Still later, after the opening of the World War, and because I was noting how swiftly and steadily the city was changing and old landmarks and conditions were being done away with, I thought it worth while to bring together, not only all the scenes I had previously published or sketched, but to add some others which from time to time I had begun but never finished. Among these at that time were The Fire, Hell’s Kitchen, A Wayplace of the Fallen, The Man on the Bench. And then, several years ago, having in the meanwhile once more laid aside the material to the advantage of other matters, I decided that it was still worth while. And getting them all out and casting aside those I no longer cared for, and rewriting others of which I approved, together with new pictures of old things I had seen, i.e., Bums, The Michael J. Powers Association, A Vanished Summer Resort, The Push-cart Man, The Sandwich Man, Characters, The Men in the Snow, The City Awakes—I finally evolved the present volume. But throughout all these latest additions I sought only to recapture the flavor and the color of that older day—nothing more. If they are anything, they are mere representations of the moods that governed me at the time that I had observed this material at first hand—not as I know the city to be now.

In certain of these pictures, as will be seen, reference is made to wages, hours and working and living conditions not now holding, or at least not to the same severe degree. This is especially true of such presentations as The Men in the Dark, The Men in the Storm, The Men in the Snow, Six O’clock, The Bread-line, (long since abolished), The Toilers of the Tenements, and Christmas in the Tenements. Yet since they were decidedly true of that particular period, I prefer to leave them as originally written. They bear, I believe, the stamp of their hour.

Theodore Dreiser.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Foreword[ix]
The City of My Dreams[1]
The City Awakes[5]
The Waterfront[9]
The Log of a Harbor Pilot[14]
Bums[34]
The Michael J. Powers Association[44]
The Fire[56]
The Car Yard[68]
The Flight of Pigeons[74]
On Being Poor[77]
Six O’clock[81]
The Toilers of the Tenements[85]
The End of a Vacation[100]
The Track Walker[104]
The Realization of an Ideal[108]
The Pushcart Man[112]
A Vanished Seaside Resort[119]
The Bread-Line[129]
Our Red Slayer[133]
Whence the Song[138]
Characters[156]
The Beauty of Life[170]
A Wayplace of the Fallen[173]
Hell’s Kitchen[184]
A Certain Oil Refinery[200]
The Bowery Mission[207]
The Wonder of the Water[216]
The Man on the Bench[219]
The Men in the Dark[224]
The Men in the Storm[230]
The Men in the Snow[233]
The Freshness of the Universe[238]
The Cradle of Tears[241]
When the Sails Are Furled[244]
The Sandwich Man[260]
The Love Affairs of Little Italy[267]
Christmas in the Tenements[275]
The Rivers of the Nameless Dead[284]

ILLUSTRATIONS

The City of My Dreams[Frontispiece]
FACING
PAGE
The City Awakes[6]
The Waterfront[12]
The Michael J. Powers Association[48]
The Fire[58]
The Car Yard[70]
The Flight of Pigeons[74]
Being Poor[78]
Six O’clock[82]
Toilers of the Tenements[88]
The Close of Summer[100]
The Realization of an Ideal[108]
The Pushcart Man[114]
Whence the Song[142]
A Character[160]
The Beauty of Life[170]
A Wayplace of the Fallen[174]
Hell’s Kitchen[186]
An Oil Refinery[204]
The Bowery Mission[210]
The Wonder of the Water[216]
The Man on the Bench[220]
The Men in the Dark[226]
The Men in the Storm[230]
The Men in the Snow[234]
The Freshness of the Universe[238]
The Cradle of Tears[241]
Sailors’ Snug Harbor[250]
The Sandwich Man[264]
A Love Affair in Little Italy[270]
Christmas in the Tenements[278]