The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-05-28
Jacob A. Riis.

Jacob August Riis. who died this
week became, through his work in be-
half of the poorer people Of New York,
the most useful citizen" of the me-
%tropolis, according to a tribute once
paid to him by Theodore Roosevelt,
his intimate friend.
AS an almost penniless immigrant
he obtained knowledge of the slums
at first hand and found conditions
there so r%epellant that he consecrated
his whole life to warfare against
Indebtedness.
Riis was the thirteenth child Of a
Latin teacher in Ribe, JutIand, Den
mark. He was born in 1849. Protest
ing at the literary career which his
father had cut out for him, young
Riis decided to work with his hands
and became a carpenters apprentice.
The vocation he had chosen did not
prevent him, however, from falling In
love with Elizabeth Nelson. daughter
Of one of the richest men in his a
tive town. But she refused him, and
learned his trade, he embarked for
New York with only $40 in his pocket,
He spent half the sum for a heavy
navy pistol as soon as he landed Ito
fight Indians and desperadoes."
Riis led a varied career during the
following six years. He built miners,
huts in a Pennsylvania construction
camp mined coal, made bricks, drove
a team and peddled fiat irons and
books. At q he spent his last cent in
reaching New York, hoping to enlist
through the French consul in the
French army against Germany for
tho ITrn D~,,eria~ THra I,,t lS- nOr
vices were refused, n Riis was
forced to accept a beginners place as
a reporter for a New York new
bureau. At the very first he made his
most conspicuous success in the study
of conditions on the east side of New
York.
With only SIS capital and notes for
$575. he succeeded in buying the
South Brooklyn News" which was
on the verge of bankruptcy and made
such a success with the property that
he was able to sell it at a consider
able profit a few years later. He re-
turned to Denmark and married the
girl who had refused him when he was
a carpenters apprentice. This first
wife died in 1905 and two years later
Riis married Mary Phillip of ST. Louis,
AS a reporter on the New York Tri-
bUne n later on the New York Sun,
Kiss took up his real work in slum
lighting. While attending to routine
duty as a police reporter, he worked
day and night to arouse the people
to the need of improved living cond1-
tons. One of the first of his campaigns
was against the impurity of the city
water, and it was his fight which
finally led to the purchase of the
CrotOn water shed to assure safe
drinking water for New York.
He brought sunlight to the tene-
ment districts by forcing the destruc-
ton of rear tenements. He entirely
cleared Mulberry Bend, one of the
worst tenement sections in the city,
and replaced the squalid homes by
shady parks.
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
ctdentally a strong ally in Mr.. Roose-
welt. Rits drove bake shops out Of
tenement Easements: he fought for
laws abolishing child labor; and was
largely instrumental in getting the
passage of the briefest, wisest, ana
best statute on the books Of New
York, laying Down the principle that
hereafter no school shall be built
without an adequate Playground"
After twenty-seven years as a re-
porter, Riis resigned to continue his
fight by writing and lecturing. Among
the products of his pen are How the
Other Half Lives THE Children of
the Poor" THE Making of an Ameri-
can" CHS autobiography "The Bat
tie with the Sum- "Children of the
~Tenements," THE Old Town." "Theo-
dore, The Citizen and Hero Tales
from the Far North"