Woman Panhandler

Been scouring through the Toronto Archives. Lots of cool stuff to be had, and hopefully soon I'll put together a few entries based on it. In the meantime, though, here's a particular gem:

 

It's a photograph called 'Woman Panhandler', featuring a beggar on Yonge St. in 1918. She's holding a sign that reads as follows (original spelling intact):

MY OLD MAN IS
PARAILAYS. NO CHILDLEN
WE LEVE IN
TORONTO FOR FIVE YEAR
GOD BLAS YOU

She's quite well-dressed for a panhandler, and has an unknowable expression on her face that I might categorise as 'wry'. Who knows what her story was? The streets of Toronto have been tough on some for a century now.