and extorted that from fear, which they could not procure by
their arts of dissimulation.

These beggars not only infested all the streets, public walks,
and public places, but they even made a practice of going into
private houses, where they never failed to steal whatever fell in
their way, if they found the doors open, and nobody at home; and
the churches were so full of them that it was quite a nuisance,
and a public scandal during the performance of divine service.
People at their devotions were continually interrupted by them,
and were frequently obliged to satisfy their demands in order to
be permitted to finish their prayers in peace and quite.

In short, these detestable vermin swarmed every where, and not
only their impudence and clamorous importunity were without any
bounds, but they had recourse to the most diabolical arts,
and most horrid crimes, in the prosecution of their infamous trade.
Young children were stolen from their parents by these wretches,
and their eyes put out, or their tender limbs broken and distorted,
in order, by exposing them thus maimed, to excite the pity and
commiseration of the public; and every species of artifice was
made use of to agitate the sensibility, and to extort the
contributions of the humane and charitable.

Some of these monsters were so void of all feeling as to expose
even their own children, naked, and almost starved, in the streets,
in order that, by their cries and unaffected expressions of
distress, they might move those who passed by to pity and relieve
them; and in order to make them act their part more naturally,
they were unmercifully beaten when they came home, by their