From Tel Aviv to Coventry, the cities of Western Europe and the Mediterranean have lately been afflicted with a phenomenon familiar to the U.S.: the beatnik. Unwashed, unshaven, unregenerate, clad in turtleneck sweatshirt, Levi's and sandals, the European variety is often armed with a tin cup and either a guitar or colored chalks to wrest pennies for wine and smokes from sidewalk patrons. Britons, who tend to consider eccentrics national assets, regard their beatniks with tolerant amusement. Charles de Gaulle's police have been trying, with scant success, to shoo them out of...
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