304 Public Establishment for 



CHAPTER VII. 



A farther Account of the Poor who were brought 

 together in the House of Industry — And of the 

 interesting Change which was produced in their 

 Manners and Dispositions. — Various Proofs that 

 the Means used for making them industrious^ com- 

 fortable^ afid happy, were successful. 



THE awkwardness of these poor creatures, when 

 they were first taken from the streets as beggars, 

 and put to work, may easily be conceived; but the 

 facility with which they acquired address in the various 

 manufactures in which they were employed was very 

 remarkable, and much exceeded my expectation. But 

 what was quite surprising, and at the same time interest- 

 ing in the highest degree, was the apparent and rapid 

 change which was produced in their manners, in their 

 general behaviour, and even in the very air of 

 their countenances, upon being a little accustomed to 

 their new situations. The kind usage they met with, and 

 the comforts they enjoyed, seemed to have softened their 

 hearts, and awakened in them sentiments as new and 

 surprising to themselves as they were interesting to 

 those about them. 



The melancholy gloom of misery, and air of uneasi- 

 ness and embarrassment, disappeared by little and little 

 from their countenances, and were succeeded by a timid 

 dawn of cheerfulness, rendered most exquisitely inter- 

 esting by a certain mixture of silent gratitude, which 

 no language can describe. 



In the infancy of this establishment, when these poor 



