ecure.

Another consideration, relates to the indiscriminate bestowal of
charity. Persons, who have taken pains to inform themselves, and who
devote their whole time to dispensing charities, unite in declaring,
that this is one of the most fruitful sources of indolence, vice, and
poverty. From several of these, the writer has learned, that, by their
own personal investigations, they have ascertained, that there are large
establishments of idle and wicked persons, in most of our cities, who
associate together, to support themselves by every species of
imposition. They hire large houses, and live in constant rioting, on the
means thus obtained. Among them, are women who have, or who hire the
use of, infant children; others, who are blind, or maimed, or deformed,
or who can adroitly feign such infirmities, and, by these means of
exciting pity, and by artful tales of wo, they collect alms, both in
city and country, to spend in all manner of gross and guilty
indulgences. Meantime, many persons, finding themselves often duped by
impostors, refuse to give at all; and thus many benefactions are
withdrawn, which a wise economy in charity would have secured. For this,
and other reasons, it is wise and merciful, to adopt the general rule,
never to give alms, till we have had some opportunity of knowing how
they will be spent. There are exceptions to this, as to every general
rule, which a person of discretion can determine. But the practice, so
common among benevolent persons, of giving, at least a trifle, to all
who ask, lest, perchance, they may turn away some, who are really
sufferers, is one, which causes more sin and misery than it cures.

The writer has never known any system for dispensing charity, so
successful, as the one which, in many places, has been adopted in
connection with the distribution of tracts. By this method, a town or
city is divided into districts; and each district is committed to the
care of two ladies, whose duty it is, to call on each family and leave a
tract, and make that the occasion for entering into conversation, and
learning the situation of all residents in the district. By this method,
the ignorant, the vicious, and the poor, are discovered, and their
physical, intellectual, and moral, wants, are investigated. In some
places, where the writer has resided or visited, each person retained
the same district, year after year, so that every poor family in the
place was under the watch and care of s