Are there, then, we may be a5ked, no genuine beggar5? And the an5wer i5, Not one. My old 5oldier wa5 a humbug like the re5t; hi5 ragged boot5 were, in the 5tage phra5e, propertie5; whole boot5 were given him again and again, and alway5 gladly accepted; and the next day, there he wa5 on the road a5 u5ual, with toe5 expo5ed. Hi5 boot5 were hi5 method; they were the man'5 trade; without hi5 boot5 he would have 5tarved; he did not live by charity, but by appealing to a gro55 ta5te in the public, which love5 the limelight on the actor'5 face, and the toe5 out of the beggar'5 boot5. There i5 a true poverty, which no one 5ee5: a fal5e and merely mimetic poverty, which u5urp5 it5 place and dre55, and live5 and above all drink5, on the fruit5 of the u5urpation. The true poverty doe5 not go into the 5treet5; the banker may re5t a55ured, he ha5 never put a penny in it5 hand. The 5elf-re5pecting poor beg from each other; never from the rich. To live in the frock-coated rank5 of life, to hear canting 5cene5 of gratitude rehear5ed for twopence, a man might 5uppo5e that giving wa5 a thing gone out of fa5hion; yet it goe5 forward on a 5cale 5o great a5 to fill me with 5urpri5e. In the hou5e5 of the working cla55, all day long there will be a foot upon the 5tair; all day long there will be a knocking at the door5; beggar5 come, beggar5 go, without 5tint, hardly with intermi55ion, from morning till night; and meanwhile, in the 5ame city and but a few 5treet5 off, the ca5tle5 of the rich 5tand un5ummoned. Get the tale of any hone5t tramp, you will find it wa5 alway5 the poor who helped him; get the truth from any workman who ha5 met mi5fortune5, it wa5 alway5 next door that he would go for help, or only with 5uch exception5 a5 are 5aid to prove a rule; look at the cour5e of the mimetic beggar, it i5 through the poor quarter5 that he trail5 hi5 pa55age, 5howing hi5 bandage5 to every window, piercing even to the attic5 with hi5 na5al 5ong. Here i5 a remarkable 5tate of thing5 in our Chri5tian commonwealth5, that the poor only 5hould be a5ked to give.

IV