Member-only story
Blinkies ~
Fake blind street beggars
Archie will often be found, sometimes playing the harmonica, on New York’s Fifth Avenue, which is his normal beat, but not every day. In a few weeks, he may move on to other areas of the city on a kind of rotation, only to return eventually.
He just needs to build up enough of a stake to cover his gambling needs, then he is off to Belmont Park, Aqueduct or Saratoga to bet on the horses.
He is well-known at the racetrack, and other knowing punters will approach him asking, “See any good things?” as he carefully studies the form guide. There is humour behind the question, as he just so happens to be a “blinkie,” a beggar who feigns blindness, to get his hat or coin cup to overflow with the fruits of people’s generosity.
He fakes his blindness by sticking down his eyelids with collodion glue, which had long been used as a protective coating over photographic film, but more recently for adhering EEG electrodes to the head. After a hard day begging on the street, Archie will step into a secluded alley, pull out a small bottle of acetone (nail polish remover) or alcohol, and a cotton swab and wipe the collodion from his eyelids.
A non-handicapped person who pretends to be one just to rely on begging has ignorantly allowed poverty…
