Out of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement life in New York CityRiis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
General
Out of Mulberry Street: Stories of Tenement life in New York City
Riis, Jacob A. (Jacob August)
New York (N.Y.) -- Fiction; Poor -- New York (State) -- New York -- Fiction; Tenement houses -- Fiction
"It is her class," said the pastor of Hope Chapel, as he stopped on the
landing. "They are all kinds. We never could hope to reach them; Jennie
can. They fetch her the papers given out in the Sunday-school, and read to
her what is printed under the pictures; and she tells them the story of
it. There is nothing Jennie doesn't know about the Bible."
The door opened upon a low-ceiled room, where the evening shades lay deep.
The red glow from the kitchen stove discovered a jam of children, young
girls mostly, perched on the table, the chairs, in one another's laps, or
squatting on the floor; in the midst of them, a little old woman with
heavily veiled face, and wan, wrinkled hands folded in her lap. The
singing ceased as we stepped across the threshold.
"Be welcome," piped a harsh voice with a singular note of cheerfulness in
it. "Whose step is that with you, pastor? I don't know it. He is welcome
in Jennie's house, whoever he be. Girls, make him to home." The girls
moved up to make room.
"Jennie has not seen since she was a child," said the clergyman, gently;
"but she knows a friend without it. Some day she shall see the great
Friend in his glory, and then she shall be Blind Jennie no more."
The little woman raised the veil from a face shockingly disfigured, and
touched the eyeless sockets. "Some day," she repeated, "Jennie shall see.
Not long now--not long!" Her pastor patted her hand. The silence of the
dark room was broken by Blind Jennie's voice, rising cracked and
quavering: "Alas! and did my Saviour bleed?" The shrill chorus burst in:
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day.
The light that falls from the windows of the Neighborhood Guild, in
Delancey street, makes a white path across the asphalt pavement. Within
there is mirth and laughter. The Tenth Ward Social Reform Club is having
its Christmas festival. Its members, poor mothers, scrubwomen,--the
president is the janitress of a tenement near by,--have brought their
little ones, a few their husbands, to share in the fun. One little girl
has to be dragged up to the grab-bag. She cries at the sight of Santa
Claus. The baby has drawn a woolly horse. He kisses the toy with a look of
ecstatic bliss, and toddles away. At the far end of the hall a game of
blindman's-buff is starting up. The aged grandmother, who has watched it
with growing excitement, bids one of the settlement workers hold her
grandchild, that she may join in; and she does join in, with all the
pent-up hunger of fifty joyless years. The worker, looking on, smiles; one
has been reached. Thus is the battle against the slum waged and won with
the child's play.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account