Even as late as 1909, when the city had begun to clean its drinking water, one doctor reported that typhoid was striking half of all the young foreign-born within two years of their arrival. In 1900, official Pittsburg has no plans for urban progress. It is not troubled by the needs of the poor or the laborer. For every man who fails, another stands ready to take his job. The city is not thinking about playgrounds.
Children play in the streets.
At the new year, some skate on the rivers. People in South Side row houses lean their elbows on the sills of open windows, their mouths curved down by gravity. Sooty water trickles along the dirt street beside a bare-footed boy who pushes a toy wheel barrow. In the background, spindly-legged kids sit on their haunches over an object of curiosity, their hair sticking out from under Old World caps. There is no public agency to help her.