Curen
"bodies of drowned children turn up in the rivers right along in summer whom no one seems to know
anything about. when last spring some workmen, while moving a pile of lumber on a north river pier,
found under the last plank the body of a little lad crushed to death, no one had missed a boy, though
his parents afterward turned up. the truant officer assuredly does not know, though he spends his we
trying to find out, somewhat illogically, perhaps, since the department that employs him admits that
thousands of poor children are crowded out of the schools year by year for want of room. there was a
big tenement in the sixth ward, now happily appropriated by the beneficent spirit of business that
blots out so many foul spots in new york-it figured not long ago in the official reports as "an out-and-
out hogpen"-that had a record of one hundred and two arrests in four years among its four hundred
and seventy-eight tenants, fifty-seven of them for drunken and disorderly" (riss, xv)|
-- jacob a. riis (1849-1914). how the other half lives. 1890.
why do you think riis would title his book, "how the other half lives"?
a. rich and poor families are very aware of the trials and tribulations of each other's economic
class
b. he is trying to poor families understand the conditions that rich families are facing
c. he is trying to the readers understand the conditions of poverty stricken families
d. he is trying to become a truancy officer to patrol neighborhoods