At least in London, however, linkboys bore a checkered reputation for consorting with street ruffians. “Thieves with lights,” Daniel Defoe charged. It was a common complaint that they conveyed besotted customers into the waiting grasp of robbers, extinguishing their links at the critical moment. Warned John Gay, “Though thou art tempted by the link-man’s call, / Yet trust him not along the lonely wall; / In the mid-way he’ll quench the flaming brand, / And share the booty with the pilf’ring band.”
