Final answer:
The employment of runners, cappers, or steerers usually refers to the prohibited activity of soliciting legal services, where individuals are paid to direct potential clients to specific lawyers, breaching legal ethical standards.
Step-by-step explanation:
The employment of runners, cappers, or steerers often relates to the unethical practice of soliciting legal business. This typically involves individuals being hired to direct or refer potential clients to specific attorneys for monetary gain, which is generally considered a breach of professional conduct in the legal field. In some jurisdictions, these practices are illegal and can lead to sanctions against the attorney who engages in or benefits from such activities.
The historical excerpt highlights a variety of professions and activities, depicting the diverse work of individuals in a community. The mention of Slave Catchers refers to the grim history of individuals who were employed to hunt down and return escaped slaves to their owners, vastly differing from the services employment mentioned earlier. However, the excerpt serves as an illustration of various employments, legal or otherwise.
Jobs described range from the machinist, gate-keeper, policeman, and signpainter to the distinctly darker role of slave catchers, reflecting a spectrum of legitimate to egregious roles in society. The 'employment of runners, cappers, or steerers' could be seen as falling somewhere in between, depending on the legality and ethics surrounding the particular activity in the given context.