Park habitués traded public-affairs talk for both company and immunity from debt collectors.

Evidence

There [in Hyde Park], whilst the unthinking part of mankind were discussing their eating and drinking for the support of their own private persons, without any regard for the public, this worthy upholsterer and his friends discussed the affairs of Europe and grieved over the numerous mistakes committed by the powers that were. So profound was this politician, so great attention did he pay to the interests of Europe, that he entirely neglected his own, and soon found himself a bankrupt. Then he became a habitue of the park, for not only was he always sure to find there gentlemen who, like himself, knew what was “going on in the capitol,” but there also he was out of the reach of the tipstaffs, catchpoles and bailiffs. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 719

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: The bankrupt upholsterer fleeing bailiffs in public space echoes the stakes of public belonging in ‘On Sacrifice’ — public life as both refuge and liability.