The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-11-25

| Siouhuo ioI LChCDhCht
Praise for President Roosevelt.
At the Scranton Bicycle club house,
last night, one of the most representa-
tive audiences the city can assemble,
heard New York's eminent humantar-
ian, Jacob Riis. deliver his lecture on
THE Battle With the Slums."
TO those interested in practical re-
| form work, Mr.. Riis needs no intro
duction. His Making of An American
alone would make him familiar to all
who read the literature of sociology.
But his writings form the smallest
| part of the ground on which have been
based the heap of encomiums that have
come to him from his hosts of admirers.
| 1t is his aggressive. practical uplifting
work among the slums, especially his
activities in the crusade against the
| disease and crime breeding overcrowd-
ed tenement that won him fame. 1t
was while engaged in \this work that
Police Commissioner Theodore Roose-
welt declared him to be 'rhe best man
| living" Only one person disputes this
| declaration. That person is Mr.. Riis
himself. He says Roosevelt is the best
| anu ti'o soiSeitCSL Hlttil liNiiE'
Personality of MI. Riis.
Mr.. Ris is Il middle-aged man. with
most of the physical character
| istics of his nation--Danish-a
not few of the general
| characteristics of the present
head of his adopted nation, his close
| personal friend, President Roosevelt.
| He is robust, strenuous, massive and
| looks in every feature the honest,
| straightforward, unselflsh and Jealous
| man he has proven himself to be. One
| need only see him to be favorably i'm
| pressed with him. and brought to real
ize that he is really somebody.
His lecture, last night, was along the
lines of his book of the same title as
the lecture, which was prepared last
week. 1t deals mainly with the work
| that has been done; is doing and ought
to be done in fighting the slums by ed
ucating the children of the slums. 1t
was most interesting, edifying and in
spring lecture and those who heard 1t
may we'll feel grateful to the Young
Ladies' society of the First Presbyter-
ian church, under whose auspices he
came here. He was introduced by Rev.
James Mcleod. ID. D., pastor of the
FIRST presbyterian church.
Mr.. Riis' observations on the series
of stereopticon views of life in the
slums, collected during his twenty-five
years as a police reporter OH the New
York Sun. and worker in the crusades
against the evils of the crowded tene-
ment, were especially interesting.
Hearty Applause.
Applause most hearty was evoked by
the pleasing contrast of pictures of
condemned tenements torn down to re-
lieve congestion in the crowded dis
tricts, and the pretty breathing spots
that came in their stead. When Mr.
Ris showed pictures OF block after
block of tenements that had been razed
and supplanted by grass plats and told
that it cost million dollars a block
to accomplish this work, there was a
generous expression of mild, but yet
audible surprise and commendation.
Some of his terse sayings follow:
\ man can't live like a pig and vote
lake II man. Some there are who say
do not stew and fret about those tene-
meEt people; they won't be content no
matter what you do for them" 1t is my
consistent and persistent effort to arouse
in the people of the tenemcnts Il healthy
tlStDllltiil. "oulu EOl nave tilGll cOI.
tent with their condition.
The children of today are our own
tomorrow. Light, air, play are their
natural rights, and necessary to their
healthy mental and moral growth. Rob
them of these and you rob them of their
manhood.
A homeless country is most undesir-
able. There are $1,000 tenement houses
in New York containing 100000 souls.
This is Il threat to our country because
anything which threatens the home
threatens the country.
Battle with Slums.
The battle with the slum is fight
for civic righteousness. 1t is a fight for
those who are and of right ought to be
our equals. because they are lifted for it,
One thing above many Others which
tries my patience is sign, keep Off the
Grass! If it so happens that We shall
be unearthed thousands of years from
now as Pompei is now being unearthed
the wise chaps will surely agree from the
finding of so many of these inscriptions
Sthat "Those Americans were grass wor-
shippers"
Prevent a boy from play and you mon
key with his safety valve. Not until five
years ago did the movement for play
grounds in the crowded districts begin
to achieve practical success. The police
on the boys safety valve. A tenement
hoy will play bail or burglary. He must
be doing.
The slaughter of infants by the lack
of light and air in rear tenements, was
dwelt upon as one of the greatest of
the evils. of the congested districts. He
told of one large tenement of this kind
in which one-third of all the babies
died and which he discovered the real
owners were the stockholders in
neighboring cemetery association.
Modern Tenements.
Views We're shown OF modern tene-
ments erected by Christian people,
under the lead OF women like the es-
teemed wife of Bishop Potter, and of
the Mills hotels erected by the philan-
thropic ID. o. Mills. Mr.. Ris spoke in
the warmest terms of praise of these
people.
The wretched police station lodging
houses which tiourished in lower New
York We're the subject of an interesting
anecdote of Police Commissioner Roose-
welt. Mr.. Riis told the commissioner of
their conditions and asked him to go
along and see some of them. The invi-
tation was accepted. Roosevelt was in
dignant that such institutions We're
permitted to exist in New York city.
III smash them tomorrow" said Roose-
welt. And the next day they We're
smashed" declared the lecturer. The
audience cheered, it Is quite needless
to say.