bane of city people. They earn comparatively little but kicks and
curses. They are ordered off by irate householders, and receive but
little or no consideration from the police. They live in wretchedness
and want. Their homes are vile and filthy, and they are the
perpetrators of a great many of the crimes that disgrace the city. They
are frequent visitors at the Tombs, and are ready to be employed for
any dirty job for which unscrupulous men may wish to engage them.


THE WANDERING MINSTRELS.

Any one who can turn a crank can manage a street organ. The arrangement
of the instrument being entirely automatic, no knowledge of music on
the part of the grinder is necessary. Another class of street minstrels
are required to possess a certain amount of musical skill in order to
perform creditably. These are the strolling harpers and violinists.
Like the organ grinders they are chiefly Italians, but they are not so
fortunate in a pecuniary sense. Their earnings are very slender, and
they live lives of want and misery. A very few are excellent
performers, but the great mass have not the faintest idea of music.


CHILD MINSTRELS.

It is said that there are several hundred child minstrels in the City
of New York, by which we mean children below the age of sixteen or
seventeen years. They are chiefly Italians, but there are a few Swiss
and some Germans amongst them. They are generally to be found in the
streets in pairs; but sometimes three "travel" together, and sometimes
only one is to be found.