one of these professional beggars who amassed a good property and finally became mayor of a large commune.

Even then he continued to ply his trade, especially in the bathing season, when many tourists visited the country. One of these outsiders was so taken aback at the sight of the mayor begging on the street that he remonstrated with the mendicant.

"I should think you would be ashamed," said the stranger, "you, a man holding so honorable an office."

"Office," said the mayor, "my office! Why, man, this is how I gained it." — Youth's Companion.

Wicked Humor — A Great Satire On The Ways of Tramps

1878

A Sarcastic Mendicant

"I'm very hungry," said a haggard tramp, with very red eyes, as he stood obsequiously at the side entrance of a Court street house. "Won't you please, ma'am, be so good as to give me a little something to eat? Anything will do — odds and ends — cold or warm — it don't matter, for I'm not one of them high-toned fellers."

"My husband has forbidden me to encourage idleness by giving away any more provisions," replied the lady of the house. " He says you fellows have a sort of Free Masonry way of letting others know every house at which you have been fed, and it is sure to bring a troop of lazy vagabonds upon us who would starve before they'd lift a hand to work. So you will have to move on and get your breakfast some place else."

"But I'm not a vagabond, ma'am; I'm a hard-working, industrious man. I came up on a boat from Memphis to see my sick mother who lives out near Camden, and isn't expected to live. I was robbed on the boat of every cent I had and all my clothes, while I was in bed. The captain gave me these old things. I don't like to beg, but Camden is a good stretch from here, and I can't walk it on an empty stomach. Think of the outstretched arms of a poor sick mother toward her absent child, and put wings on my feet with a few cold potatoes. I'm just at that point where I can eat 'em without salt."

"I can't do it. They all have a story about like that. The last man I fed had to go to Columbus inside of twenty-four hours to save an innocent man from hanging, but two days afterward I saw him down town so drunk he couldn't hold his mouth shut."

"Well, I never drink. If I hadn't been robbed I could show you my Murphy ribbon that I've worn till it's raveled into strings. Long years ago I swore at my mother's bended knee — the same one who moans on her couch of pain because I'm not with her — that I would never touch the blighting cup, and I hain't, from that time up to this minute. Can't you help me to get there in time to comfort her declining hours with the joyful tidings that I have been steadfast through all temptation, by giving me the cold grub you had intended to dump into the garbage box? I'm awful hungry."

"I can't help it. I must obey my husband — his orders were positive," said the woman, snappishly.

"Well, you're the most extraordinary woman I ever saw if you do. But say, can't you give me the paper the beefsteak was brought home in, to chew as I go along. It may fool my stomach for awhile and make it brace up by thinking something better will be along presently. You'll do that much toward easing a fond parent's anxious heart, won't you?"

"No, I won't."

"Well, then give me a newspaper and let me sit by the fire and read the advertisement of a meat market, and show me the place where it tells all about provisions. Even that would give me a feast — for the imagination — which has been about the extent of my living lately. You won't believe it, maybe, but it's a fact, that all the nourishment I've had for two days is the bill of fare painted on the outside of the Fifth-street restaurant. Can you think of that and keep your stale bread on the inside of your cupboard?"

"Yes, I can; and I want you to make yourself scarce without any more palaver, or I shall send my boy to call a policeman," exclaimed the indignant woman.

"Even the photograph of a chicken would be some comfort," said the man, by way of banter, as he moved off, "and if you don't use soap in your dishwater a few potatoes sliced up in it would be regular barbecue for me." — Cincinnati Breakfast Table.

Dwarf Darnell Flim-Flams Little Blind Girl

Atlanta, 1902

MONROE DARNELL, MIDGET, FLIM-FLAMS BLIND GIRL

The climax of eccentricities in flim-flamming was reached yesterday, when a little dwarf was caught trying to flim-flam a blind girl out of 10 cents.

Monroe Darnell, the well-known midget, was the flim-flammer, and his victim was a little blind girl who stands at the street corners patiently waiting for good-hearted people to drop money into a tin cup which she holds in her hand.

Darnell tried to swipe a 10-cent piece which he saw in the cup, and in its stead placed a copper.

The police are constantly meeting up with flim-flam games and new ones are always coming to light. It takes novelty to make a flim-flam go, and the crooks are ever trying to invent some new scheme by which they can get hold of coin without working for it. But it took Dwarf Darnell to present the most unique flim-flam that has come before the police in many a day.

Yesterday the little blind girl was standing at the corner of Decatur and Ivy streets. Some one had dropped a 10-cent silver coin into her tin cup. Across the street Monroe Darnell, who is himself no slouch when it comes to begging money, was standing, and when he saw a coin fall into the blind girl's cup he strolled over her way and peered into the receptacle. Having ascertained that the coin was a dime, he took a 1-cent piece from his pocket, and squinting his eyes around to see if he was unobserved, he quickly swiped the dime from the cup and left the copper in its place. He might have swiped the dime and left nothing in its place, but his leaving the copper showed that his conscience was not entirely dead.

He was not unobserved, however, for a citizen saw the flim-flam and reported the matter to an officer. Darnell was caught with the dime in his hand. He admitted having exchanged a copper for it, but stoutly maintained that he did not mean to steal it.

"Now, look here," said he in his squeaky voice, "yer all knows how I like a joke. All the boys will tell yer that poor little Monroe is always full of his fun. I just meant to play a joke on the blind girl, seeing as how she couldn't see. Then I meant to teach her a lesson about being too careless with her money. I was just going to say to her: 'Baby mine, I have slipped away your dime and put a copper in its place. You mustn't leave your money in your cup so long. You must take it out as fast as you hear it drop, or some fine day a sure enough rogue will swipe your money, and he won't be as honest as poor little Monroe.' You see, I make my money by the same sort of hard licks as the blind girl, and I want her to learn how to take better care of the stuff."

The dwarf was made to restore the dime, and he generously let her also have his copper. If he had not been caught, however, the flim-flam would have been a very serious joke to the little blind girl.

–The Atlanta Constitution, Atlanta, Nov. 23, 1902, p. 5.

Fake Exposed By Telephone

1903

Young Woman, Pretending to Be a Mute, Foiled in Her Game

A Poughkeepsie (N. Y.) telegram to the Philadelphia Inquirer says that a young woman giving her name as Delia Flynn called on several of the pastors in the city, posing as a mute and describing her pitiable condition with pen and pencil.

Chief of Police McCabe at that moment came in and began to express sympathy for the woman. Suddenly he stepped to the telephone and began an imaginary conversation.

"We have a woman here," he said, "who says she comes from Albany. We must know all about her history, as she cannot talk, or she must be sent to the penitentiary."

The woman, hearing this, made a dash for the door, and fought desperately to get out of the station. Chief McCabe took her into his office and questioned her.

The woman said that she had feigned dumbness in Albany, Troy, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. She declared that she was compelled to beg for a one-armed man, Edward Burnett of Brooklyn, with whom she eloped from her home in Philadelphia when she was 16 years old. She is now 22.

Have Confidence in Yourself and You Will Succeed

1920

TWO ONE-LEGGED MEN
By Napoleon Hill

In the town of Wichita Falls, Texas, I saw a one-legged man sitting on the side-walk begging for alms.

A few questions brought out the fact that he had a fair education. He said he was begging because no one would give him work. "The world is against me and I have lost confidence in myself," he said.

Ah, there was the rub!

"I have lost confidence in myself."

Across the hall from my office is another one-legged man. I have known him for several years and I know that his schooling was slight. He has less training than the one-legged beggar.

But he is earning a thousand dollars a month. As Sales Manager of a manufacturing concern he is directing the efforts of fifty men.

The beggar displayed the stump of his amputated leg as evidence that he needed alms. The other one legged man covered up the stump of his lost leg so it would not attract attention.

The difference between the two men exists merely in viewpoint. One believes in himself and the other does not! The one who believes in himself could give up the other leg and both arms and still earn a thousand dollars a month. He could even give up both eyes, to boot, and still earn the money.

The world never defeats you until you defeat yourself. Milo C. Jones, of "Little Pig Sausage" fame, became a wealthy man out of the sausage business after paralysis had stricken him down and taken away the use of nearly every muscle in his body. He couldn't turn over in bed without aid.

As long as you have faith in yourself and that wonderful mind of yours continues to function properly, YOU CANNOT BE DEFEATED IN ANY LEGITIMATE UNDERTAKING. This statement is made without qualifications, because it is true.

—The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma, February 13, 1920, page 6.

Note: $1,000 a month in 1920 was a tremendous amount. It meant doing really really well.

Seven Vags Arrested, Will Break Stone at Jail 15 Days

Sheboygan and Janesville, Wisconsin, 1915--

SEVEN VAGS ARRESTED IN SOUTH YARDS

WILL BREAK STONE AT THE JAIL WORKHOUSE FOR FIFTEEN DAYS

A wholesale arrest of "vags" was made this morning by Detective Luft of the Chicago & Northwestern railroad, Undersheriff Hugo Fesing and Deputy Sheriff George Goodell. Seven hoboes were arrested in South Yards. They give their names and ages as follows:

Frank Bertschy, 26; Rodger Plude, 21; E. Becker, 28; Jim Wise, 30; John Marshall, 22; Matt Kowatch, 30; John Zagortz.

The vags were taken before Justice of the Peace George Reuther and sentenced to 15 days in the workhouse. Most of them are from Milwaukee. They have been hanging about the yards waiting a chance to beat their way out of the city.

--The Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, August 27, 1915, page 6.



VAGRANT IS SENTENCED FOR A THIRTY DAY TERM

William Morris, formerly of Milwaukee, was sentenced to thirty days under the commitment law in the municipal court this morning when he pleaded guilty to the double charge of drunkenness and vagrancy. Morris was arrested for "panhandling" on Main street by Patrolman Charles Handy.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, November 11, 1915, page 2.

Some Day You'll Be Busted, Herding with the Vags

Racine and Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 1915--

"Walt Mason Says"
By Walt Mason

IN YEARS TO COME

Money comes in easy, when a man is young, and in manner breezy to the birds it's flung. "He's a tightwad fossil who would save," he cries, and in rout and wassail, fast the money flies. Thrown into the gutters, thrown at drakes and ducks! "There is more," he mutters, "where I got these bucks." Youth, alas, is fleeting, as a pair of steers, and there's no repeating of the sunny years. You don't duly prize it, boys so blithe and gay! You don't realize it, till you're growing gray! Youth is swiftly speeding, years that won't return, and you'll soon be needing all this coin you burn. There is nothing sadder in this vale of tears, than a worn-out gadder, crippled by the years, toiling, poor and lonely, up and down the street, sighing, "If I only had some grub to eat!" There is nothing tougher than to see a gent starve and weep and suffer, when with age he's bent. All the battered relics who for handouts crave, once were giddy alecks who refused to save. Don't be too disgusted when you see their rags; some day you'll be busted, herding with the vags!

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, August 3, 1915, page 4.



HAS NO HOME, DOESN'T WORK, MUST BE VAG

"Where do you live?"
"No place."
"Where do you work?"
"No place."

These questions and answers settled a case in court this morning when John Klabeck, Austrian, was arraigned on a charge of vagrancy.

Klabeck was unable to understand much English and did not know the meaning of the word "vagrant" or "guilt," so the judge used simpler terms.

Klabeck was given 10 days in the county jail workhouse. He was arrested by Officer Heimke in Mike Keenan's horse shed, which he would not claim as his residence.

--The Sheboygan Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, August 27, 1915, page 3.

Police: No More Coffee and Bread for Vagrants

Janesville and Grand Island, Wisconsin, 1915--

STOP FEEDING VAGRANTS AT CITY POLICE STATION

Chief Champion this morning discontinued the practice of giving the transients and city police station lodgers coffee and bread for breakfast. It was decided the demand for labor was sufficient for the men to find jobs if they cared to work, and the "vags" will be "drilled" out of town each morning after being released. A report will be made on the number received at the station and the cost of feeding them by Chief Champion within a fortnight.

The begging evil is promised to be checked by the energy of the police department in preventing "panhandling," and the heavy jail sentences that have been given offenders for vagrancy in the municipal court.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, March 30, 1915, page 2.



POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR A MAN WHO LOST COFFEE

One day last week John Wollach bought a large can of coffee from a stranger, and he bought it so cheap that the police were under the impression that the coffee had been stolen. He was interviewed on the subject and he described the man he had bought the coffee of, and it was decided that the man was James Wilson, a fellow had been released from the county jail only a day or two before. Wilson was rounded up, and notwithstanding that he denied all knowledge of the coffee, he was identified by Wollach as the one who had made the sale.

The police were unable to discover anybody who had lost about ten pounds of roasted coffee, but Wilson plead guilty to a charge of vagrancy and was given twenty days in the county jail.

The police are under the impression that the coffee might have come from the circus that was in the city on Friday, a friend in the cooking department having set it out where it could be picked up a passing stranger without exciting any suspicion.

--The Grand Rapids Tribune, Grand Rapids, Wisconsin, July 21, 1915, page 2.

Comment: The circus that was in town on Friday was the Sells-Floto Circus, including Buffalo Bill's Original Wild West, Friday, July 16.

The Worthless Wrecks of Hobodom

Janesville and Racine, Wisconsin, 1915--

An item from Court News

Charles Alberts, a veteran dwarfed member of the clan of hobodom, who makes a regular visit at the Janesville Police station, came once too often to suit Chief of Police Champion, and he was arraigned in court on the charge of vagrancy. Alberts, on his way to the vagrants' lodging place, stopped in front of the city hall, in plain view of the police station, and started to beg from a pedestrian. He was given ninety days by Judge Maxfield as a thirty day term, given him eight months ago, was not effective in correcting his transient habits.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, February 24, 1915, page 2.




BUMS MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR CITIZENS

Racine is infested by a large number of worthless vags and bums. They seek shelter at the Wisconsin street tramp house at night and during the day time make life miserable for citizens. Rear doors are visited by these men and they demand food. When refused insulting language is generally used and often threats are made. Sometimes two and three of them hang around dark corners and accost people, begging nickels and when it is given they "hike" for a saloon. Often they are arrested and taken into court and ordered out of the city, but generally the gang is back in a short time. Solitary confinement of terms from three to five days with bread and water diet is being tried, but that does not seem to chase the fellows away. It has often been suggested that a workhouse might be a good thing.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, March 4, 1915, page 12.




From column: Happenings in Our City

Vags In Court -- John King and Mike Reed, two vags, were arrested last night and in the municipal court this morning each was sentenced to jail for five days, solitary confinement on a diet of bread and water.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, March 22, 1915, page 5.




From a longer article on sports

Signs of spring are evident and plentiful but few have elected to shed the winter clothing for fear the weather man would turn freakish and do the unexpected. There are plenty of geese and ducks going north and the Honk! Honk! of the northern ganders have been heard frequently during the night and early morning. Nearly everyone has seen the first robin of the season -- and now the "spring dopers" are looking for other spring harbingers. The police will tell you that warm weather is surely here, for the clan of Hobodom has shed their winter collection of clothing and do not come to the station in great numbers for a "flop" or night's lodging. Hundreds of the transients have passed through Janesville and all declare "they are on their way to Baraboo to join a circus." The Ringling Brothers would have enough "razorbacks" for three shows if all the tramps and "vags" that have stopped off in Janesville really go to Baraboo.

--Janesville Daily Gazette, Janesville, Wisconsin, March 25, 1915, page 3.

Vast Army of Weary Willies Find Their Way To Racine

Racine, Wisconsin, 1915--

Members of the police department agree that just now a larger number of vagrants and tramps infest the city than was ever known before. They come from Chicago, Milwaukee and other cities and pretend that they are in search of employment, but the majority of them would not work "on a bet." These fellows seek shelter at the Wisconsin street tramp house and the hard luck stories told would fill a big book. Usually they claim to have a wife and children in some distant city suffering for the want of the necessities of life, while they are out seeking something to do. Of course they always walk into town, when the truth is they steal rides on freight or passenger trains.

Some nights as high as forty can be seen sleeping on the plank beds in the Wisconsin street abode. When released in the morning the majority hike for the back doors of homes and beg for breakfast. They tell housekeepers that they have not had a morsel to eat for from twenty-four to forty-eight hours and are fast starving to death. Usually a warm breakfast is served and a nice little paper of food put up for lunch while they are traveling the highways looking for a job.

Only yesterday morning a citizen offered to pay not less than five strong and able bodied fellows 25 cents an hour to shovel snow. Two of the men took shovels and after starting in quit before the sidewalk was half cleaned. The other three complained that they were ill and unable to do such hard work.

On the other hand, many men who call at the police office for shelter are unfortunate and only too willing to work and to do anything to earn an honest living. It is this class of fellows who suffer on account of the actions of the disreputable and tricky vags. It should be a stone pile or workhouse for the dishonest crowd and kindness and help to the worthy -- but discrimination is hard work.

Although Judge Smieding sentences these unworthy tramps to the county jail for from three to five days' solitary confinement, they seem to come back every week or two and often flatly deny that they have ever been arrested before.

On Main and Sixth streets these fellows haunt the dark doorways; they linger close to some of the churches on Sunday morning and beg for nickels and dimes, and, if successful, nine out of ten of them get into a sample room as fast as possible and call for liquor. It is seldom that one of them spends the money for food.

Chicago, Milwaukee, and other cities have ruled against the imported tramp, that is, the tramp and vag who is placed on a train and shipped from other towns.

There is no doubt but that a good per cent of the human wrecks who come here are chased from other cities, in fact placed on trains and sent out of town in order to get rid of them.

More than one-half of the robberies in boarding houses and farm residences are committed by this class of men. They sneak in, steal a suit of clothing or any other article of value, get away, travel to another city and do the same thing.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, February 2, 1915, page 1.

The Trouble With Vagrants

Racine and LaCrosse, Wisconsin, 1915--

From Police Blotter

Joe Davis and Joe King, strangers, regular vags, appeared at the corner of Sixth street and Grand avenue on Saturday night. They held up every pedestrian who came along and demanded money. Both were locked up at the police station.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, January 11, 1915, page 6.



Happenings in Our City

Vags Arrested -- Joe Davis and Dave Carr, two vags, appeared in front of the Holy Name church Sunday and commenced begging from people. They were arrested. Each was sentenced to jail this morning for three days' solitary confinement.

--The Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, January 25, 1915, page 5.



Man Freezes His Feet

The first case of a jail sentence for having frozen feet took place today, when Judge Brindley sentenced Frank Weltemut, La Crosse, to thirty days in county jail. The formal charge was vagrancy.

--The La Crosse Tribune, La Crosse, Wisconsin, February 1, 1915, page 6.