If you know much about the inside of barrooms you can skip the first few paragraphs of this tale, for it will be an old story to you. If, however, the temples of the Demon Rum are to you strange territory you will have to be told at the outset just how the fake religious beggar works.

Sundry paragraphs in the week’s papers told how a group of baseball men were in the bar of the Hotel Breslin, resting from the labors of deliberation as to next season’s games, when in came a pair of gentle nuns. The manager pointed out to them in clear and vigorous terms that the quicker they left the place the better it would be for all concerned. Exit the gentle nuns and explosions of indignation from the baseball men.

The manager got the better of the argument after a while. He said they were fakers, maintaining the game in the face of his guests’ expostulations, and the Church and the Law have both backed him up. They were fake nuns, just as he said, and the money of the convivial gentlemen assembled at the bar would never got nearer the Church than the pocket of the woman who took it in.

Unfortunately some of the print in this copy of the article is illegible, but the point remains clear: If you’re uncertain of the validity of the random person asking you for money, don’t give them money.

ALL “SISTERS” WHO BEG IN SALOONS ARE FRAUDS: And a Large Percentage of Pretended “Salvation Army” Girls and “Volunteers” Who Enter Barrooms Are Bogus — How the Graft Is Worked. (PDF)

From February 19, 1911