Pre-telegraph urban communication required physical walking to deliver messages

Evidence

Walking was undoubtedly the most constant of activities. Only the rich could afford litters or horses and although many working people had access to carts, in the narrow streets and alleys they were probably more of an impediment than a convenience. No telephones, telegraphs, or regular postal services sped messages across space. If one had anything to say to anyone, one went to see him. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 215

Categorization

• XREF: Grounds a concrete contrast with the modern observer: Lofland’s coerced walkers of the historic city versus the voluntarist flâneur-wanderer in Cole’s Brussels and New York, whose walking is choice, not necessity.