The most hard-hearted of cynics must pity the poor daily journalist who is calmly requested nowadays to produce a Christmas article.  For my own part I decline to meddle with holly and jollity and general goodwill, and I have again and again protested against the insane Beggars’ Carnival which breaks out yearly towards the beginning of December.  A man may be pleased enough to hear his neighbour express goodwill, but he does not want his neighbour’s hand held forth to grasp our Western equivalent for “backsheesh.”  In Egypt the screeching Arabs make life miserable with their ceaseless dismal yell, “Backsheesh, Howaji!” The average British citizen is also hailed with importunate cries which are none the less piercing and annoying from the fact that they are translated into black and white.  The ignoble frivolity of the swarming circulars, the obvious insincerity of the newspaper appeals, the house-to-house calls, tend steadily to vulgarize an ancient and a beautiful institution, and alienate the hearts of kindly people who do not happen to be abject simpletons.  The outbreak of kindness is sometimes genuine on the part of the donors; but it is often merely surface-kindness, and the gifts are bestowed in a bitter and grudging spirit.  Let me ask, What are the real feelings of a householder who is requested to hand out a present to a turncock or dustman whom he has never seen?  The functionaries receive fair wages for unskilled labour, yet they come smirking cheerfully forward and prefer a claim which has no shadow of justification.  If a flower-seller is rather too importunate in offering her wares, she is promptly imprisoned for seven days or fined; if a costermonger halts for a few minutes in a thoroughfare and cries his goods, his stock maybe confiscated; yet the privileged Christmas mendicant may actually proceed to insolence if his claims are ignored; and the meek Briton submits to the insult.  I cannot sufficiently deplore the progress of this spirit of beggardom, for it is acting and reacting in every direction all over the country.  Long ago we lamented the decay of manly independence among the fishermen of those East Coast ports which have become watering-places.  Big bearded fellows whose fathers would have stared indignantly at the offer of a gratuity are ready to hold out their hands and touch their caps to the most vulgar dandy that ever swaggered.  To any one who knew and loved the whole breed of seamen and fishermen, a walk along Yarmouth sands in September is among the most purely depressing experiences in life.  But the demoralization of the seaside population is not so distressing as that of the general population in great cities.  We all know Adam Bede—­the very finest portrait of the old-fashioned workman ever done.  If George Eliot had represented Adam as touching his cap for a sixpence, we should have gasped with surprise at the incongruity.  Can we imagine an old-world stonemason like Hugh Miller begging coppers from a farmer on whose steading he happened to be employed?  The thing is preposterous!  But now a strong London artizan will coolly ask for his gratuity just as if he were a mere link-boy!