The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-01-31
WAR With SLUMS
What Reform Movement is Do
ing in New York.
Jacob A. Riis Gives an Intensely In
teresting Lecture on This
Subject.

opera house Friday night, on "The
Battle With the Sums" was worth
the price of the season tickets to the
Y. M. G. A. lecture course, under
the auspices of which he appeared.
TheShouse was filled, and the lecturer
was frequently interrupted with APP
plause.
w. D. Willard introduced Mr.. Riis,
who proved to be an easy and rapid
talker, although having a strong &C
cent of the foreign porn citizen. Mr..
Riis' lecture was intensely interesting
from beginning to end. His work as
a police reporter in New York for
quarter of century has given him
such an ample experience along the
line ofshis subject that his statements
were convincing. His lecture was
illustrated by-a large number of stere-
opticon views, handled by Prof. Cox,
and these brought the facts wildly to
the attention of his hearers. These
views were taken by himself at various
times while on duty for his paper, and
it would be dicfiult to duplicate them.
Mr.. Riis opened his lecture by refer
ring pleasantly to the city and state
and to the late Senator G. K. Davis,
who was one of the best men he had
ever known. He spoke of the Scandi-
navian population in Minnesota, and
said that he reioiced that so many
were here and had helped TO make the
state great
Taking up his subject, Mr.. Riis re-
ferred to the poverty and degradation
of the slums, and said that it was not
a safe thing for a country when the
toiler lives like pig, for he will not
vote like a man. Nor can child be
robbed of his childhood and expect to
show manhood later on. Whatever in
lures the home Injuries national life,
and the way the slums have been en-
croaching ont he homes in the cities dur
ing the last hundred years, in another
century there would be more public, but
this--@Twill be~--stopped and is'ssbeing
stopped. The sunlight and the gospel
are the best weapons to fight the slums
with, and these are being used in New
York city.
"EsMr. Riis showed how and where the
inhabitants of tine, slums inssNew York
had been living before the reform re-
Gently set in. He began with the no.
torious Five Points and conducted the
audience through the tenement house
district OF the metropolis, where the
inhabitants are packed like sardines.
He showed how there was lack of
air, light and cleanliness, how by rea-
son OF the lack of these the infant NOR
tality was great, how through the lack
of opportunity the boys and girls
grew up in paths of crime, and how
the landlords reaped harvest by fill
I'M" whole blocks with tall buildings,
with inner courts only two toysix feet
wide. He showed the exterior of the
buildings and the small and dirty
rooms in the interior, many of them
unlighted and unventilated, with stair
ways that were pitch dark. He
showed the audience some of the in
habitants, largely Italian and Irish,
with some Jews, Germans and Scan,
dinavians, and asked whether the sur
roundings were calculated to give these
people Just conception of the liberty
that exists under, the American flag.
He conducted his listeners through
dens of vice and into the cheap lodg
ing houses, and through the police
stations. Snap shots taken of gangs Of
thieves and toughs, of boys growing
up IN wickedness, of convicts in pri
son, and faces from the rogues' CALLER.
were thrown on the canvas, while tn,
speaker was rapidly explaining tn
meaning of each. 1t as like takin,
a Summing expedition in reality will
Mr.. Riis as guide.
Then the brighter side was shown
Mr.. Riis explained what was accom-
plished by the reform forces befor
Tammany came into power again. an
which will now be continued unde
Mayor Low. He showed how entir
blocks of wretched tenement building
were purchased or condemned by tn
city at the expense of millions of dol
lars and torn down and parks con
structed. He showed how splendit
school buildings have been erected, an,
play grounds established out of door
or on the roof, instead of in the base
ments as heretofore, and how the bes
architecture is being applied to tn
buildings. which are beauti6ed wit
works of art in painting and sculptur
in the place of cheap chromos. b
showed how inside buildings were tor
out to make places for courts in tn
center of tenement blocks, to let
pure air and light and make little pla
grounds for the children.
Mr.. Riis told how Mr.. Mills an
other benevolent men of means hav
erected new tenement blocks on in
proved plans, with all the rooms ha,
ing light and pure air, and courts an
grass plats in the center, and no
these investments have paid four
six or seven per cent. These men wei
willing to obtain seven per cent @
their money and save their sou
rather than make twenty-five per Gel
and lose them. Mr.. Riis believes
the doctrine that man is his brother
keeper, and that the man who crowt
tenements together so that there is I