noon
Adam and Eve ! If indeed ye are yet alive and in heaven , may it be no part of your immortality to look down upon the world ye have left . For as all these sufferers and cripples are as much your family as young Abel , so , to you , the sight of the world 's woes would be a parental torment indeed . The same sights that are to be met with along the dock walls at noon , in a less degree , though diversified with other scenes , are continually encountered in the narrow streets where the sailor boarding-houses are kept . In the evening , especially when the sailors are gathered in great numbers , these streets present a most singular spectacle , the entire population of the vicinity being seemingly turned into them . Hand-organs , fiddles , and cymbals , plied by strolling musicians , mix with the songs of the seamen , the babble of women and children , and the groaning and whining of beggars . From the various boarding-houses , each distinguished by gilded emblems outside -- an anchor , a crown , a ship , a windlass , or a dolphin -- proceeds the noise of revelry and dancing ; and from the open casements lean young girls and old women , chattering and laughing with the crowds in the middle of the street .