The cable cars were loaded with theatre-goers--men in high hats and young girls in furred opera cloaks.

On the sidewalks were groups and couples--the plumbers' apprentices, the girls of the ribbon counters, the little families that lived on the second stories over their shops, the dressmakers, the small doctors, the harness-makers--all the various inhabitants of the street were abroad, strolling idly from shop window to shop window, taking the air after the day's work.

Groups of girls collected on the corners, talking and laughing very loud, making remarks upon the young men that passed them.

The tamale men appeared.

A band of Salvationists began to sing before a saloon.
Then, little by little, Polk Street dropped back to solitude.