The Making of an American

ﺞ
The Making of an American, by Jacob A. Riis

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Making of an American, by Jacob A. Riis Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: The Making of an American
Author: Jacob A. Riis
Release Date: July, 2004 [EBook #6125] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 14, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN ***

Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: "The MM Co."]
[Illustration: Jacob A. Riis]
THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN
BY JACOB A. RIIS
AUTHOR OF "HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES," "A TEN YEARS' WAR," "OUT OF MULBERRY STREET," ETC.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS
To LAMMET

TO THE READER
The papers which form this autobiography were originally published in The Outlook, the chapter telling of my going "home to mother" in The Churchman, and parts of one or two others in The Century Magazine. To those who have been asking if they are made-up stories, let me say here that they are not. And I am mighty glad they are not. I would not have missed being in it all for anything.
J. A. R.
RICHMOND HILL, N.Y., October, 1901.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE MEETING ON THE LONG BRIDGE
CHAPTER II
I LAND IN NEW YORK AND TAKE A HAND IN THE GAME
CHAPTER III
I GO TO WAR AT LAST, AND SOW THE SEED OF FUTURE CAMPAIGNS
CHAPTER IV
WORKING AND WANDERING
CHAPTER V
I GO INTO BUSINESS, HEADLONG
CHAPTER VI
IN WHICH I BECOME AN EDITOR AND RECEIVE MY FlRST LOVE LETTER
CHAPTER VII
ELIZABETH TELLS HER STORY
CHAPTER VIII
EARLY MARRIED LIFE; I BECOME AN ADVERTISING BUREAU; ON THE "TRIBUNE"
CHAPTER IX
LIFE IN MULBERRY STREET
CHAPTER X
MY DOG IS AVENGED
CHAPTER XI
THE BEND IS LAID BY THE HEELS
CHAPTER XII
I BECOME AN AUTHOR AND RESUME MY INTERRUPTED CAREER AS A LECTURER
CHAPTER XIII
ROOSEVELT COMES--MULBERRY STREET'S GOLDEN AGE
CHAPTER XIV
I TRY TO GO TO THE WAR FOR THE THIRD AND LAST TlME
CHAPTER XV
WHEN I WENT HOME TO MOTHER
CHAPTER XVI
THE AMERICAN MADE

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Jacob A. Riis
Our Stork
The Meeting on the Long Bridge
Ribe, from the Castle Hill
The View the Stork got of the Old Town
The Domkirke
Within the Domkirke
Mother
The Deserted Quay
Downstream, where Ships sailed once
A Cobblestone-paved Alley
Father
My Childhood's Home
Down by her Garden, on the River Nibs
The Picture her Mother gave me
Brady's Bend as I knew it
"I found the valley deserted and dead"
"The dead were much better company"
Lunching at Delmonico's
The Fight on the Police Station Steps
"There I set my traps"
Our Old Pastor
When I worked in the Buffalo Ship-yard
"One end of the town was burning while I was canvassing the other"
"I went to hear Horace Greeley address an open-air meeting"
"The wide world seemed suddenly a cold and far-off place"
"Hard Times"
Brother Simmons (the Rev. Ichabod Simmons)
The Letter
Elizabeth's Mother
Elizabeth's Home--"The Castle"
Elizabeth as I found her again
"I was face to face with my father"
Bringing the "Loved-up" Flowers
"Out into the open country, into the wide world,--our life's journey had begun"
Mulberry Street
Tribune Police Bureau
"In which lay dying a French nobleman of proud and ancient name"
Our Office--my Partner, Mr. Ensign, at the Desk, I in the Corner
"About that interview, now," he drawled
"The carriage went on"
"The General said never a word"
Dr. Roger S. Tracy
General Ely Parker (Chief of the Six Nations)
The Lodging-room at the Leonard Street Police Station
The Church Street Station Lodging-room, in which I was robbed
The Yellow Newspapers' Contribution
The Mulberry Bend as it was
"The tenants bolted through the windows"
Lodgers at Five Cents a Spot
Bandits' Roost--a Mulberry Bend Alley
Bottle Alley, Mulberry Bend. Headquarters of the Whyo Gang
The Mulberry Bend as it is
My Little Ones gathering Daisies for "the Poors"
Mr. Lowell's Letter
The Boys' "Playground" in an Old-time School
Typical East Side Tenement Block (five hundred babies in it, not one bath-tub)
President Theodore Roosevelt, of the Police Board
"One was sitting asleep on a butter-tub"
Chief of Police Thomas Byrnes
The Mott Street Barracks
Gotham Court
A Tenement House Air-shaft
The School of the New Day
The Way to prevent the Manufacture of "Toughs"
Ribe, in my Childhood (seen from Elisabeths Garden)
At Home in the Old Town (the last time we were all together)
"The 'gossip benches' are filled"
The Extinct Chimney-sweep
The Ancient Bellwoman
The Village Express
Holy Andrew's Cross
Sir Asker Ryg's Church at Fjennesloevlille
"Horse-meat to-day!"
The Cross of Dannebrog
After Twenty-five Years
King