Part 20 (1/2)
This volume is the result of fifteen years' familiarity as police reporter with the seamy side of New York life. It is, however, by no means a mere record of personal observations, but a careful, comprehensive, and systematic presentation of a thesis with ill.u.s.trations. It is philosophic as well as expository, and from beginning to end is an indictment of the tenement system as it exists at present in New York.
No page is uninstructive, but it would be misleading to suppose the book even tinctured with didacticism. It is from beginning to end as picturesque in treatment as it is in material. The author's acquaintance with the latter is extremely intimate. The reader feels that he is being guided through the dirt and crime, the tatters and rags, the byways and alleys of nether New York by an experienced cicerone. Mr. Riis, in a word, though a philanthropist and philosopher, is an artist as well. He has also the advantage of being an amateur photographer, and his book is abundantly ill.u.s.trated from negatives of the odd, the out-of-the-way, and characteristic sights and scenes he has himself caught with his camera. No work yet published--certainly not the official reports of the charity societies--shows so vividly the complexion and countenance of the ”Down-town Back Alleys,” ”The Bend,” ”Chinatown,” ”Jewtown,” ”The Cheap Lodging-houses,” the haunts of the negro, the Italian, the Bohemian poor, or gives such a veracious picture of the toughs, the tramps, the waifs, drunkards, paupers, gamins, and the generally gruesome populace of this centre of civilization.
THE CHEAP LODGING-HOUSES. 87
perch in the world. Uneasy sleepers roll off at intervals, but they have not far to fall to the next tier of bunks, and the commotion that ensues is speedily quieted by the boss and his club. On cold winter nights, when every
[Ill.u.s.tration: BUNKS IN A SEVEN-CENT LODGING-HOUSE, PELL STREET.]
bunk had its tenant, I have stood in such a lodging-room more than once, and listening to the snoring of the sleepers like the regular strokes of an engine, and the slow creaking of the beams under their restless weight, imagined myself on s.h.i.+pboard and experienced the very
[SPECIMEN PAGE.]
COMMENDATIONS.
THE NEW YORK SOCIETY FOR THE PREVENTION OF CRUELTY TO CHILDREN, 100 East 23d Street.
NEW YORK, February 28th, 1891.
JACOB A RIIS, Esq.,
_Dear Sir_:--”It gives me very great pleasure to express my gratification in reading your valuable work 'How the Other Half Lives.' I regard it as one of the most valuable contributions to the history of child-saving work in this great city, and as pointing out the numerous evils which exist at the present time and which loudly call for legislative aid and interference.
”The thorough familiarity which you have shown with the subject of your work is equaled only by the accuracy of its detail and the graphic pictures which ill.u.s.trate the scenes described. It is a book which every one may peruse with interest, and the larger the circulation which can be given to it, the sooner I think will the charitable and well-disposed people of this city realize the need, on the part of The Other Half, of support, aid, and a.s.sistance, and which you have so graphically described.”
I have the honor to remain, with great respect, ELDRIDGE T. GERRY, President, etc.
THE CHRISTIAN UNION, 80 Lafayette Place, New York.
”It is one of the encouraging signs of the times that Jacob Riis's book on 'How the Other Half Lives' has found so many readers that a new edition is now called for. The priest and the Levite are no longer pa.s.sing by on the other side; that is itself a sign of moral weakness.