ntry air,
in fine, comfortable homes, passed once every half or quarter hour by
omnibuses going into the city. And the finest part of the arrangement is
this, that the members of this money aristocracy can take the shortest
road through the middle of all the labouring districts to their places of
business, without ever seeing that they are in the midst of the grimy
misery that lurks to the right and the left. For the thoroughfares
leading from the Exchange in all directions out of the city are lined, on
both sides, with an almost unbroken series of shops, and are so kept in
the hands of the middle and lower bourgeoisie, which, out of
self-interest, cares for a decent and cleanly external appearance and
_can_ care for it. True, these shops bear some relation to the districts
which lie behind them, and are more elegant in the commercial and
residential quarters than when they hide grimy working-men's dwellings;
but they suffice to conceal from the eyes of the wealthy men and women of
strong stomachs and weak nerves the misery and grime which form the
complement of their wealth. So, for instance, Deansgate, which leads
from the Old Church directly southward, is lined first with mills and
warehouses, then with second-rate shops and alehouses; farther south,
when it leaves the commercial district, with less inviting shops, which
grow dirtier and more interrupted by beerhouses and gin palaces the
farther one goes, until at the southern end the appearance of the shops
leaves no doubt that workers and workers only are their customers. So
Market Street running south-east from the Exchange; at first brilliant
shops of the best sort, with counting-houses or warehouses above; in the
continuation, Piccadilly, immense hotels and warehouses; in the farther
continuation, London Road, in the neighbourhood of the Medlock,
factories, beerhouses, shops for the humbler bourgeoisie and the working
population; and from this point onward, large gardens and villas of the
wealthier merchants and manufacturers. In this way any one who knows
Manchester can infer the adjoining districts, from the appearance of the
thoroughfare, but one is seldom in a position to catch from the street a
glimpse of the real labouring districts. I know very well that this
hypocritical plan is more or less common to all great cities; I know,
too, that the retail dealers are forced by the nature of their business
to take possession of the great highways; I know tha