"SNYDER" ON JUVENILE BEGGING.

Inangahua Times, Volume VII, Issue 1206, 11 December 1882, Page 2

"SNYDER" ON JUVENILE BEGGING.

« At this moment I am interrupted by a knocking at my door. I open it and find standing before me a young girl — sho may be ten or she may be twelve years of age. She has the fresh bloom of early girlhood on her face. Neatly attk'.?d, and modest-looking -withal. In her hand she holds a card, ruled in parallel lines. She com"s a begging on j aerour.t i' sonn r,..0.-ti>; —v. cr ■"■«''! mis-io'i, I have no druait. Icis to i'urt*i<'.rthe cause oi a church. She shows

me her card, in childish words she asks me to contribute ; to which entreaty I at once refuse. j I say to her, "My dear child, whoever sent you upon this mission is doing you, unintentionally I dare say, a great wrong. By-and-by — may the time be long and distant — -it will probably become your lot of stern necessity to come in hard contact with the world, when you will be called upon to do many things and make many requests which you may have but will not care to make. But those who have sent you forth upon this mission, whether it be parent or clergyman, should have borne in mind, although when the fresh bloom has been brushed from the fruit, it may still be good fruit, yet it has lost much of its early beauty. You have been sent out to meet with many a cold answer, many an unkind rebuff, and it may be to hear words which you ought not to hear. The cause you are pleading for with childish lips is no doubt a good cause, but it should have been, pleaded for by age that has matured and is able to answer a refusal or reply to a taunt." And so the child went her way, and I here note it that those who send out young children to beg for money from door to door, no matter for what object, do them a grevious wrong. I did not ask that child from whence she procured the money which purchased the pastry, the remains of which were J about her mouth and face, nor that I packet of confectionary which she held in the same hand with her begging card. I did not ask her, I say, because I would not have her. add tiie sin of a lie to that of peculation. Will my good friends profit of the counsel which this intimation is intended to convey.