The Caledonian

We doubt much whether any encouragement should be extended, in the way of giving money, to a class of persons, robust and hearty, who are in the habit of calling at our houses, soliciting alms. Some of this class have boasted that they could make as much again in this way as they could by day's works! They are mostly from the Canadian provinces.—Keene Sentinel.

The Sentinel is entirely right on this point. It is misdirected charity to bestow much upon this class of persons. In nineteen cases out of twenty, these pretended mendicants are able-bodied healthy individuals who resort to this vocation professionally, and we have for some time thought it our duty to caution our eastern friends against several individuals of this description who hail from this place. These men are Canadians, who not only cruise themselves, but employ a large number of subordinates to beg for them. Some of them they hire by the month, others they furnish with an old horse and cart, and receive half the spoils. A deformed person, a woman with a ragged dirty child or two, or a bright, apt boy, who can tell a good story about a 'sick fader and moder,' serves the best purpose. It is no uncommon thing to see a caravan of twelve or fifteen of these carts leave town in a body about the first of May. The South and East is their field of operations. The country is allotted out to them by the manager, so that they do not interfere with one another, and station houses are established at convenient intervals for depositing their collections during the summer. The head man visits these from time to time during the season, and disposes of the more bulky and less valuable portion of the articles, and the carts are loaded down with the balance on the return trip in the fall. This occurs about November; and during the ensuing winter all hands are flush with money, provisions and clothing. One of these concerns sold a grocer in this place, two or three years since, four barrels of fine thick pork, no piece of which would weigh over four pounds! and an officer who had occasion to search the premises, was surprised to find a good sized room filled with every imaginable article of charity, as well as a great number of articles, such as bedding, and clothes from the wash—which, probably, disappeared mysteriously from the owners. These lazaroni spend the winter in idleness and dissipation, and again sally forth in the spring to renew their impositions on the public. Some of these individuals have resided here for years, and though without any visible means of support, live well—but were never known to perform a day's labor. They are professional men! We have no desire to foreclose the gates of charity against the suffering poor: but we regard it as unfortunate for the cause of good morals, and the well-being of society that this class of itinerant impostors meet with the encouragement they do. The worthy poor we have always with us, and in numbers sufficient to keep in lively play that kindlier attribute which we are commanded to cherish; but in a country like this, where public provision is made for the destitute—where labor commands high prices and bread is cheap, there can hardly occur a case where itinerant begging is called for, or excusable; and those who give it countenance, but pay a premium to idleness and vice—Burlington Free Press.