My Mamie Rose: The Story of My Regeneration

you mine. Not because I, as they, have done great and import

man at thirty cannot read or write the simplest sentence, and then eight years

ents. I cannot do that. I have no record of great deeds accomplished. I am a man, reborn and remade from an unfortunate moral condition into a life in which every atom has but the one message, "Strive, struggle and believe," and I would be the sneakiest hypocrite were I to deny that I feel within me a satisfact

therwise. Each fact, each incident mentioned, has been lived by me; the disgrace and the glory, the misery and the happiness, are all part of my life, and I cannot separate them from myself. I know you will not disbelieve me, and I am

childhood. Most of the boys of the tenements

op floor of an old-style tenement house in Catharine street, our home was lighted and ventilated by one small window, which looked out into a network of wash-lines running from the windows to tall poles

side the cooking range in winter and beside the open window in summer was the old so

ty in the Fourth Ward meant a great circle of convivial companions and a fair credit with the ginmill keepers. His earnings would have been considerable had he been a persistent worker. But men of popularity c

forts are directed toward the one end of providing the wherewithal fo

rent day." The thrifty housekeeper lays aside a share of her daily allowance-increasing it during t

es are very apt to become a trifle unsteady in their ethics concerning financial questions. They are willing to pay their grocer or butcher, but lose sight of the fact that the rent money is the payment for the

only on a slightly different scale socially from their tenants. They are men, who, by great shrewdness or some fortunate chance, accumulated enough to make a real estate inves

d to real estate agents, who receive a commission on their collections, or to salaried representatives, who owe thei

woe, the pleading that comes to it in halting, sob-broken speech. How, then, is one whose feeling is long ago calloused by the repetition of these tales

d be perfectly justified and would touch one of the most potent causes for the existing conditions among the poor. No one lives more lavishly and know

any families will absolutely gorge themselves at table with food and d

y support than those carried on to teach children, and especially girls, "

f cooking and frying waft from the open doors of the apartments into the halls. The doors are open for two reasons-for ventilation and to "show" the neighbors that more than the

the marvels of the neighborhood. When working he was very exacting in the choice and preparation of his

and other housework to be looked after, and little time was left for

n existence on it. A child can do without coddling-yes, most boys do not, or pretend not

ng the adults about him. And the models and patterns in tenement spheres are not those a child should imitate. All conditions

t her husband's mellow state, should vent her feelings in an outburst of more emphatic than polite languag

one sentence without profanity. To be deemed manly one must curse and swear.

tharine St. The Star marks the

and crumbles to pieces and leaves naught but a being condemned by society and law, and seemingly by God, there is an army ready to pelt this creature, cursed by its own ex

h the drama of my childhood began. The pa

play and scheme some mischief requires lots of room, and there being not an inch of room to spare

out having a boy or girl hurt by some passing vehicle. It is almost impossible to guard against these accidents. The drivers are care

e Bowery, and the young generation, crowding before your very feet or jostling against you in innoce

houses do, and, further, even the child-life of those distric

to pick up wood and coal for the fire. My mother, being constantly engaged in looking after th

my basket and make my way to the river front to pick up bits of coal dro

, as I felt, instinctively, that something was wrong and that I was not on a level footing with them. It is impossible fo

with coal. Then spells of envy often came to me. I envied the caresses given by mothers to their sons an

father's or mother's love and justice is hidden. But even parental chastisement was

case by the lack of a certain inexplicable something in my relations to my paren

y about something, for which no explanation is vouchsafed to him, and h

coal. There was my seat, and from there I watched the little domestic comedi

ard had well proven reputations as "mixed ale camps," meaning thereby places where certain cronies could meet nightly and "rush the growler" as long as the money lasted. If the friends were more than usually plentiful, the whisky bottle, ca

"pints" of beer to minors a punishable offense, and children of both sexes were employed until late in the night, when the bar-rooms were crowded with drunken a

returning from my trip, a man would ask me to sing him one of the popular songs of the day, but I would refuse with the diffidence of

ther than hate him. More than once I me

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