The Hawaiian gazette., 1901-11-26
1.-THE MOST VALUABLE CITIZEN"


Several years ago, when Roosevelt
was Governor of the State of New York
he gave to the world a letter of intro
duction of which the following is an
extract;
II commend to your courtesy Mr..
Jacob A. Riis of New York. the bearer
of this letter. Mr.. Riis is my, warm
personal friend, and is man whose
services to the public have been such
as to make him on the whole the most
valuable citizen in New York"
Who then is this most valuable C,ti-
zen OF New York; Is he n graduate of
one Of our great universities? Is he a.
descendant of the Puritans, or Of the
Cavaliers. or Of the old Holland stock
which peopled Manhattan Island? No.
Only a stray-away from Denmark, who
has Just told the story of his life in the
Outlook; and II is story that should
be read in every school
He was a poor Danish boy who had
learned the trade of carpenter in Den
mark. For the love of maid, ne
crossed the seas In the steerage ana
faced an alien and the most intelligent
race of the earth. He drifted about the
country: worked in the iron mines OF
Pennsylvania: became a recruit, In the
city of New York, of the French army
In 1871, because he hated Germany for
despoiling his Fatherand, but did not
leave as the Franco-German war end
ed: he sees Dana OF the n. Y. Sun and
Is given a quarter for a meal: sleeps
on door steps and under wagons is
glad to get old bread rolls and bones
from the refuse of Delmonico's kitchen:
Is cold and hungry, sleeps in Station
House and Is robbed Of the locket which
holds the picture of his girl who is be-
yond the ocean; does odd jobs for food
goes West and sells extension tables
and fails in that business; sells fiat
irons and Is good drummer" Is al
ways learning the English language,
and also saves a little money. Then
he becomes a reporter on Long ISL
and paper; leaves that occupation and
Is a book peddler; becomes a reporter
for the N. Y. News Association. He Is
marvelously wide awake and restless in
news gathering: he buys small news
paper on credit and is owner and editor
and soon pays off his debt; he becomes
engaged to the girl he left behind him;
instinctively he joins the Reformcrs
and believes in the "consecrated pen"
He marries, and becomes the police re-
porter OF the N Y. Tribune, and his
life work begins. He has restless
energy and excels in gathering news.
His office Is near to Police Headquar-
tiers and he becomes power by reason
of his industry and thorough methods
of investigation. Though only re-
porter. he soon becomes a man with a
mission to inform the world of the
misery that lies In 1t, and he does so
truthfully and bravely. He publishes
a book, How the Other Half Lives" and
his mission becomes known to the
best people of the city. These slowly
gather around him, especially well bred
women and wealthy men. He begins
n crusade for little parks in the crowd
ed parts of the city, and in this Tam
many strikes at him. He holds up to
eXecration the miserable, disease breed
ing tenement houses. He wins a vic
tory in the enactment of sanitary laws
and publishes "a Ten Years War" in
which he shows how light Is let into
the dark and filthy places, and the
children of the poor are gladdened by
few flowers and a little green grass.
He walks the streets at night with one
Theodore Roosevelt and shows him the
rottenness of the City government.
But he remains n newspaper reporter
to the end. 1t is his work, more than
any others, that evolves those vast
structures in which the poor are decent
ly housed.
Writers urgently declare that the
peril of American civilization lies in the
h,,n al Of oil n