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THE EXAMINER. 141-----
who united the trade of begging with that of thieving. They usually
loitered about the door of a baker's shop, and, when they had an opportunity,
one of them slipped in, and slipped away two or three loaves,
while the other stood outside and guarded his retreat. They had also a
little trick by which they added to their means of living. They stood
opposite to a baker's window; and, as decent people passed, they rubbed
their hands, stared at the loaves, and cried—"Oh, bead, bread! starving
starving!"—and by such actions they got a great many pence, but not one
farthing did they lay out with the baker. (Laughter.) He had ascertained
that, although the prisoners were not sailors, they spent their money
as jovially as if they were. The owners of some of the shops at which the
fellows played the farce of starvation did not object at first to the
exhibition, in the hope that some of the pence would be spent in the purchase of
the staff of life: but it happened that not one of the famishing trop went to
work with a hungry belly—for, upon one occasion, when they all stood at
a baker's door, with their eyes and mouths wide open, a loaf was broken,
and in vain handed to them. They were so well filled that they pocketed
it, carried it home, they said, to a comrade, who was starving worse than
themselves.
An officer said that some of the bakers' beggars, when they received
bread, contrived, by sleight-of-hand, to dispose of it in such a manner as
to convince the bystanders there was no trick, There was one fellow
who could, to all appearance, swallow a half-quarter loaf; but it was a
pantomime swallow: and people who thought he would destroy himself if
they gave him more bread, then threw money to him to wet it.
A person stepped forward, and said the prisoners had been guilty of
another trick, some time ago. They had been supplied, by order of the late
Lord Mayor, with a pair of shoes each, and a shilling, and they promised
to walk off and get a ship. They were, however, seen soon afterwards
barefooted, going into a ginshop; and it was ascertained that they had
sold their shoes in Field-lane, and were getting lushy with the produce.
Mr. Hobler said it was a common practice with sturdy beggars to sell the
shoes they received in Field-lane, and retire to the gin-shop.
The three prisoners were without shoes, and the officers, upon taking
hold of them by the feet, said that they were such feet as required no shoes,
as the skin was as thick as any leather.—The prisoners were sent to Bridewell
for three months.
WORSHIP-STREET
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Identifier: | JB/004/070/013"JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 4. |
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1831-02-27 |
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lord brougham displayed |
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the examiner / sunday, february 27, 1831 / no. 1204 |
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(130-144) |
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[[notes_public::"john fonblanques eulogium on brougham" [note in bentham's hand]]] |
1991 |
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