Waterbury Democrat., 1902-03-06
BATTLE WITH THE sLUMs.9
Jacob A. Riis Gave Very Interesting
 Talk at Leavenworth Hall.

Jacob A. Riis Gave Very Interesting
 Talk at Leavenworth HalI
 Jacob A. Riis, the well known news paperman, delivered an Interesting lecture on "The Battle With the Slums' in Leavenworth hall last night under the auspices of the Wa terbury Moman's club. The lecture was decidedly pleasing to those pres ent and the speaker at the conclusion of his lecture was greeted with con tinued applause. The Rev John \. Lewis, rector of St Johns church. introduced MT Riis. who, in his open ing remarks said that he and MT Lew is, who was formerly connected with St Georges church, New York, had been co-workers in the slums. As the subject indicates, MT Riis' lecture was devoted to a description of the slums in New York. His remarks were illustrated with stereopticon views. He spoke i'll part as follows:
 "The battle with the slums is vital to all of us. If we lose the battle. the government is doomed. When your fathers founded this country, one of every twenty-five inhabitants lived in cities. To-day one Of every three is found there. The census shows that if we can't govern the Slums better than we have in the past, another half century will see the ruin of the republic.
 s'The old question, Am I my broth CTS keeperY has been ringing down the centuries ever since Cain first ut tered it. Tenement landlords ask the same question when we protest against their methods.
 II want to make two or three state ments for you to take home with you. It is not reasonable to make a man live like pig and expect him to vote like a man. If you rob a chId of his rights, he will not make a good citi- zen. Whatever injures the home, in- ! jures the republic
 But we are not only fighting the battle Of the slums. We are winning it.
 Boys are steam engines" he said, with the steam on all the time. You know 1t doesn't do to monkey with the safety valve Of a boiler. The boys safety valve is play. If you l sit on it, something is liable to hap pen"
 i He showed q group of boys in un- pleasant surroundings and followed it with views of q military club formed by practical benefactor, and of a file of convicts in stripes Referring to the last picture he said that some body had sat on the safety valve. Here is the picture of q nineteen year-old boy whom 1 saw hung to q gallows tree in the Tombs courtyard. said MT Riis. .He went to his death l unflinchingly. but just before he reached the scaffold, turned to an of ficer and said: If anybody had ever told me different. That sums up the whole story. Schools and boys clubs are cheaper than reform schools and prisons.
 ''We often hear that poverty is due to drunkenness. I have found that about as much drunkenness is due to poverty, as poverty to drunkenness"
 The speaker paid high tribute to President Roosevelt whose picture on the screen brought forth renewed ap- plause
 Wherever Theodore Roosevelt is. things begin to move" the speaker said, and told of the abolition by him, , as police commissioner, of the old time police lodgings.
 Colonel Waring, famous for his sue cess i'll caring for the streets of New York. also received high praise from the speaker.
 T regard football and baseball as great moral factors,' he said.