One more specimen of these baits for gudgeon, and we have done. We
frequently see appeals to the benevolent for the loans of small sums. Some
of these are doubtless written by innocent persons in distress, who
confide in the good side of human nature; and we have been given to
understand that in many cases this blind confidence has not been
misplaced; for there are many Samaritans who read the papers nowadays, and
feel a romantic pleasure in answering such appeals: at the same time, we
are afraid that the great majority of them are gross deceptions. The
veritable whine of "the poor broken-down tradesman" who makes a habit of
visiting our quiet streets and appealing, in a very solemn voice, to "my
brethren" for the loan of a small trifle, whilst he anxiously scans the
windows for the halfpence, is observable, for instance, in the following
cool appeal:--
To the Benevolent.--A Young Tradesman has, from a series of
misfortunes, been reduced to the painful necessity of asking for a
trifling SUM to enable him to raise 10_l._ to save himself from
inevitable ruin and poverty; or if any gentleman would lend the above
it would be faithfully repaid. Satisfactory references as to the
genuineness of this case.--Direct to A.Z., Mr. Rigby's, Post-Office,
Mile-end Road.
The receipt of conscience-money is constantly acknowledged in
advertisements by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, and the sums
which in this manner find their way into the Exchequer are by no means
inconsiderable. It is honourable to human nature, amid all the roguery we
have exposed, to find that now and then some conscience is touched by a
very small matter, and that great trouble and no little expense is often
gone to in order that others may not suffer through the inadvertency or
carelessness of the advertiser. The following is a delicate example:--
To Hackney-Coachmen.--About the month of March last, a gentleman from
the country took a coach from Finsbury Square, and accidentally broke
the glass of one of its windows. Being unwell at the time, the
circumstance was forgotten when he quitted the coach, and it would now
be a great relief to his mind to be put in a situation to pay the
coachman for it. Should this meet the eye of the person who drove the
coach, and he will make application to A. B., at Walker's Hotel, Dean
Street, Soho, any morning during the next week, before eleven o'clock,
proper attention will be paid to it.--_Times_, 1842.
The more curious advertisements which from time to time appear in the
public journals, but particularly in the _Times_, do not admit of
classification; and they are so numerous, moreover, that if we were to
comment upon one tithe of those that have appeared within the last six
years, we should far exceed the limits of this article. We make no
apology, therefore, for stringing together the following very odd lot:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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