s an old man panting for breath, and there a timid
maiden driven by a hard and sharp-faced matron; here is a studious
youth, reading "How to Get On in the World" and letting everybody
pass him as he stumbles along with his eyes on his book; here is a
bored-looking man, with a fashionably dressed woman jogging his elbow;
here a boy gazing wistfully back at the sunny village that he
never again will see; here, with a firm and easy step, strides a
broad-shouldered man; and here, with stealthy tread, a thin-faced,
stooping fellow dodges and shuffles upon his way; here, with gaze fixed
always on the ground, an artful rogue carefully works his way from side
to side of the road and thinks he is going forward; and here a youth
with a noble face stands, hesitating as he looks from the distant goal
to the mud beneath his feet.

And now into sight comes a fair girl, with her dainty face growing more
wrinkled at every step, and now a care-worn man, and now a hopeful lad.

A motley throng--a motley throng! Prince and beggar, sinner and saint,
butcher and baker and candlestick maker, tinkers and tailors, and
plowboys and sailors--all jostling along together. Here the counsel
in his wig and gown, and here the old Jew clothes-man under his dingy
tiara; here the soldier in his scarlet, and here the undertaker's mute
in streaming hat-band and worn cotton gloves; here the musty scholar
fumbling his faded leaves, and here the scented actor dangling his showy
seals. Here the glib politician crying his legislative panaceas, and
here the peripatetic Cheap-Jack holding aloft his quack cures for human
ills. Here the sleek capitalist and there the sinewy laborer; here
the man of science and here the shoe-back; here the poet and here
the water-rate collector; here the cabinet minister and there the
ballet-dancer. Here a red-nosed publican shouting the praises of his
vats and there a temperance lecturer at 50 pounds a night; here a judge
and there a swindler; here a priest and there a gambler. Here a jeweled
duchess, smiling and gracious; here a thin lodging-house keeper,
irritable with cooking; and here a wabbling, strutting thing, tawdry in
paint and finery.

Cheek by cheek they struggle onward. Screaming, cursing, and praying,
laughing, singing, and moaning, they rush past side by side. Their speed
never slackens, the race never ends. There is no wayside rest for them,
no halt by cooling fountains, no pause beneath green shades. On, on,
on--