I propose to cut diamond with diamond, to set a thief to catch a thief, to make a beggar mend a beggar. In other words my plan is to reform the system rather than abolish it. To the radical reformer who would sweep out the whole "nuisance" at one stroke, this may be a disappointment. But I believe that this feeling will be diminished, if not entirely removed, when he has made himself familiar with the following scheme.
Of course if the Upas tree could be uprooted and banished from our midst,—if with a wave of his magic wand some sorcerer could make it disappear, so much the better. But this is impossible. We should require an axe of gold to cut down the tree; and this we do not possess. If a rich and powerful Government shrinks from the expense of such an undertaking, we may well be excused for doing the same.
But after all supposing that you can transform your Upas tree into a fruit-bearing one, will not this be even better than to cut it down? Such things are done every day before our very eyes in nature. The stock of the crab-apple can be made to bear quinces, and a mango tree that is scarcely worth the ground it occupies, can be made to yield fruit which will fetch four annas a piece!
What is done in the garden is possible in human nature. And God will yet enable us to graft into this wretched and apparently worthless Upas stock, a bud which in coming years shall be loaded with fruit that shall be the marvel of the world. This human desert shall yet blossom as the rose, this wilderness shall become a fruitful garden, and the waste places be inhabited.
Surely then, better even than the annihilation of beggary will be its reformation, should this be possible. At least the suggestion is well worthy of consideration, and in examining, the matter, there will be several important advantages to which I shall afterwards refer.
(1.) The first step that we would take in reforming the-beggars would be to regiment them. The task would be undertaken by our Labor Bureau. In this I do not think there would be serious difficulty encountered, if the scheme commended itself to the native public. They would only have to stop their supplies and send the beggars to us.
(2.) Our next step would be to sort out the beggars. They would be divided into three classes:—
(a) The physically unfit, who could be furnished with light work at our labor yards, or otherwise cared for. At present there are hundreds of beggars who are physically unfit for the exertion that begging involves, and who are driven to it by the desperate pangs of hunger.
(b) Those who like it, and are physically well fitted for it, besides being accustomed to the life, and not being fitted much for anything else.
(c) Those who dislike the life, and would prefer, or are suited for other occupations. Some of these we would draft off to other departments of our labour yards, while some would for the present be kept on as beggars, with the hope of early promotion to other employment.