The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-11-23
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:
"T 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 a 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 citi-
zen of New York;" Is he a graduate of
one of our great universities? Is he
descendant of the Puritans, or of the
Cavaliers, or of the old Holland stock
which peopled Manhattan Island? No.
Only stray-away from Denmark, who
has just told the story of his life in the
Outlook; and 1t is a story that should
be read in every school.
He was a poor Danish boy who had
learned the trade of a carpenter in Den
mark. For the love of a maid, he
crossed the seas in the steerage and
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
I'm 1871, because he hated Germany for
despoiling his Fatherland, but did not
leave as the Franco-German war end !
ed; he sees Dana of the N. Y. Sun and |
Is given 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 a 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 falls in that business; sells fiat |
irons and Is a good drummer Is al
ways learning the English language,
and also saves a little money. Then
he becomes 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 a small news
paper on credit and is owner and editor
and soon pays of his debt: he becomes
engaged TO the girl he left behind him;
fnstinctively he joins the Reformcrs
and believes in the ''consecrated pen"
He marries, and becomes the police re-
porter OF the ~. Y. Tribune, and his
life work begins. He has a restless
energy and excels In gathering news.
His office is near to Police Headquar-
tiers and he becomes a power by reason
OF his Industry and thorough methods
OF investigation. Though only a re-
porter, he soon becomes a man with a
mission to inform the world OF the
misery that lies in IL, and he does so
truthfully and brayely. 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
a few flowers and a little green grass.
He walks the streets at night with one I
Theodore Roosevelt and shows him the {
rottenness of the City government. I
But he remains a newspaper reporter a
TO the end. 1t Is his work, more than =
any others. that evolves those vast l
structures In which the poor are decent /
ly housed. c
Writers urgently declare that the c
peril Of American civilization lies in the q
abnormal conditions of city life; that
sound democracy is stified in it's fetid :
air. A self-educated Danish boy comes :
over to America and teaches the Chris
tian churches, the university men and
v omen, the political leaders, the wise
the best methods of munich
pal reform. He has the brain of Her d
bert Spencer to investigate and the n
spirit OF Christ 70 inspire him. Is II !
hen strange that the President of the f.
United States said ''he is on the whole d
he most valuable citizen IN New s
york?" a