The Washington times., 1901-12-15
Jacob 4. Riis.

"The Making Of an American" is the
title which Jacob a. Riis has chosen for
his autobiography, and the book is Just
like the man, simple, straightforward,
and without any waste Of time. He tells
OF his childhood in Denmark. OF his com
ing to this country. OF his work for the
"other half in New York, as police
reporter and agent OF philan-
thropy, Of the great reform movement
that swept over New York some years
ago. and his own part in It; and every
inch Of the tale is interesting.
Perhaps the most interesting part OF IT,
to many readers, will be the chapter
which tells Of Mr.. Riis's connection with
Theodore Roosevelt. 1t runs in part as
follows:
1T could not have been long after
write How the Other Half Lives that
he came to the Evening sun office one
day looking for me. ! was out, and he
left his card. merely writing on the back
Of st that he had read my book, and had
come to help That was all. and it
tells the whole story Of the man. loved
him from the day / first saw him; nor
ever in all the years that have passed has
he failed Of the promise made then. No
one ever helped as he did. For two years
We were brothers in Mulberry Street.
When he loft / had seen its golden age.
knew too well the evil day that was
coming back to have any heart in it after
that
mot that We were carried heaven
ward on 'howery beds of ease while II
lasted. There is very little ease where
Theodore Roosevelt leads, as We all OF us
found out. The lawbrealer found IL out
who predicted scornfully that he would
'knuckle down to politics the way they
all did. and lived TO respect him. though
he swort at him, as the one OF them all
who was stronger than pull. The peace
loving citizen who hastcned to police
headquarters with anxious entreatic3 to
use discretion in the enforcemnt Of
unpopular laws, found 1t out ana went
away with a new and breathless notion
swelling up in him OF an officials sworn
duty. That was it. that was what made
the age golden, that for the first time
4 moral purpose came into the street. In
the light OF il everything was transform
ed.
Not all at once It took US weary
months to understand that the shouting
about the enforcement OF the dead Elk
else Law was lying treachery or rank
Ignorance, one as bad as the other. The |
Excise Law was not dead. II was never |
so much alive as under Tammany but II |
was enforced only against those saloon |
keepers who needed discipline. IL was |
a Tammany club with which to drive |
them into camp; and it was used so |
that no less than eight thou |
sand arrests we're made under it in the |
year before Roosevelt made them all |
close up. Pretty lively cornsei that! But /
we understood at last. most OF US; IN
derstood that the tap-root ofthe police |
! lacltmall was there, and that 1t bed to |
be pulled up il we were ever to get any |
farther. We understood that We were the |
victims of our own shaMmi1g. aud We |
grew 10 be better citizens far Il. The po-
lice force became an army OF Ecroes-for |
n season. All the good In u came out: |
and there is lot OF it in the wo-st OF |
times. Roosevelt had the true philoso- |
piers stone that turns dross 10 gold. |
iu his own sturdy faith in his Fellow men.