Good Old Days

As a boy, I naturally assumed that Riis Park was named for Harold (Peewee). Later, I learned that Jacob Riis was a well-known reformer whose 1890 book, How the Other Half Lives, a chronicle of life in New York's slums, shocked  Gilded Age complacency. Nowadays, Riis is known more for his pioneering photography than for his writing.  Here are three of his images: 

The young lady on the left is known to history simply as "Katie." When Riis asked her what she did, she replied, "I scrubs." She was a laundress. She was nine years old.

I've now read a adulatory life of Jacob Riis by Tom Buk-Swienty. I learned that one of the worst New York slums, Mulberry Bend, had a population density of 2,047 per acre. Fifty per cent of Mulberry Bend's children died before their fifth birthday. Every year, about 100 Manhattan infants were found dead in the streets. In addition, another 500 children were abandoned by their parents. I also learned that in 1883, when Cornelius Vanderbilt moved into his new chateau on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street, he threw a housewarming ball for 1200 guests. "$155,730 was spent on costumes alone."

Comments

[Otis J. Brown]

Newt Gingrich thinks kids should be put to work as school janitors, just like in the good old days.