This is a collection of vignettes about poverty in New York City in the early 1900s. Jacob Riis was a police reporter and a sociologist. He made human the faces of extreme poverty and did not limit his often-wrenching prose to children. He included old people and animals, and described diverse cultures. These stories evoke both laughter and tears.
Chapters
1 Preface 2 min 2 The Rent Baby 18 min 3 A Story of Bleeker Street 12 min 4 The Kid Hangs Up His Stocking 11 min 5 The Slipper-Maker's Fast 5 min 6 Death Comes to Cat Alley 6 min 7 A Proposal on the Elevated 8 min 8 Little Will's Message 17 min 9 Lost Children 15 min 10 Paolo's Awakening 22 min 11 The Little Dollar's Christmas Journey 21 min 12 The Kid 5 min 13 When the Letter Came 6 min 14 The Cat Took the Kosher Meat 6 min 15 Nibsy's Christmas 19 min 16 In the Children's Hospital 13 min 17 Nigger Martha's Wake 10 min 18 What the Christmas Sun Saw in the Tenements 25 min 19 Midwinter in New York 37 min 20 A Chip from the Maelstrom 6 min 21 Sarah Joyce's Husbands 4 min 22 Merry Christmas in the Tenements 1 h 7 min 23 Abe's Game of Jacks 6 min 24 A Little Picture 3 min 25 A Dream of the Woods 9 min 26 Twas 'Liza's Doings 19 min 27 Heroes Who Fight Fire 1 h 28 John Gavin, Misfit 7 min 29 A Heathen Baby 8 min 30 The Christening in Bottle Alley 8 min 31 In the Mulberry Street Court 4 min 32 Difficulties of a Deacon 12 min 33 Fire in the Barracks 4 min 34 War on the Goats 7 min 35 He Kept His Tryst 6 min 36 Rover's Last Fight 9 min 37 How Jim Went to the War 17 min 38 A Backwoods Hero 8 min 39 Jack's Sermon 14 min 40 Skippy of Scrabble Alley 11 min 41 Making a Way Out of the Slum 34 min
