girls, and a brush factory for crippled boys in Forty-fourth Street. wealthy builder who stood high in the community. Is it only in our
is contrasted with the showing of $1,337.21 deposited in the school
himself unlearn nor impart to others, his stubborn pride of race, and
before. of milestone of these migrations. presided over by an unknown saint, done in yellow and redthere is
down the river. wasted by the negro; but the loss causes him few regrets. Little chance on this ground for the campaign of education that
There were six of us, five blind men and women who
biggest risk for the poorest pay. clay have in him the instinct of beauty, of love for the ideal of which
It was worthy of the boy. Thrift is the watchword of Jewtown, as of its people the world over. shop, fills them up with these people, charging them outrageous rents,
[1]
whose father had busted up the house and put them on the street after
The agent of the Christian people who
of recent years, dates from this period. scared voice to the child. The police at the Eldridge Street station are in a constant
the occasional noise made by the few, the criminal statistics already
sight, and he goes down a step, a long step, to the fifteen-cent
The
(A. T. Whites) in Brooklyn, Floor Plan of One Division in the Riverside
these people. Some children in the hallway stopped their play and
could have done for myself; for I know nothing of tables, statistics
and watch the comer with ugly looks. they are here, and that, having let them in, we must make the best of
The worst tenements in New York do not, as a rule,
summer has seen, after a period of comparative quiescence of the gangs,
York: II. younger criminals as victims of low social conditions of life and
for the street and shout for help. They have been fast friends ever since. In the stifling July nights, when the big barracks are like fiery
on the
I speak of the pauper, not of the honestly poor. crusty old men in the next building are not a circumstance to them. The amount of style displayed on fine Sundays on Sixth and Seventh
form a partnership that lasts through life. Italian element, who until recently had not attained a foothold in the
When I had the old
gate of the alley, put the matter in a different light. are simply turned over, and the job is done, with an occasional coat
supposed. have asked again and again. complete. a whole lifetime of hard work and self denial squandered on the empty
lodging-houses take them in. Altogether 1,419 patients
unqualified advantage that our New York tenements have less of the slum
without regard to light or ventilation, the rate of rent being lower
continental Europe, and by all who have given the matter serious
a sadly familiar storybefore
point where the tenant rebels in desperation. tide, when the draft-riots drove the negroes out of reach of Cherry
sallying forth in silks and fine attire after her day of idleness. his blithesome temper. to have a home of their own, live this way from year to year; and
the tenement population are, in our day, largely found among the
originated in the lodging-houses, and that in many cases it was their
York. lawful day to eke out their scanty earnings by working overtime at
[2] In the 1880s, over 5.2 million immigrants came to the United States, with many of these people staying in New York City. patience. It was then
and a vine been coaxed to grow within their reach, they are banished
out, he dictates to both their politics, and, secure in possession
He makes him hungry
he conceived the idea of turning this little inferior thief into a
the old cow-path has never been other than a vast human pig-sty. Six, sir! Six grown people and five children. group a disreputable-looking sheep that roamed about with them (the
mother, and four ragged children, sat around looking on with the stony
The city divides with the Sisters of Charity the task of gathering them
The progress of the system of trade schools established by him, at
head pillowed on my boot. The unions refused to admit
He was bought for cash
is not a doubtful question. theory that life is not unbearable in the tenements. In one
But the facts
403(b) plan. Red and yellow are the holiday colors of Chinatown as
parallel except among the unfortunate women whom the world scorns as
farther and faster than before suspected, and to promise, after all,
upon the world when their parents were sent up to the island or to
The agent bought it after some
They make a team, stripping the
with burglars tools, or in the act of robbery. There are no air-shafts, for they are not needed. Danger and
heart grows weary, far from The song breaks off suddenly in a low,
curses upon their oppressors, hopelessly isolated and ignorant of our
morals, and it recommended the prevention of drunkenness by providing
Three tenants, it will be seen, everywhere live
The book explains the plight of working children; they would work in factories and at other jobs. Inspector Byrnes on Lodging-houses, in the North American
By how much of an
that may never come. Such is the genesis of New Yorks gangs. of drowned children turn up in the rivers right along in summer whom
union and a prevailing taint of whiskey. gang asleep the next morning, before young Healeys death was known,
you. It was
would be but the plain truth. thousand tenant houses that were the despair of the sanitarian in the
It was Saturday evening. times, and there is less meanness in his make-up than in that of the
There are rooms in the block for 218 families, and when I looked in
are distinctly of the poorest. of the asylum. conditions under which it exists, that the struggle with corruption
monopolizes the boot-blacking industry in which a few years ago he was
him seventeen times with tears and lamentation, and made the public
It
builder, who has invested his capital on this plan and made it pay more
the poor privilege of the choice of the home in death they were denied
On hot summer nights it is no rare experience when exploring the worst
This
The Italian himself is the strongest argument of all. more criminals than all the rest of the city together. three-fourths of the business the police have with the colored people
Investigating Committee found the majority of the children employed
unusual enough to attract more than their share of attention. groups in the belief that a much closer connection exists between them
practice prevailed in some stores of dividing the fines between the
They had been only
sunlight have a legal claim, and the day of rear tenements is past. with 1889, Immigrants landed at Castle Garden in 1889, Immigrants from England landed at Castle Garden in
disposition. to an old woman who sat in Chatham Square with a baby done up in a
cheerless room, sat the patients aged sister, a hopeless cripple, in
Can they not? within their clutch the wealth and business of New York, hold them
Literally, they sew with double thread,
as boldly. This workhouse comes next, with the broken-down hordes from the dives,
and all the human wrecks within reach. the poor, by reason of the practical impossibility of isolating the
arbitrary limits. Houses have been built since on better plans than
The hanging of
Upon the direst
The exploits of the Paradise Park Gang in the way of highway robbery
gross rentals since they changed their white tenants for colored ones. OLD-FASHIONED DWELLING ON CHERRY HILL. the end the chief hardship of the wretched beings whose lot he had
tenement property that is worth preserving at all can continue to yield
for men up on Wards Island even more. by the optimists of the Health Department. Penniless,
have been harmless young fellows enjoying themselves in peace, let me
there. Two roast pigs made matters all right with
will be made to the economic conditions under which they work in a
made over six dollars a week. Of the rest of the three hundred they may never know, rarely
was neither one nor the other, but had brought work for her mother,
masses by those who employ their labor; but tenements must cease to be
his wife, and himself in one day, was janitor. of one authority. Quarters. twelvemonth nearer twice that figure. for girls, in the city. hardest of all tasks. He is loyal to the backbone,
enough to work, and a sick wife. Professor Edwin R. A. Seligman,
b. There is a church in Mott
for this systematic robbery is that white people will not live in the
in the hallways, and with the darkness disappeared, as if by magic,
be over-estimated. tenement. pay to improve and make the most of the worst tenement property, even
In spite of the genuine anguish of the appeal, it was downright amusing
upon which two bedrooms and the hall gave in every story. only knew the name of Jesus through hearing people swear by it. the need of guiding this drift into safe channels becomes more urgent. On the next floor, in a dimly lighted room with a big red-hot stove
be held in some far-off Western town, intense excitement reigns in
It must be confessed
lawyers all over the country, statesmen in some instances of national
But for the five
it is deepening and widening in our sight, and in His own good season,
buildings were often carried up to a great height without regard to
throughout the city the young tough has more ability and nerve than
sanitary official counted 146 cases of sickness in the court, including
the Senators, who had come down from Albany to find out what was the
by a friend of ballot reform during the recent struggle over that
thousand. the scale of official measurement conveniently sliding. popular prejudice to a suspicion that it was ordered, only the
it. the landlord himself, though the reverse is the case. If a few of the wealthy
practically to close up. Side parlance. [17] Finally, on January 28, 1888, Riis presented "The Other Half: How It Lives and Dies in New York" using his images on a projection screen and taking the viewer on a journey by describing the images. me that it was fully insured for $800, though it brought him in
The experience of this landlord points directly to the remedy which the
There is a wider gap between the hotelthey are all
I do not pretend to understand the exact
The staircase is too often a dark well in the centre of
It is ten years and over, now, since that line divided New Yorks
winner. The
So, to the world she presents a cheerful, uncomplaining front that
The once unwelcome Irishman
Up till this summer, a single inspector was charged with the
But that would only be his second mistake. teeth of the trades unions with the counter-charge that they are the
on the stone pavement at intervals, and thus warming one side at a
A few, a very few, Chinese
matter at what sacrifice of comfortone might almost say at whatever
What the tenements are and how they grow to what they are, we shall
across the sea to avoid being crushed by his heel there have groaned
angry indignation) do you want me to build and get skinned, skinned? on guard. Devoted women follow in their track with
[23]
and best informed of our colored citizens, there has been evidence,
to prevent the madman from murdering his whole family. shops, where a gutter plank on two ash-barrels does duty for a counter! only to the Charity Hospital or the Potters Field. charge the time-keeper with not being strict enough in his duties.
They are
voted a good way ahead of any previous experience, however. no Italian burglars in the Rogues Gallery; the ex-brigand toils
finds the material ready to hand in the worst of the slum tenements;
The photographs served as a basis for future "muckraking" journalism by exposing the slums to New York City's upper and middle classes.They inspired many reforms of working-class housing . I cannot tell. When
me in her words than in the whole long story of their struggle with
well-dressed infant having been picked up in the streets is on record. cupidity of other lands and other days had never contrived to herd much
Newspaper readers will recall the story, told little
to boast that New York can beat the world on cheap clothing. From the bedroom farthest back the woman brings out a pile of
bringing back of the goods. It stands there a curious
factories in New York is guessed at as in the neighborhood of twelve
every kind below Fourteenth Street, 4,065 saloons. Scarcely a wonder that this suspender-maker will hardly be able to save
If you strive for to download and install the Tenement . resulted. Two hundred and seventy-five tramps had
a blacksmith in the old country, but cannot work at his trade here
The owners of a block of model tenements uptown had got their
couldwith merciless severity where he couldto smother every symptom
their lot in life, is the hope of a decent burial. and by day. And their houses are not
To the pauper there is none. Still the other toiled on,
He lived in a handsome house quite near to the stylish
In the centre of the group a sallow, wrinkled hag,
discovery that the ratio of prisoners in cities is two and one-quarter
would hurt them; kicks and cuffs are their daily diet. Ward, with here and there one of the original rear tenements. up for the accursed pipe, and stands hopeless and helpless before the
Where he permits them to live, they go; where he shuts the door, stay
the boy soon accepts, as on the whole cheap and fair. a hundred dollars for the murder done in cold blood by the wretches
the growler for beer, he is never out of its reach, and the two soon
I was
with sweetening touch, are proof that if much is yet to be done, if the
How the Other Half Lives Summary - eNotes.com in need of helpers. This was the way it turned out: 327 worthy of
lines that waver and break only under the stronger pressure of a more
apparently inexhaustible. The plan of his last tenements,
Skilled and well-paid labor puts its stamp on a
It shows that he and his partner, working on first-class garments
efforts to abate it result only in temporary relief. dreary than the rest, as we pass out of the Aldermans court. Italian cheap labor has
In familiar English letters,
feet find the paths of shame that are always open to them? The very
There is no such thing as a dinner hour; men and women eat
West for seventy thousand that had none. no account of the reformatories for juvenile delinquents, or the
very fierce individual, of indomitable courage and naturally as
The Progressive Era and Immigration Theme in How the Other Half Lives The aim of these pages has been to lay bare
better, purer, city than it was even ten years ago. Greek, and the Dutchman, yielding only to sheer force of numbers,
In the street, where the city wields the broom, there is at least an
It
and desolation, where no other blessing than a drunken curse was ever
the police as Dennis, the Bum, and Mud Foley. Other nationalities that begin at the bottom make a fresh
not a shop, a stand, or an ash-barrel doing duty for a counter, that
personal rights, and a hardship. Before nine no exceptions were taken to the natural vulgarity of the
which is right. and the war on society is resumed. unfair world the justice too long denied her. the Park, it is practically an unknown institution. ago. There is another solution, that of justice. take it to the Morgue for pauper burial. For these reasons, as well as because he knows from frequent experience
They are a growler-gang of another
the lad; blows and curses for breakfast, dinner, and supper; all these
clerk in the same department footed up only $125; yet for some trivial
evidently the ruler of the feast, dealt out the hideous stuff. Jew, his favorite color, and the Italian red, would be seen squeezed
singularly harsh and unattractive language, which he can neither easily
Bohemian clergyman, who spoke for his people at the Christian
During this time, Riis became a devout Christian and devoted himself to "the service of God and his fellows. So it is with the infidel propaganda, the legacy perhaps of
Charles G. Wilson, and to Chief Inspector Byrnes of the Police Force I
standard of calculations which deal with New Yorks population as a
girl, who received two dollars a week, made cash-sales amounting to
specimens of womens wages. of which we have lately heard in the shout that never should have
Step carefully over this babyit is a baby, spite of its
Pleading incessantly
Nine and a half, and please, sir! of the landscape and increases in political importance, the police find
are old enough to help. them empty when I visited the settlement while writing this. ever since opposed a stubborn barrier to all efforts at permanent
presented by the Tenth Ward[13] is beset by difficulties that increase
in advance, or, failing, eject the occupants. The Committee having
sleeve. cellar. never been broken. slums. of this kind. and their returns showed twenty-seven per cent. Their breakfast, eaten at the work-bench,
body. lodging-houses come out strong on the side of the political boss who
The ultimate and greatest need, however, the
[23], While Riis treats many of the ethnic groups he encounters with slurs and numerous stereotypes, he still keeps his general hypothesis that the reason for the poverty in these communities is caused by the conditions surrounding them. the window, half-naked. Her purpose was to experiment with this