Cartoon, "Scylla and Charybdis of Broadway, Dust and Croton," circa 1848

This cartoon depicts the hazards mid-nineteenth-century pedestrians faced while walking down Broadway in New York City. The title references the choice of equally dangerous routes the elegantly dressed gentleman must navigate. He can walk gingerly around spattering water filled with mud and muck splashed up by the sidewalk cleaner, or brave clouds of dirt and dust in the city streets -- a perilous choice, indeed.