=223. Importance of the Guilds.=--The complete list of the guilds is very long. Besides those mentioned, among the more prominent are the barbers, perfumers, fruit sellers, garment cutters, pack carriers, mule drivers, gig drivers, and fishermen, not to mention the great guild of the bakers. There is as yet no formal compulsion upon a craftsman to join a college, but in fact any “non-union” workman is subject to discrimination and sabotage which make his life unhappy. Cases are known of funerals being halted amid an unseemly scuffle when a non-member of the guild of bier-carriers has been discovered helping to carry the litter for the dead. Certain crafts have perforce to be distributed all over the city but inevitably fellow guildsmen like to flock together. In the industrial quarters each craft tries to concentrate upon a certain street which is then called by its name. Well known is the case of how Catiline’s gang had its rendezvous at Marcus Læcas’s house on Scythemaker’s Street. There is no annual “labor day” when all the guild members of the city hold festival together. On the contrary each college has its own separate festival, when the united craft is entitled to parade through Rome with horns, pipes, cymbals, and gaudy banners; its officers appearing in the guise of magistrates. The whole company with their families ordinarily head for the outskirts, where, beside convenient temples and hospitable taverns, the good people can spread themselves for picnics under the trees, join in vulgar dances, and very often spend the night under improvised tents of leaves--everybody sleeping the sounder because of much strong wine. =224. Multitude of Beggars.=--To these honest plebeians must be added another less noble multitude. Rome literally swarms with beggars. The parasitical habits taught by slavery and by the grain doles go far to make begging somewhat respectable. At every turn you can run on whining wretches often repulsively mutilated in order to excite sympathy. They have their regular stand, however, upon the bridges, where they crouch on dirty mats shouting their “_da! da!_” “Give! Give!” and at the gates where travelers take or leave their carriages they are thicker than the flies. Near Ostia and along the Emporium may also be seen real or pretended sailors escaped from shipwreck, identifiable by their heads, which are shaven because of vows made in peril, and who hold out their caps for coppers while “delighting in garrulous ease to tell the story of their perils.”