The Christian Union,
80 Lafayette Place,
New York.
“It is one of the encouraging signs of the times that Jacob Riis’s book on ‘How the Other Half Lives’ has found so many readers that a new edition is now called for. The priest and the Levite are no longer passing by on the other side; that is itself a sign of moral weakness.
“I was first attracted to Mr. Riis’s work by an illustrated lecture which he gave in Plymouth Church which stirred our hearts very deeply, and which showed how thorough an investigation and exploration he had made.
“His book presents by pictures for the eye, and by pen and ink pictures quite as graphic, those phases of modern paganism which exist in our great cities and are beginning to arouse the wonder, the indignation, and the wrath of philanthropists and Christians.
“‘How the Other Half Lives’ is worthy to be a companion to ‘In Darkest England,’ to which, indeed, as a picture of existing conditions it is superior; nor is it without suggestions of remedy, which, if less elaborate than Mr. Booth’s, will strike the average reader as more immediately practicable.”
LYMAN ABBOTT.
“It was a murderer who asked the question ‘Am I my brother’s keeper?’ and hoped for a negative answer. But the affirmative answer of God has been ringing through all the milleniums since then. This eternal ‘YES’ meets the church of to-day, and there are signs that the church is waking to seek some method by which that ‘YES’ shall be adequately carried out. The first thing is to know how my brother lives, and what are his temptations, difficulties, trials, hopes, fears. On this no book that has ever appeared in this land pours such light as Mr. Riis’s book on ‘The Other Half.’ Let all who want to know what to do for these brothers of theirs in this town, read this book which is enormously more interesting than any novel that ever was written or that ever will be. Dens, dives, hovels, sickness, death, sorrow, drink, and murder, all these exist in our midst in appalling magnitude, and with all of these we must have to do if we are not to be modern Cains. No ‘eau de cologne’ business is this, if we are to uplift these brothers of ours, as will be apparent from a reading of this remarkable book. Let all who are in any way interested in the welfare of humanity buy and read it at once, and let all who are not interested repent at once and get the book, and then bring forth fruits meet for repentance.”
A. F. SCHAUFFLER.
PRESS NOTICES.
“Criticism, in the narrower sense, has no hold on ‘How the Other Half Lives.’ The book is most beautiful without, as fascinating within. Every word bears its message; every illustration—there are many—means something. Mr. Riis has deserved nobly of the public for his thorough and resourceful work. We cannot believe that his reward will fail. We should be sorry to think that his earnest words would be less to any reader than a commanding invitation to the thick of the battle against social injustice.”—The Boston Times.