On several occasions afterwards, I saw policemen conducting beggars
to the station house, and then to the Yusupoff house of correction.
Once I encountered on the Myasnitzkaya a company of these beggars,
about thirty in number. In front of them and behind them marched
policemen. I inquired: "What for?"--"For asking alms."

It turned out that all these beggars, several of whom you meet with
in every street in Moscow, and who stand in files near every church
during services, and especially during funeral services, are
forbidden to ask alms.

But why are some of them caught and locked up somewhere, while others
are left alone?

This I could not understand. Either there are among them legal and
illegal beggars, or there are so many of them that it is impossible
to apprehend them all; or do others assemble afresh when some are
removed?

There are many varieties of beggars in Moscow: there are some who
live by this profession; there are also genuine poor people, who have
chanced upon Moscow in some manner or other, and who are really in
want.

Among these poor people, there are many simple, common peasants, and
women in their peasant costume. I often met such people. Some of
them have fallen ill here, and on leaving the hospital they can
neither support themselves here, nor get away from Moscow. Some of
them, moreover, have indulged in dissipation (such was probably the