The Children of the Poor

The Children of the Poor by Jacob A. Riis

Riis turns to the "problem of children" in apartment buildings: he has often tried to count the number of small bodies in each building, but he doubts anyone has succeeded. Last year, he says, workers found the body of a little boy crushed under a pile of wood, which no one had missed and no one ever claimed.

Riis argues that boys growing up in apartments could profitably be trained from an early age to be mechanics, but union "despotism" has prevented this path, meaning boys are doomed to drudgery or else, if their families don't have time. to take care of them, to peddle or beg. So they end up in the street.

Riis maintains that these young "savages" are still children at heart: they have a love of beauty that can be seen if one of them ever brings wildflowers into a building, lighting up the faces of the others. children and keeping the peace in a neighborhood better, says Riis, than a policeman would. Most of the time, however, no one has the time or energy to collect flowers from so far away: instead, children grow up in gloomy, gloomy homes with only the promise of hard labor that will keep them. waits. Riis cites the results of a survey by a man at a downtown public school: of 48 boys, 20 had never seen the Brooklyn Bridge, a five-minute walk away; only three had been to Central Park before.

Last summer, Riis met a little boy at the police headquarters. No one knew where he came from, but he was delighted to have a bed for the night and bread with an egg for breakfast. In response to Riis's questions, he said he did not go to school or church; he never bought bread, only beer.

Riis also saw little girls whose alcoholic father put them on the streets after their mother died. He pits the indifference of people toward the children's lack of knowledge of Christianity against the busy missionary activity of Christians in New York on behalf of children thousands of miles away.

Riis describes the work of the Children's Aid Society, which is trying to address this situation by sheltering thousands of homeless and orphaned children. There is also the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, which has defended 138,891 children, as well as New York asylums and institutions housing 15,000 dependent children. Riis highlights the large population at stake.

Riis argues that the key to the fight against poverty is to focus on children before they are corrupted by the influences of streets and buildings. For the moment, it is mainly a private charity that caters to them: the city only offers reformatories, work houses and prisons.