"The Man of the Crowd" - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

Others, still a numerous class, were restless in their movements,
had flushed faces, and talked and gesticulated to themselves, as if
feeling in solitude on account of the very denseness of the company
around. When impeded in their progress, these people suddenly ceased
muttering; but redoubled their gesticulations, and awaited, with an
absent and overdone smile upon their lips, the course of the persons
impeding them. If jostled, they bowed profusely to the jostlers, and
appeared overwhelmed with confusion. There was nothing very
distinctive about these two large classes beyond what I have noted.
Their habiliments belonged to that order which is pointedly termed the
decent. They were undoubtedly noblemen, merchants, attorneys,
tradesmen, stock-jobbers- the Eupatrids and the common-places of
society- men of leisure and men actively engaged in affairs of their
own- conducting business upon their own responsibility. They did not
greatly excite my attention.
The tribe of clerks was an obvious one; and here I discerned two
remarkable divisions. There were the junior clerks of flash houses-
young gentlemen with tight coats, bright boots, well-oiled hair, and
supercilious lips. Setting aside a certain dapperness of carriage,
which may be termed deskism for want of a better word, the manner of
these persons seemed to be an exact facsimile of what had been the
perfection of bon ton about twelve or eighteen months before. They
wore the castoff graces of the gentry;- and this, I believe,
involves the best definition of the class.
The division of the upper clerks of staunch firms, or of the "steady
old fellows," it was not possible to mistake. These were known by
their coats and pantaloons of black or brown, made to sit comfortably,
with white cravats and waistcoats, broad solid-looking shoes, and
thick hose or gaiters. They had all slightly bald heads, from which
the right ears, long used to pen-holding, had an odd habit of standing
off on end. I observed that they always removed or settled their
hats with both bands, and wore watches, with short gold chains of a
substantial and ancient pattern. Theirs was the affectation of
respectability- if indeed there be an affectation so honorable.
There were many individuals of dashing appearance, whom I easily
understood as belonging to the race of swell pick-pockets, with
which all great cities are infested. I watched these gentry with
much inquisitiveness, and found it difficult to imagine how they
should ever be mistaken for gentlemen by gentlemen themselves. Their
voluminousness of wristband, with an air of excessive frankness,
should betray them at once.
The gamblers, of whom I descried not a few, were still more easily
recognizable. They wore every variety of dress, from that of the
desperate thimble-rig bully, with velvet waistcoat, fancy neckerchief,
gilt chains, and filagreed buttons, to that of the scrupulously
inornate clergyman, than which nothing could be less liable to
suspicion. Still all were distinguished by a certain sodden
swarthiness of complexion, a filmy dimness of eye, and pallor and
compression of lip. There were two other traits, moreover, by which
I could always detect them: a guarded lowness of tone in conversation,