Chapter 17: The Stages of Maggie's Descent During Her Walk to the East River (54-56):

"Two or three theatres emptied a crowd upon the storm-swept pavements...The pavements became tossing seas of umbrellas....A girl of the painted cohorts of the city went along the street.... Crossing glittering avenues, she went into the throng emerging from the places of forgetfulness."

  1. A tall young man, smoking a cigarette with a sublime air, strolled near the girl. He had on evening dress, a moustache, a chrysanthemum, and a look of ennui, all of which he kept carefully
    under his eye.
  2. A stout gentleman, with pompous and philanthropic whiskers, went stolidly by, the broad of his back sneering at the girl.
  3. A belated man in business clothes, and in haste to catch a car, bounced against her shoulder. "Hi, there, Mary, I beg your pardon! Brace up, old girl."

The girl walked on out of the realm of restaurants and saloons. She passed more glittering avenues and went into darker blocks than those where the crowd travelled.

  1. A young man in light overcoat and derby hat received a glance shot keenly from the eyes of the girl. He stopped and looked at her, thrusting his hands in his pockets and making a mocking smile
    curl his lips. "Come, now, old lady," he said, "you don't mean to tell me that you sized me up for a farmer?"
  2. A laboring man marched along with bundles under his arms. To her remarks, he replied: "It's a fine evenin', ain't it?"
  3. She smiled squarely into the face of a boy who was hurrying by with his hands buried in his overcoat, his blonde locks bobbing on his youthful temples, and a cheery smile of unconcern upon his lips.
  4. A drunken man, reeling in her pathway, began to roar at her. "I ain' ga no money, dammit," he shouted, in a dismal voice.

The girl went into gloomy districts near the river, where the tall black factories shut in the street and only occasional broad beams of light fell across the pavements from saloons.

  1. A man with blotched features.
  2. A ragged being with shifting, blood-shot eyes and grimey hands.

She went into the blackness of the final block. The shutters of the tall buildings were closed like grim lips. The structures seemed to have eyes that looked over her, beyond her, at other things.

  1. A huge fat man in torn and greasy garments. His gray hair straggled down over his forehead. His small, bleared eyes, sparkling from amidst great rolls of red fat, swept eagerly over the girl's upturned face. He laughed, his brown, disordered teeth gleaming under a gray, grizzled moustache from which beer-drops dripped. His whole body gently quivered and shook like that of a dead jelly fish.