what warmed the street?

"Life in the district little resembled life in the places where the Luvers had always lived.  Here, the greater part of the day was bare and tedious. There was nothing for the eye to revel in. Whatever it encountered or gazed upon was completely useless except, perhaps, for a birch rod or broom. Coal lay scattered about. Dirty dishwater was poured into the street and immediately grew white, turning to ice. At certain hours the street was full of ordinary people. Factory workers crawled through the snow like cockroaches. Tearoom doors were opened on pulleys and billows of soapy steam  poured forth as from a laundry. It was strange, as if it had become warmer in the street, as if it had turned to spring, when steaming shirts ran past, round shouldered, and felt boots flashed by on skinny legs. The pigeons did not fear these crowds. They flew along the road to find some food. Was there a bit of millet, oats, or dung-seed scattered in the snow? The pieman´s stall was shining from the grease and warmth. This luster and heat fell into mouths rinsed with raw brandy. The grease inflamed their throats. And then it escaped along the road from their palpitating chests. Was it this that warmed the street? "

The childhood of Luvers - Boris Pasternak