which no doubt appeared to them at first a most odious prison.


CHAPTER. V.

The different kinds of employment given to the beggars upon their
being assembled in the house of industry.
Their great awkwardness at first.
Their docility, and their progress in useful industry.
The manner in which they were treated.
The manner in which they were fed.
The Precautions used to prevent Abuses in the Public Kitchen from
which they were fed.

As by far the greater part of these poor creatures were totally
unacquainted with every kind of useful labour, it was necessary
to give them such work, at first, as was very easy to be
performed, and in which the raw materials were of little value;
and then, by degrees, as they became more adroit, to employ them
in manufacturing more valuable articles.

As hemp is a very cheap commodity, and as the spinning of hemp is
easily learned, particularly when it is designed for very coarse
and ordinary manufactures, 15,000 pounds of that article were
purchased in the palatinate, and transported to Munich;
and several hundred spinning wheels, proper for spinning it,
were provided; and several good spinners, as instructors,
were engaged, and in readiness, when this house of industry was
opened for the reception of the poor.