Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-05-26
Noted Social Worker is
Called to Rest After a
Long. Illness.
YEARS AS A REPORTER
Wages War on Tenement Dis
tricts in New York and
Gains Aid for the Poor.

Barre, Mass, May 26.-Jacob A
Riis, author and social worker, died at
his summer home here today after a
long illness.
Jacob August Riis became, through
his work in behalf of the poorer people
in New York, "the most useful citizen"
of the metropolis. according to trib-
ute 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 repellant that he consecrated his
whole life to warfare against wretch
edness.
Riis was the 18th child of Latin
teacher in Ribe, Jutland, Denmark He
was born in 1S49. Protesting at the
literary career which his father had
cut out for him, young Riis decided to
work with his hands and became
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 native town.
But she refused him, and when Riis
was 81 years old, having learned his
trade, he embarked for New York with
only $40 in his pocket. He spent half
the sum for a heavy naval pistol as
soon as he had landed Ito fight Indians
and desperados."
PeddIed Irons and Books.
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 % he spent his last cent
in reaching New York. hoping to en-
list through the French consul in the
French army against Germany for the
war, but his services
were refused, and Riis was forced to
accept beginners place as reporter
for New York news bureau. AT the |
very first he made his most conspicu- |
Gus success in the study OF conditions
on the East Side Of New York.
With only SIS capital and notes for
1915, 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 considerable |
profit a few years later. He returned |
to Denmark and married the girl who |
had refused him when he was a car
penter's apprentice. This first wife
died in 1905 and two years later Riis
Mary Phillip of st. Louis.
AS a reporter on the New York
Tribune and later on the New York
Sun, Riis took up his real work in
slum fighting. While attending to rc[
tine duty as police reporter, he work
ed day and night to arouse the people
10 the need of improving living condi-
tions. One of the first of his cam
paigns was against the impurity of
the city water, and it was his fight
which finally led to the purchase of
The Croton watershed to assure safe
drinking water for New York.
Clears Mulberry Bend.
He borught sunlight to the tenement
districts by forcing the destruction of
-ear tenements. He entirely cleared
Bend, one of the worst tene-
nent sections in the city, and replaced
he squalid homes by shady parks.
Theodore Roosevelt was police COM
missioner of New York when Riis at
acked the evils of police station lodg-
ng houses. He won his point and in ,
a strong ally in Mr.. Roose- )
velt. Riis drove bake-shops out of ten
.ment Easements; he fought for laws
Lbolishing child labor; and was large 3,
y instrument in getting the passage 7
4 "the briefest, wisest, and best sta
ute on the books of New York. laying j.,
own the principle that hereafter no
chool shall be built without an ade-
uate playground ,
After 27 years as a reporter, Riis re-
igned to continue his fight by writ r
ng and lecturing. Among the pro- :
ucts of his pen are How the Other !,
ialf Lives" 1.-The Children of the /,
'oor," The Making of an American"
his autobiography. The Battle with +,
he Slum," Children of the Tene-
ients." The. Old Town." Theodore ,
Roosevelt. the Citizen" and Hero
'ales from the Far North