Fellows who pretended to calculate Nativities were to be met with in several parts of London at the same period: they sold ridiculous inventions which they termed _Sigils_; and the possessor of those had but to fancy they would protect themselves and property, and the object of the Conjurer was accomplished. Almanack John obtained great celebrity in this art. It appears that he was a Shoe-maker, and resided in the Strand. This fellow, and others of his fraternity, preyed upon fools or very silly people only; their losses were therefore of little moment, and the turpitude of Almanack John was not quite so great as that of the villains who affected illness and deformity, thus to rob the charitable, whose gifts would otherwise have been directed to the relief of the _real_ sufferer. The reader will presently perceive that, in one instance, the depravity of the community of Beggars is but too stationary since 1702. "That people may not be imposed upon by Beggars who pretend to be lame, dumb, &c. which really are not so; this is to give notice, that the President and Governors for the poor of London, pitying the case of one Richard Alegil, a boy of 11 years of age, who pretended himself lame of both his legs, so that he used to go shoving himself along on his breech; they ordered him to be taken into their workhouse, intending to make him a taylor, upon which he confessed that his brother, a boy of 17 years of age, about four years ago, by the advice of other beggars, contracted his legs, and turned them backwards, so that he never used them from that time to this, but followed the trade of begging; that he usually got 5_s._ a day, sometimes 10_s._; that he hath been all over the counties, especially the West of England, where his brother carried him on a horse, and pretended he was born so, and cut out of his mother's womb. He hath also given an account that he knows of other beggars that pretend to be dumb and lame, and of some that tie their arms in their breeches, and wear a wooden stump in their sleeve. The said President and Governors have caused the legs of the said Alegil to be set straight; he now has the use of them, and walks upright; they have ordered him to be put to spinning, and his brother to be kept to hard labour. Several other able beggars are by their order taken up and set to work, and when brought into the Workhouse have from 10_s._ to 5_l._ in their pockets."