In Moscow it is impossible to pass a street without meeting beggars of a peculiar kind, quite unlike those in the country, who go about there, as the saying is, "with a bag and the name of Christ." The Moscow beggars neither carry a bag nor ask for alms. In most cases when they meet you, they try to catch your eye, and then act according to the expression of your face. I know of one such, a bankrupt gentleman. He is an old man who advances slowly, limping painfully with each leg. When he meets you, he limps, and makes a bow. If you stop, he takes off his cap, ornamented with a cockade, bows again, and begs. If you do not stop, he pretends to be only lame, and continues limping along. That is a specimen of a genuine Moscow beggar, an experienced one. At first I did not know why such mendicants did not ask openly; but afterwards I learned why, without understanding the reason. One day I saw a policeman push a ragged peasant swollen with dropsy, into a cab. I asked what he had been doing, and the policeman replied,-- "Begging." "Is begging, then, forbidden?" "So it seems," he answered. As the man was being driven away, I took another cab, and followed. I wished to find out whether begging was really forbidden, and if so, why? I could not at all understand how it was possible to forbid one man asking something from another; and, moreover, I had my doubts whether it could be illegal in a city where it flourished to such an extent. I entered the police-station where the pauper had been taken, and asked an official armed with sword and pistol, and seated at a table, what he had been arrested for. The man looked up at me sharply, and said, "What business is that of yours?" However, feeling the necessity of some explanation, he added, "The authorities order such fellows to be arrested, so I suppose it is necessary." I went away. The policeman who had brought the man was sitting in the window of the ante-room, studying his note-book. I said to him,-- "Is it really true that poor people are not allowed to ask for alms in Christ's name?" The man started, as if waking up from a sleep, stared at me, then relapsed again into a state of stolid indifference, and, reseating himself on the window-sill, said,-- "The authorities require it, so you see it is necessary." As he became again absorbed in his note-book, I went down the steps towards my cab. "Well! have they locked him up?" asked the cabman. He had evidently become interested in the matter. "They have," I answered. He shook his head. "Is begging forbidden in Moscow, then?" I asked. "I can't tell you," he said. "But how can a man be locked up," I said, "for begging in the name of Christ?" "Nowadays things have changed, and you see it is forbidden," he answered.