The Tragedy of the 'Professional Beggar'
A man sentenced to three months in the county jail for vagrancy writes a desperate letter from his cell, claiming he is dying and pleading for the bail money he cannot afford.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
O.P. Small, the professional beggar, who has caused the Bureau of Associated Charities much trouble and the county several hundred dollars, was sent to the county jail by Judge Caldwell yesterday for three months on a charge of vagrancy. Small took the sentence to heart in an affecting manner; he gave the court to understand that that was the first time he ever knew it was a crime to be poor. Before leaving the courtroom he wrote the following letter: 'Dear M: They have got me into deep trouble here. I am not doing well today, and want you to come to the jail on the hill to see me. Goodbye, for I never expect to see any of you again. I will die in a few days. I cannot think it a crime to be poor. If I had $25 I could get out of here. If you can raise it, I will be out soon. O.P.'
“I gave the court to understand that that was the first time he ever knew it was a crime to be poor.”
Small's desperate claim that it is a 'crime to be poor' echoes through Seattle's modern debates over the criminalization of homelessness and the cycle of incarceration for low-level offenses. The 'Bureau of Associated Charities' is a clear ancestor to today's social service infrastructure, showing that the civic anxiety over how to manage poverty has been a constant in the city's history.
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