Produced by David Edwards, Matthew Wheaton and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) [Illustration: HOT CORN, LIFE SCENES IN NEW YORK ILLUSTRATED.] HOT CORN: LIFE SCENES IN NEW YORK ILLUSTRATED. INCLUDING THE STORY OF LITTLE KATY, MADALINA, THE RAG-PICKER'S DAUGHTER, WILD MAGGIE, &c. WITH ORIGINAL DESIGNS, ENGRAVED BY N. ORR. BY SOLON ROBINSON. "Bid that welcome Which comes to punish us." "A beggar's book outworth's a noble's blood." "Of every inordinate cup beware, Or drink, and with it misery share." * * * * * NEW YORK: DE WITT AND DAVENPORT, PUBLISHERS, 160 & 162 NASSAU STREET. 1854. ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by DE WITT & DAVENPORT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New-York * * * * * W. H. TINSON, Stereotyper, &c., 22 Spruce Street, New York. R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER, 53 Vesey St, N. Y. TO HORACE GREELEY, AND HIS CO-LABORERS, EDITORS OF THE NEW YORK TRIBUNE; The Friends of the Working Man; The Advocates of Lifting up poor trodden-down Humanity; The Ardent Supporters of, and Earnest Advocates for the Maine Law; The Wishers for Better Rewards for Woman's Labor, And All Honest Industry, This Volume is RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, BY YOUR FRIEND AND FELLOW WORKER, THE AUTHOR. INTRODUCTION. The growing taste for works of this kind--works intended to promote temperance and virtue, to lift up the lowly, to expose to open day the hidden effects produced by Rum, to give narratives of misery suffered by the poor in this city--has induced the Publishers to offer liberal inducements to the author to use his powerful pen, and words of fire, to depict his "Life Scenes," and embody them in a volume, which, we are satisfied, will prove one of the most acceptable to the moral portion of the community, ever published. It is a work of high tone, that must do good. The peculiar style of the author is as original as the tales of truth which he narrates. It is unlike that of any other author, and every page is full of fresh interest and thrilling narrative. As a temperance tale, it has no equal. As such, we hope it may prove but the commencement of a series. As an expose of life among the poor in this city, it will be read with deep and abiding interest, in all parts of this country. It is a work for the fireside of every family; a book that commends itself to the heart. No one who has read the "HOT CORN STORIES," as they appeared in the _Tribune_, but will rejoice to have the opportunity to possess them, and many more like them, all complete and connected, in one handsome volume, such as we now offer.