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Riis, Jacob A., 1849-1914

"The Making of an American"

White of Brooklyn, who had proved the faith that was in him by
building real homes for the people, and had proved, too, that they
were a paying investment. It was just a question whether a man would
take seven per cent and save his soul, or twenty-five and lose it.
And I might as well add here that it is the same story yet. All
our hopes for betterment, all our battling with the tenement-house
question, sum themselves up in the effort, since there are men yet
who would take twenty-five per cent and run that risk, to compel
them to take seven and save their souls for them. I wanted to jump
up in my seat at that time and shout Amen! But I remembered that
I was a reporter and kept still. It was that same winter, however,
that I wrote the title of my book, "How the Other Half Lives," and
copyrighted it. The book itself did not come until two years after,
but it was as good as written then. I had my text.
It was at that Chickering Hall meeting that I heard the gospel
preached to the poor in the only way that will ever reach them. It
was the last word that was said, and I have always believed that it
was not exactly in the plan.


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