In the story itself, Superman pretends to be a panhandler to draw attention to the unsafe living conditions in Metropolis' slums, which is actually some pretty solid social activism for the 'ol Last Son of Krypton

Mystery solved; I couldn't find him anywhere in the silver age, because (twist) he's actually a post-crisis invention. And he looked more like this: https://t.co/ySqV8j0srY
