[[555]]
Netherlands, 1896–1901.[357]
| Years. | Number of Persons Convicted of Vagrancy and Mendicity. | Of Whom there were of the Age of | |||
| 50 to 60 years. | Over 60. | ||||
| Absolute Numbers. | % | Absolute Numbers. | % | ||
| 1896 | 2,181 | 541 | 24 | 273 | 12 |
| 1897 | 2,139 | 529 | 25 | 278 | 13 |
| 1898 | 2,173 | 534 | 24 | 291 | 13 |
| 1899 | 2,215 | 564 | 25 | 285 | 12 |
| 1901 | 1,857 | 491 | 26 | 257 | 13 |
Russia, 1897.
In the work of Löwenstimm already cited we find mentioned the fact that out of a total of 7,916 mendicants arrested in St. Petersburg, 1,185 (14.9%) were between 50 and 60 years of age, and 982 (12.4%) over 60.[358]
As has been said, a certain number of vagrants are weak or sickly, and consequently are nearly or quite unable to work. In “Les habitués des prisons de Paris”, Dr. Laurent gives the following description of some vagrants observed by him, true types of this kind of individual. “I have known at the Santé in recent years an individual who has passed almost the whole of his life in prison, who was born and lived in misery. A natural child, his mother received him as a mistake and a burden and tried to destroy herself and him. Later, convulsions twisted him upon a hospital bed, and he has remained half-paralyzed. So far from knowing how to read or write he can hardly see clearly, for an opaque film covers his left eye. He has undergone more than twenty sentences for mendicity and vagrancy, and he is still only 37 years old. He leaves prison only to enter it again. So he complains bitterly and blames the judicial authorities, who, instead of placing him in an asylum, where he belongs, cast him into prison, because, says he, the food does not cost so much.
“An individual 29 years old, the son of a drunkard and a consumptive, has already been seven times sentenced for mendicity. He has been half-paralyzed since he was 13 months old and can walk only with crutches. Epileptic in addition, he drifts from prison to prison.
“These facts are very common, and it is impossible to estimate how [[556]]many of these poor devils live in the prisons, which are a kind of refuge for them. Lately I saw a blind man who had been arrested for mendicity and sentenced to a fortnight in prison.”[359]
The following figures, taken from the work just quoted, inform us as to the number of such individuals.