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 404 General History oj Europe not, or would not, walk. The ill-lighted streets were guarded at night by watchmen who went about with lanterns, but who afforded so little protection against the roughs and robbers that gentlemen were compelled^ to carry arms when passing through the streets after nightfall. 696. Paris. Paris was somewhat larger than London and had outgrown its medieval walls. The police were more efficient there, and the highway robberies which disgraced London and its suburbs were almost unknown. The great park, the "Elysian Fields," and many of the boulevards which now form so distin- guished a feature of Paris were already laid out ; but, in general, the streets were still narrow, and there were none of the fine broad avenues which now radiate from a hundred centers. There were few sewers to carry off the water which, when it rained, flowed through the middle of the streets. The filth and the bad smells of former times still remained, and the people had to rely upon easily polluted wells or the dirty River Seine for their water supply. 697. German Towns. In Germany very few of the towns had spread beyond their medieval walls. They had, for the most part, lost their former prosperity, which was still recalled by the fine old houses of the merchants and of the once flourishing guilds (413). Berlin had a population of only about two hun- dred thousand. Vienna, the finest city in Austria, was slightly larger. This city then employed from thirty to a hundred street cleaners, and boasted that the street lamps were lighted every night. 698. Italian Cities. Even the famous cities of Italy, Milan, Genoa, Florence, Rome (485 ff.), notwithstanding their beau- tiful palaces and public buildings, were, with the exception of water-bound Venice, crowded into the limited compass of the town wall, and their streets were narrow and crooked. 699. Trade and Industry on a Small Scale. Another contrast between the towns of the eighteenth century and those of today lay in the absence of the great wholesale warehouses, the vast factories with their tall chimneys, and the attractive department stores which may now be found in every city from Dublin to