The Professional Beggars of Seattle
A mother is deemed unfit by the courts after training her children to beg on the city streets.
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.
Judge Lichtenberg yesterday decided upon the guardianship of the five young children of Mrs. Mary Peltier, who has made herself notorious by bringing them up as professional beggars. Three were placed in the custody of the City Bureau of Charities, one with the House of the Good Shepherd, and an infant was left with the mother. Weeks ago, Thomas R. Fleming, superintendent of the bureau, applied for their guardianship on the ground that the mother was an unfit person to care for them. The mother superior of the House of the Good Shepherd appeared in court asking for the guardianship of the daughter, Lillie, already in her charge. At the conclusion of the testimony, the judge appointed Mr. Fleming guardian of the three boys, Richard, Henry, and Leander, placed the girl, Lillie, in charge of the House of the Good Shepherd, and allowed the baby, Marie, to remain with its mother.
“Judge Lichtenberg yesterday decided upon the guardianship of the five young children of Mrs. Mary Peltier, who has made herself notorious by bringing them up as professional beggars.”
This reflects the moralizing tone of late 19th-century charity reform, where poverty was often treated as a character flaw or a crime by the 'deserving poor.' The state-mandated separation of families highlights the era's harsh approach to families caught in the poverty trap.
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