Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Historical Context: The Old Days

  On page 8 the narrator, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, stated "It was a fine dry night, . . . the streets as clean as a ball-room floor [and] the lamps [were] unshaken by any wind, . . ." I believe this quote serves for two parts of historical context. The first evidence that was stated in the text was that the streets were as clean as a ball-room floor. This means that someone cleaned the street, which leads to the conclusion that a street sweeper had been present early that night. I've only heard heard of street sweepers in "back in the day" types of movies. The second text evidence is obviously "the lamps [were] unshaken by any wind" (Stevenson 8). This shows that instead of street lights, they had candles which means that they did not have any source of electricity. Their time period is between the 1800's and the 1900's I assume.
  This little evidence is important to the readers so they can picture in their mind the setting. I usually picture an old, beat up petite town where the citizens try to renew it by cleaning streets and creating sight seeing places. A town where all the houses look the same except for one house that usually has a back story. For example, some one died there and rumor was put out that you would be cursed if you even go near the place, so no one decided to fix that particular home.