The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Children of the Poor, by Jacob A. Riis

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Title: The Children of the Poor

Author: Jacob A. Riis

Release Date: May 30, 2010 [EBook #32609]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR

[Illustration]

THE CHILDREN OF THE POOR

BY
JACOB A. RIIS
AUTHOR OF "HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES"

_ILLUSTRATED_

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1908

COPYRIGHT, 1892, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

PREFACE

To my little ones, who, as I lay down my pen, come rushing in from the
autumn fields, their hands filled with flowers "for the poor children," I
inscribe this book. May the love that shines in their eager eyes never
grow cold within them; then they shall yet grow up to give a helping hand
in working out this problem which so plagues the world to-day. As to their
father's share, it has been a very small and simple one, and now it is
done. Other hands may carry forward the work. My aim has been to gather
the facts for them to build upon. I said it in "How the Other Half Lives,"
and now, in sending this volume to the printer, I can add nothing. The two
books are one. Each supplements the other. Ours is an age of facts. It
wants facts, not theories, and facts I have endeavored to set down in
these pages. The reader may differ with me as to the application of them.
He may be right and I wrong. But we shall not quarrel as to the facts
themselves, I think. A false prophet in our day could do less harm than a
careless reporter. That name I hope I shall not deserve.

To lay aside a work that has been so long a part of one's life, is like
losing a friend. But for the one lost I have gained many. They have been
much to me. The friendship and counsel of Dr. Roger S. Tracy, of the
Bureau of Vital Statistics, have lightened my labors as nothing else
could save the presence and the sympathy of