twelve o'clock
In the same way , the cook preserves all the odds and ends of pork-rinds and beef-fat , which he sells at considerable profit ; upon a six months ' voyage frequently realizing thirty or forty dollars from the sale , and in large ships , even more than that . It may easily be imagined , then , how desperately driven to it must these rubbish-pickers be , to ransack heaps of refuse which have been previously gleaned . Nor must I omit to make mention of the singular beggary practiced in the streets frequented by sailors ; and particularly to record the remarkable army of paupers that beset the docks at particular hours of the day . At twelve o'clock the crews of hundreds and hundreds of ships issue in crowds from the dock gates to go to their dinner in the town . This hour is seized upon by multitudes of beggars to plant themselves against the outside of the walls , while others stand upon the curbstone to excite the charity of the seamen . The first time that I passed through this long lane of pauperism , it seemed hard to believe that such an array of misery could be furnished by any town in the world . Every variety of want and suffering here met the eye , and every vice showed here its victims .