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Page 29
[19] Cf. _L'Etat Moderne et ses Functions par Paul Leroy Beaulieu_,
p. 300. See also Mr. J.C. Sherrard's letter to the _Times_ of
January 8th, 1891, on "Tramps."
If further proof were wanted that vagrancy, as far, at least, as
England and Wales are concerned, is very seldom produced by
destitution, it will be found in the following facts. A comparison
between the number of male and female vagrants arrested in 1888 under
the provisions of the Vagrancy Acts shows that there were nearly four
times more male vagrants proceeded against before the magistrates than
female. The exact numbers are males, 40,672; females, 11,464. Although
the numbers charged vary from year to year, the proportion between
males and females always remains very much the same, and it may
therefore be considered as established that men are from three to four
times more addicted to vagrancy than women. If the charges of
prostitution were excluded (they amounted to 6,486 in 1888), it will
be found that the proportion of male vagrants to female is as eight to
one. Looking at this matter _� priori_, we should expect these figures
to be reversed. In the first place women form a considerably larger
proportion of the community than men, and in the second place there
are not nearly so many openings for females in our present industrial
system. Forming a judgment upon these two sets of facts alone, one
would almost inevitably come to the conclusion that women would be
found in much larger numbers among the vagrant class than men. There
are fewer careers open to them in the industrial world; they are less
fitted to move about from place to place in search of work; the pay
they receive in manufacturing and other establishments is, as a rule,
very poor; but in spite of all these economic disadvantages only one
woman becomes a beggar to every four men, or, if we exclude fallen
women, to every eight men. What does this condition of things serve to
show? It is an incontestable proof that at least three-fourths or,
perhaps, seven-eighths of the begging carried on by men is without
economic excuse. If women who are so heavily handicapped in the race
of life can run it to such a large extent without resorting to
vagrancy, so can men. That men fall so far behind women in this
respect is to be attributed, as we have seen, not to their want of
power, but to their want of will. They possess far more opportunities
of earning a livelihood than their sisters, but, notwithstanding this
advantage, they figure far more prominently in the vagrant list. The
only possible explanation of this state of things is that vagrancy is,
to a very large extent, entirely unconnected with economic conditions;
the position of trade either for good or evil is a very secondary
factor in producing this disease in the body politic; its extirpation
would not he effected by the advent of an economic millennium; its
roots are, as a rule, in the disposition of the individual, and not to
any serious degree in the industrial constitution of society; hence,
the only way to stamp it out is by adopting vigorous and effective
methods of repression.
The British Isles are in a position to adopt these measures with
boldness and confidence, for the Poor Law system provides for all
genuine cases of destitution, and in striking at begging with a heavy
hand, the authorities are at the same time doing much to suppress
other kinds of crime. It has to be remembered that the vagrant is a
dangerous person in more ways that one. The life he leads, his habit
of going from house to house, affords him ample opportunities of
noticing where a robbery may he successfully committed. If he does not
make use of the opportunities himself, he is not at all unwilling to
let others who will into his secret for a small consideration. In low
lodging-houses and public-houses of a similar type beggars and thieves
are accustomed to meet, to fraternise, to exchange notes; the beggar
is able to give the burglar a hint, and many a case of house-breaking
is the outcome of these sinister confabulations. Little do many people
imagine when they are doing a good deed, as they believe, to some
worthless, wandering reprobate, that he is at the same moment looking
around, so as to be able to tell a companion how best the house may be
robbed. It is very seldom thieves break into houses without having
received information beforehand respecting them, and the source of
that information is in many instances the vagrant, who has been
knocking at the door for alms a short time before.
One of the principal reasons which makes beggary such a profitable
occupation, and renders it so hard to repress, is the persistent
belief among great numbers of people that beggars are working men in
distress. That, of course, is the beggar's tale, but it is a baseless
fabrication. It is no more the practice of working-men to go about
begging than it is the practice of the middle-class, but until this
elementary fact can be laid hold of by the public all statutory
enactments for the suppression of mendicity will be but partial in
their operation. Speaking from considerable personal experience, as
well as from statistical facts, one is able to affirm that the great
mass of the working population of these islands have nothing whatever
in common with the indolent vagrant; and it is a libel on the
working-classes to assume that a man is a workman to-day and a beggar
to-morrow. As a matter of fact, beggars are recruited from all ranks
of the community, when they are not actually born to the trade. Of
course, the greatest number is drawn from the working population; it
is they who form the immense bulk of the nation, and it is only
reasonable to suppose that they will contribute to the begging
fraternity in proportion to their numbers. But, just as the proportion
of thieves drawn from the working-classes is not greater than the
proportion drawn from the well-to-do classes, so is it likewise with
beggars. The other classes, in proportion to their numbers, contribute
just about as many beggars to the community as the working population,
and such beggars are generally the most hardened and villainous
specimens of their tribe. With the beggar sprung from the working
population one is sometimes able to do something, but a beggar who has
descended from the higher walks of life is one of the most hopeless,
as well as one of the most corrupt creatures it is possible to
conceive. If the public would only allow themselves to realise that
these are the facts respecting vagrancy, and if they would exercise
their knowledge in consistently refusing help to professional
wanderers, the plague of beggars would soon disappear, to the immense
relief and benefit of everybody, not excluding the beggars themselves.
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