From THe "Nort-Cxina Datty News or Fearvary 6, 1870
The question of the beggars of Shanghai and what to do with them, has been much discussed of late, and it is a subject which deserves all the care it is receiving. The character of the Chinese vagrant is peculiar; or perhaps we should be nearer the exact truth if we said that he has many characters, or that there are various classes of solicitors for alms. First, of course, there is the professional who applies irritants to his, akin, to, create mahs sores, and s his ulcers to make! them look as hideous and as ghastly possible, or even cuts off his fee to excite charity. This class resembles persons of a similar "lay" in all countries and times. ai is infested with mendicants of a more deserving sort. These belong to the great multitude of those who have, to use a well worn English phrase, "seen better days." They are, many of them, sufferers from disastrous Rebel times, and consist of families who have lost their all in the evil. days of Taipingdom. China unlike England, has nọ poor law; though it has a "custom" of relief, almost as binding as law. We do not envy those Who have to superintend the Refugee; but we trust difficulties will not discourage them from setting about a work that commends itself to all those who are possessed of the common feelings of humanity,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.