If any man shall seek My girl from me to turn, On far-off mountains bleak, May Love the scoundrel burn! The prosing moralist must likewise have his say. Somebody has sagely scribbled, “A trifling ailment if neglected can grow to be very serious.” There are in addition conundrums and children’s sketches--pictures of playmates, friends, foes, and especially of popular gladiators, marked with red ochre or charcoal, and sometimes limned with considerable vigor, but usually in the manner of the childish drawings in all ages, with forehead and nose marked by a line and with two dots serving for eyes. School boys have scratched down some of the verses in Vergil and Ovid that have just been flogged into them by their masters. The only thing we can miss in Rome are the election notices which would abound on the walls of all chartered provincial or free Italian cities, entreating us to vote for soand-so for _duumvir_ “he’s a good man”; or declaring that “all the fullers’ guild are out for ---- as aedile.”[13] Rome, alas! has lost her liberty; the city is paternally governed by the Emperor aided by the Senate, and popular elections are a thing of the past. =24. The Streets Dark and Dangerous at Night.=--One is warned, however, not to tax the patience of the adjacent shopkeepers and linger too long in this street. Written above a drug seller’s stand appears clearly, “_No idlers here! Move on you loungers!_” and a little distance along upon a wall, “_Here you! What are you loitering for?_” Indeed the passing throngs are becoming somewhat monotonous. The hurly-burly abates. About noon almost everybody will take first a fairly hearty luncheon, and then a siesta. Nearly every shop will be closed. Then the bustle will be resumed while the more genteel element will be seen headed in great numbers towards the public baths. By four o’clock, however, the shops will be closing behind heavy shutters, the clamor from the work rooms will cease, and even the humble will begin to prepare for the crowning event of a Roman’s day--dinner, often begun still earlier. After sundown the silence almost of the grave shuts down upon avenues which a few hours earlier were simply swarming with life. There are no street lights. Nobody stirs outdoors if possible, unless accompanied by friends or slaves with lanterns or torches; and it is no harm to carry heavy bludgeons, for despite the watch there are all too many sneak thieves, cutpurses, and even open bandits, “dagger men” (_siccarii_), with their “your money or your life.” Also lawless young nobles sometimes get an evil pleasure (as did Nero and his companions) by ranging the streets and beating up harmless and poorly guarded citizens.