Petit bourgeois lacked means to insulate themselves from urban crowds

Evidence

Lacking the means to insulate themselves from the “common people,” the petit bourgeois were subject to continual harassment whenever they ventured outside their homes. In 1814, for example, they attended a festival in Hyde Park-only to have their delicate sensibilities harshly offended: … The scenes of riot and debauchery to which this fair gave rise appear to have been unparalleled. Drunkenness of course was the order of the day. Cups and balls, E.O., and other low gambling tables, at first were innumerable, but these were soon stopped by the police. All the scum of London … congregated in the Park: swindlers and pick-pockets abounded … — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 335

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the reader’s analytic frame: the petit bourgeois inability to insulate parallels Cole’s observing self who cannot drop the civil-inattention shield — both estranged within the crowd.