Page:The London Guide and Stranger's Safeguard.djvu/53

Rh When women slip down in the street, or faint away, I would advise you to think twice before you lend your assistance; for, although she may turn out that which she appears to be (a very respectable person), yet the thieves are so numerous, and constantly upon the alert, that it is a thousand to one, but you get done in some way or other: it happens sometimes, that the lady herself draws you, having been pushed down, or tripped up by one of her own fellows; also, these sort of women know how to run plump against you, as if they had been killed by the collision, and down they go!

Should a lady under your own protection fall or faint, in the streets, (your wife for instance) take good care what persons (women or men) lend their assistance: it is a great chance but they will be upon the do, probably for the first time in their lives.

We just now hear of a gentleman who has found occasion to come home alone, three times a week from Homerton, at very late hours, (sometimes an hour after the patrol went off duty) without any interruption whatever; and this, although he always traversed the garden-lanes, and crossed over the fields, during a great part of the winter, without other arms than a stick,