INTRODUCTION.
When a stranger first arrives in this overgrown city, and finds, upon alighting at the inn, that he has still some miles perhaps to go before he can see his friends, he is naturally anxious for advice how to reach them in safety, with his luggage. But, if this be the case with those who have got friends, what is the dread of such as have a home to seek, business to look after, or a place of service to obtain, without a friend to guide their steps, or a candid person to warn them of their danger; to tell them of the precipices, pit falls, and moral turpitude, of a large proportion of the population of this great metropolis?
To supply the place of a living friend, and in some cases to perform the necessary part of one, by directing the stranger in the choice of companions, and what characters he should avoid, I have compiled these sheets; in which will be found "all I know about the matter," and all I could "learn out" by "fine-drawing" of others. In this work I have obtained the assist-
