Nature's Aristocracy: A Plea for the Oppressed

Chapter 2: The Beggars

chapter 2 The Beggars Little Lizzie.—Professional Beggars.—Begging as a Business.—Success in Life.—Marrying a Beggar for Money.—An Empress in Rags.—Little Applicants for Food.—“Little Sister’s real cold.” —The Little Boy’s Heroism. 1 Poor little Lizzie! How sad she always appeared as she came to the kitchen door and asked for something to eat! I can see her still as I recall her tattered dress, dirty feet, matted hair, fresh red cheeks, and large blue eyes. With all her rags and filth she had the air of a queen,—a queen of moral purity and love. Behind her bright eyes gleamed an intelligence so clear and vivacious that the beholder felt awed, even in the presence of a child. “What is your name, my little girl?” said I to her one morning. “Lizzie,” said she, in the sweetest, most touching tones that I have ever heard. “How old are you?” “Only six years,” said she, looking shyly up, as if she wondered what selfish purpose prompted the query. “Where do you live?” “In Salem Street,” said she, pointing toward it with her pretty little hand. “I am nobody’s girl, as my mother was killed by the cars and left nobody to tell who I belonged to.1 Mrs. McVarney has took me.” “What do you do for Mrs. McVarney?” “O, I begs.” Nature’s Aristocracy | 17 Poor little thing! so she did beg, not only abroad for money, but at home for food; and although she obtained a considerable quantity of the former, her supply of the latter was limited indeed. I went home with her one day to ascertain why this little queen of natural and intellectual beauty was seen in the street so ragged and dirty, instead of being comfortably cared for and sent regularly to school. I never shall forget that home and the things which I saw there. It was a tenement-house at the end of a long, dark, filthy alley in the vilest portion of the city, and the rooms occupied by Lizzie’s mistress were in the second story, and were reached by a rickety stairway on the outside of the house. There was wretchedness on every side. Bloated faces stared at me from the cellars, chilling curses echoed from the adjoining tenements, base women and baser men quarrelled in the alley, while little half-naked children played in the dirt and laughingly pronounced the most terrible oaths. Lizzie was not with me, because she dare not be the escort of a stranger; but from her description of the locality I easily found the rooms occupied by her mistress. At the door, as I paused a moment to consider the step I was taking and to form an excuse for my visit, I was startled by a series of most piercing shrieks, mingled with curses and the dull “thugs” of heavy blows. The sound proceeded from the room into which the door opened, and without further thought I thrust it open and stepped into the apartment. In the middle of the wretchedly furnished room stood a thin, bony-framed woman, with flashing black eyes, beating a freckledfaced girl with the broken handle of a wooden ladle. There were five other girls in the room, none of whom were over eight years old, and all looking on with an expression of terror that was most pitiful . When the woman saw me she released the girl, whom she had been holding on tiptoe by her hair, and, turning upon me with the uplifted ladle, demanded who I was and what I wanted. I cannot tell now what passed between us, for I became so excited; I only know that she struck me a blow upon the shoulder, and a policeman came and took her away. But I do remember how the girls clapped their little hands, and with tearful eyes caught hold of my dress, asking, O so pitifully! “Will she come back any more?” And when I asked the 18 | Nature’s Aristocracy poor things what they were all doing there, I received from each little lisping pair of lips the same reply which Lizzie gave me,—“I begs.” They were hungry and nearly naked, their feet were sore and swollen , while their faces and wadded hair were a most disgusting sight. How pretty they looked, however, and how happy they seemed, when, after a...