“How the Other Half Lives” in 1890s NYC
March 4th, 2020Via: My Modern Met:
Like the hundreds of thousands of other immigrants who fled to New York in pursuit of a better life, Riis was forced to take up residence in one of the city’s notoriously cramped and disease-ridden tenements. Living in squalor and unable to find steady employment, Riis worked numerous jobs, ranging from a farmhand to an ironworker, before finally landing a role as a journalist-in-training at the New York News Association.
I recently read “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” by Betty Smith; apparently it is a thinly-disguised autobiography of her childhood growing up in Brooklyn at the turn of the prior century (circa 1906-1915). I found myself fascinated by her descriptions of how people either squandered their lives on drink in a matter of fact way (as the father did), or resolutely and tirelessly and creatively kept food on the table and rent paid (as the mother did). Also fascinated by how small children shouldered adult responsibilities without complaint; a long way from the attitudes of children today. And yet not so different from the “gig economy” of today.