306 Public Establishment for 



acquired a certain .degree of address in their work, and 

 evidently took pleasure in it, as many of those who had 

 children expressed an earnest desire to have them near 

 them, permission was granted for that purpose ; and the 

 spinning-halls, by degrees, were filled with the most in- 

 teresting little groups of industrious families, who vied 

 with each other in diligence and address, and who dis- 

 played a scene at once the most busy and the most 

 cheerful that can be imagined. 



An industrious family is ever a pleasing object ; but 

 there was something peculiarly interesting and affecting 

 in the groups of these poor people. Whether it was, 

 that those who saw them compared their present situ- 

 ation with the state of misery and wretchedness from 

 which they had been taken, or whether it was the joy 

 and exultation which were expressed in the counte- 

 nances of the poor parents in contemplating their children 

 all busily employed about them, or the air of self-satis- 

 faction which these little urchins put on at the conscious- 

 ness of their own dexterity, while they pursued their 

 work with redoubled diligence upon being observed, that 

 rendered the scene so singularly interesting, I know not; 

 but certain it is that few strangers who visited the 

 establishment came out of these halls without being 

 much affected. 



Many humane and well-disposed persons are often 

 withheld from giving alms, on account of the bad char- 

 acter of beggars in. general; but this circumstance, 

 though it ought undoubtedly to be taken into consider- 

 ation in determining the mode of administering our 

 charitable assistance, should certainly not prevent our 

 interesting ourselves in the fate of these unhappy 

 beings. On the contrary, it ought to be an additional 



