"One bloated creature whom it would be libel on the sex to designate a woman,..."

In the August 27, 1849 edition of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the paper’s incredibly progressive editors dealt with the problem of vagrancy with their usual sensitivity:

“Our city is infested with scores of disgusting vagrants of both sexes, who are constantly annoying the inhabitants of Brooklyn by applications for charity. One bloated creature whom it would be libel on the sex to designate a woman, as she is in a constant state of beastly intoxication, is the habit of gaining access to houses by means of entry doors, and if her requests for relief are not comlied with, she vomits forth a torrent of filthy and disgusting abuse that to say the least of it, is perfectly horrifying.

If it within the limits of possibility, we would suggest to our city authorities the propriety of some of our police officers receiving their instructions to use their best means to rid the community of this horde of beggars to whom it is sinful to give alms, for they are, for the greater portion, drunkards or thieves, or both, as can be proved.

The loathsome creature we above alluded to was questioned (by the mistress of a house in Atlantic street, who happened to come down earlier than usual) as to why she came begging at so early an hour. She answered that the girls, when the mistress was not in the way, were pretty good natured, more so than they dared to be when the mistress was in the way. The lady asked her what she had in her apron. The lady opened it, and among a variety of food was a whole fowl and a whole loaf; and yet this creature was going from house to house, soliciting food for herself and her six starving children.

We earnestly recommend that the remedy be entrusted to some efficient officers. It is obvious that if beggars such as are described, were not permitted to infest private dwellings, as they now do, servants could be neither wasteful, nor dishonest with the property of their employers.”