Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-05-26
JACOB R||S DEAD
At SUMMER HOME
Prominent Author and Social
Worker Succumbs, Follow
ing Long Illness.

BARRE. Mass. May 2s.-Jacob Rtis,
author and social worker. died at his
summer home here today after q long
illness.
Jacob August Riis became, through
his work in behalf of the poorer peo-
pie in New York, the most useful
citizen" of the metropolis. according
to tribute once paid him by Theo-
dore Roosevelt. his intimate friend.
AS an almost penniless immigrant he
obtained knowledge of the slums at
first hand and found conditions there
so repellant that he consecrated his
whole life to warfare against wretch
edness.
Riis was the thirteenth child of Latin
teacher in Ribe. Jutland, Denmark. He
was born in 1910. Protesting at the liter
airy career his father had cut out for him.
he decided to work with his hands and
became g. carpenters apprentice. The vo-
cation he had chosen did not prevent him.
however. from falling in love with Eliza
beth Nelson, daughter of one of the
richest men in his native town. But she
refused him, and when Riis was twenty
one years old, having learned his trade,
so in his pocket. He spent half the sum
for a heavy navy pistol as soon as he
landed ito fight Indians and despera-
does"
His Varied Career.
Riis led a varied career during the fol-
lowing dix years. He built miners huts
in a Pennsylvania construction camp,
mined COAL made bricks. drove a team,
and peddled nat irons and books. AT
twenty-seven he spent his last cent in
reaching New York, hoping to enlist
through the French consul in the French
army against Germany for the Franco
Prussian war, but his services were re-
fused, and Riis was forced to accept
beginners place as q reporter for New
York news buriau. At the very first he
made his most conspicuous success In the
study Of conditions on tho East Sads OF
New York.
With only SIS capital and notes for
$575, he succeeded in buying the South
Brooklyn News. and made such a success
with the property that he was able to
sell it at conside cradle profit few years
later He returned to Denmark and mar
ried the girl who had refused him when
he as a carpenters apprentice. This wife
died in 1905. and two years later Riis
married Mary Phillip of st. Louis.
and later on the New York Sun, Riis took
up his real work in slum fighting. While
attending to routine duty as police re-
porter, he worked day and night to arouse
the people to the need Of improved living
conditions.
He brought sunlight to the tenement
districts by forcing the destruction OF
rear tenements. He entirely cleared
Mulberry bend. one of the worst tene-
ment sections in the city, and replaced
the squalid homes by shady parks.
Attracts Roosevelt's Attention.
Theodore Roosevelt was police com
missioner Of New York when Riis at
tackled the evils of police station lodg-
ing houses. He won his point. and. in
cidentally. a strong ally in Mr.. Roose-
Welt. Riis drove bake shops out OF
tenement Easements; he fought for
laws abolishing child labor and was
largely instrumental in getting the pas
sage of the briefest. wisest and best
statute on the books of New York. lay
ing down the principle that hereafter
no school shall be built without an
adequite playground.
After twenty-seven years as a re-
porter. Riis resigned to continue his
hpht nv writing and lecturing.