"He saw that it was not enough to forbid beggary by law or to punish it by imprisonment. The beggars cared for neither. The energetic Yankee Statesman attacked the question as he did problems in physical science. He studied beggary and beggars. How would he deal with one individual beggar? Send him for a month to prison to beg again as soon as he came out? That is no remedy. The evident course was to forbid him to beg, but at the same time to give him the opportunity to labor; to teach him to work, to encourage him to honest industry. And the wise ruler sets himself to provide food, comfort, and work for every beggar and vagabond in Bavaria, and did it."--(Page 17.) "Count Rumford, wise and just, sets himself to reform the whole class of beggars and vagabonds, and convert them into useful citizens, even those who had sunk into vice and crime. "'What,' he asked himself, 'is, after the necessaries of life, the first condition of comfort?' Cleanliness, which animals and insects prize, which in man affects his moral character, and which is akin to godliness. The idea that the soul is defiled and depraved by what is unclean has long prevailed in all ages. Virtue never dwelt long with filth. Our bodies are at war with everything that defiles them. "His first step, after a thorough study and consideration of the subject, was to provide in Munich, and at all necessary points, large, airy, and even elegant Houses of Industry, and store them with the tools and materials of such manufactures as were most needed, and would be most useful. Each house was provided with a large dining-room and a cooking apparatus sufficient to furnish an economical dinner to every worker. Teachers were engaged for each kind of labour. Warmth, light, comfort, neatness, and order, in and around these houses, made them attractive. The dinner every day was gratis, provided at first by the Government, later by the contributions of the citizens. Bakers brought stale bread; butchers, refuse meat; citizens, their broken victuals-- all rejoicing in being freed from the nuisance of beggary. The teachers of handicrafts were provided by the Government. And while all this was free, everyone was paid the full value for his labour. You shall not beg; but here is comfort, food, work, pay. There was no ill-usage, no harsh language; in five years not a blow was given even to a child by his instructor.