Opening of the book
HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES
GOTHAM COURT.
HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES
STUDIES AMONG THE TENEMENTS OF NEW YORK
BY
JACOB A. RIIS
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS CHIEFLY FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY THE
AUTHOR
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1890
Copyright, 1890, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
TROW’S
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY,
NEW YORK.
PREFACE.
The belief that every man’s experience ought to be worth something to the community from which he drew it, no matter what that experience may be, so long as it was gleaned along the line of some decent, honest work, made me begin this book. With the result before him, the reader can judge for himself now whether or not I was right.
Right or wrong, the many and exacting duties of a newspaper man’s life would hardly have allowed me to bring it to an end but for frequent friendly lifts given me by willing hands. To the President of the Board of Health, Mr. Charles G. Wilson, and to Chief Inspector
Byrnes of the Police Force I am indebted for much kindness. The patient friendship of Dr. Roger S. Tracy, the Registrar of Vital
Statistics, has done for me what I never could have done for myself; for I know nothing of tables, statistics and percentages, while there is nothing about them that he does not know. Most of all, I owe in this, as in all things else, to the womanly sympathy and the loving companionship of my dear wife, ever my chief helper, my wisest counsellor, and my gentlest critic.
J. A. R.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION,
1
CHAPTER I.
GENESIS OF THE TENEMENT,
7
CHAPTER II.
THE AWAKENING,
15
CHAPTER III.
THE MIXED CROWD,
21
CHAPTER IV.
THE DOWN TOWN BACK-ALLEYS,
28
CHAPTER V.
THE ITALIAN IN NEW YORK,
48
CHAPTER VI.
THE BEND,
55
CHAPTER VII.
A RAID ON THE STALE-BEER DIVES,
71
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CHEAP LODGING-HOUSES,
82
CHAPTER IX.
CHINATOWN,
92
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