passengers in the street. However desirous persons may be of
encouraging ingenuity in children, I think it is doing them much harm
to give them money when they ask for it in this way. Indeed it would
appear, that some of the children have learned the art of begging so
well, that they are able to vie with the most experienced mendicants.
Ladies in particular are very much annoyed by children getting before
them and asking for money; nor will they take the answer given them,
but put their hats up to the ladies' faces, saying, "Please, ma'am,
remember the grotto;" and when told by the parties that they have
no money to give, they will still continue to follow, and be as
importunate as any common beggar. However innocent and trifling this
may appear to some, I am inclined to believe that such practices tend
to evil, for they teach children to be mean, and may cause some of
them to choose begging rather than work. I think that the best way to
stop this species of begging is, never to give them any thing. A fact
which came under my own observation will shew that the practice may
be productive of mischief. A foreign gentleman walking up Old Street
Road, was surrounded by three or four boys, saying, "Please, sir,
remember the grotto."--"Go away," was the reply, "I will give you
none." To this followed, "Do, pray sir, remember the grotto." "No, I
tell you, I will give you nothing." "Do, sir, only once a-year." At
length, I believe, he put something into one of their hats, and thus
got rid of them; but he had scarcely gone 200 yards, before he came
to another grotto, and out sallied three more boys, with the same
importunate request: he replied, "I will give you nothing; plague have
you and your grotto." The boys however persevered, till the gentleman,
having lost all patience, gave one of them a gentle tap to get out of
the way, but the boy being on the side of the foot-path fell into the
mud, which had been scraped off the road, and in this pickle followed
the gentleman, bellowing out, "That man knocked me down in the mud,