We’ve all had our share of unsavory adventures in the urban jungle, but our unbridled debauchery never ended in the fate depicted by this 1872 print. “The Sights and Sensations of New York,” from James D. McCabe’s illustrated guidebook to the Gotham experience, Lights and Shadows of New York Life, cautions about the dangers of boozing in fashionable saloons (“the road to ruin”) and mingling with the kind of “fancy” companions who might rob you and leave you for dead in the East River. The book also warned out-of-towners (in particular, Philadelphians) about pawn brokers, river thieves, quack doctors, street children and “heathen Chinee.” The print is part of the Picture Collection at the New York Public Library’s Mid-Manhattan Library, and may be viewed online at digitalgallery.nypl.org. (455 Fifth Ave at 42nd St, 212-340-0878)0

—Erin Clements

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