Jefferson Parlors in "By the People" (Location)

This icon represents the "parlor" where Ratliff sells sewing machines to "the doctor's or lawyer's or merchant's or banker's wife" (86). We have located it on the site of the Benbow house in other fictions, but there's no reason to think that the narrator has any one particular parlor or wife or gathering in mind. On the other hand, the occupations of the husbands here, as well as the decor of the parlor as the narrator describes it - "the antimacassars and bell-domed wax flowers and synthetic sea shells" (86) - suggest a wealthy and traditional neighborhood.