Iron shutters, thick doors with deep gashes, indicate the
turbulent nature of their inhabitants. Rude men on the sidepaths stare
you out of countenance, or make strange signs - a kind of occult
telegraphy, which makes your flesh creep. To guard against an unseen
foe, you take to the centre of the street - nasty and muddy though it
should be, - for there you fancy yourself safe from the blow of a
skull-cracker, hurled by an unseen hand on watch under a gateway. The
police make themselves conspicuous here by their absence; 'tis a fit
spot for midnight murder and robbery - unprovoked, unpunished. Honest
tradesmen may reside here, but not from choice; they are bound to
ignore street rows; lending a helping hand to a victim would cause
them to receive, on the morrow, a notice to quit.
"Be on your guard, if necessity brings you, after nightfall, to this
unhallowed ground. Danger hovers over, under, round your footsteps. If
an urchin plays a trick on you at a street corner, heed him not. Try
and catch him, he will disappear to return with a reinforcement of
roughs, prepared to avenge his pretended wrongs by violence to your
person and injury to your purse.
"Should a drunken man hustle you as he passes, do not mind him: it may
end in a scuffle, out of which you will emerge bruised and with rifled
pockets.
