Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/130

114 this country well enforced, which should permit so flagrant a dereliction to pass? Too much is left to individuals, to their kindness, pusillanimity or soft-heartedness.

Their practices, as they are personal annoyances in the streets, come next under consideration; the former are most dangerous by day, (so completely is the avocation changed) the latter by night. Both assume the character of robbers, as suits their purpose.

By day, the number of women of the town, at all points, equal those by night; and they are more dangerous, because their blandishments, and means of enticing the unwary, are set off most floridly. The novice to their manners is easily caught, as is frequently he who is versed in the ways of town; for, to catch hold of the latter, they will dress in the style of a neat servant-maid, with perhaps a key of the front door, or a plate in their hand, as if just stepping out upon an errand. "What are you at, with that plate?" said I, to an old one, whom I knew, "Catching of culls," answered she. This was one Miss Ellis, an Irish woman of very fine symmetry, who had been in keeping in all the varied scenes of life,