Page:Thoreau - His Home, Friends and Books (1902).djvu/30

12 village street, its interests, and its residents: "I observed that the vitals of the village were the grocery, the bar-room, the post-office and the bank; and, as a necessary part of the machinery, they kept a bell, a big gun, and a fire engine at convenient places, and the houses were so arranged as to make the most of mankind, in lanes and fronting one another, so that every traveler had to run the gauntlet, and every man, woman, and child might get a lick at him. Of course, those who were stationed nearest to the head of the line, where they could most see and be seen, and have the first blow at him, paid the highest prices for their places; and the few straggling inhabitants in the outskirts, where long gaps in the line began to occur, and the traveler could get over walls or turn aside into cow-paths, and so escape, paid a very slight ground or window tax. Signs were hung out on all sides to allure him; some to catch him by the appetite as the tavern or victualing cellar; some by the fancy, as the dry-goods store or the jeweler's; and others by the hair, the feet, or the skirts, as the barber, the shoemaker, or the tailor. Besides there was a still more terrible standing invitation to call at every one of these houses, and company expected about these times. For the most part I escaped wonderfully from these dangers, either by