Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1914-06-11

NEw6. WATEIToN1 q.
IT was after he had become q po-
lice reporter that Jacob Riis leyeled
up the score. He tells OF III Al his
autobiography. The Making OF an
American
we had been looking the police
over by night, Roosevelt and !. We
had inspected the lodgingsrooms.
while I went over the long fight with
him, and had come at last to the
Church Street Station 1t was raining
outside, The light flickered, cold and
cherries, in the green lamp as we
went up the stone steps. Involuntar-
lily / looked In the corner for my lit
tie dog, but 1t was not there, or any
one who remembered 1t. The ser.
geant glanced over his blotter grimly;
I had almost to pinch myself to make
sure / was not shiyering In q linen
duster. wet to the skin. Down the
cellar steps to the mems lodging-room
! led the president OF the police
board. 1t was unchanged. Just as It
was the day / slept there. Three men
lay stretched at full length on the
dirty planks, two of them young lads
from the country. Standing there.
told Mr.. Roosevelt my own story. He
turned alternately red and white as
he heard 1t.
Did they do that to your he ask.
ed, when / had ended. For an ans
wer, ! pointed i the young lads then
asleep before him. 4 was like this
one,t | said.
He struck his clenched fists to-
gether, i will smash them tomor,
TOW
"FIe was as good as his word. The
next day the police board took the
matter up, Provision was made for
the homeless on a barge in the East
River until plans could be perfected
for sitting the tramps from the UNI
fortunate, and within a week, on rec,
concentration of the chief of police,
orders were issued to close the doors
of the police lodging rooms on Febru,
airy 2, 1896, never again to be opened,
The battle was won. The murder Of
my dog was avenged and forgiven
after TWENTY-FIVE years"
The friendship between Riis and
Roosevelt began soon after the publ
cation of the formers first book deal
ing with conditions in the slums
called How the Other Half Lives
Mr.. Roosevelt, then a member of the
New York police commission, read
the book, appreciated its sincerity and
fine feeling, and recognized the value
at once of the indomitable spirit with
(which its author was imbued. We
read:
One night Riis got a message from
Theodore Roosevelt, then of the New
York police commission. Il want Il
belp,ss it said. From that day Theo
dore Roosevelt was Jacob Riis's stead
fast friend, and when he became pc
lice commissioner they were con
stantly together. They walked int
tenement houses and observed TO
themselves the conditions. The.
tramped the streets at night and fount
.lpolicemen asleep, and stirred the de
APARTMENT from top to bottom. Ant
they abolished the police lodging
house system.
This friendship become celebrated
and it was ~laughingly said Of Ri
that, in his later years, he could no
make a speech. upon any subjec
4 whatever, without mentioning Roose
~eIvelt's name at least twelve times be
l for his remarks were concluded. Til
: Sun sums up a few of the reforms tina
Y Riis, both independently and with tn
thelp of Commissioner Roosevelt az
complished in New York or set Il
? motion:
MT. Riis did the work that wo,
7 small parks for bad spots in the city
HE labored years to have more schoo
: houses built, The evils he expose
he discovered in his work as a report
z er. He knew how to write so as Il
wiring mems hearts with his news q
7 oppression, misery, and h~opelessness
e He compelled Indifferent city official
e to concede the reforms he suggeste
. or approved.
It was Riis who exposed the col
+ taminated state Of the city's waite
d supply. and thus brought about til
purchase of the whole Croton watel
shed 1t was Riis who forced til
n destruction of rear tenements, an
e thus relieved the hideous darkness
- AG o. III NHN#FE