Justin Bischof

Professor Hoffman

Historical Fiction Assignment

IDC 1001H

12/5/17

How the Other Half Lives

The year was 1898.  Jerry Brown, a modest, hard-working man was returning home from work at the slaughterhouse, Clean Cuts.  On his way home, a trip that consisted of a sixty-block walk from the slaughterhouse on 14th Street to Jerry’s apartment across town, Jerry decided to rethink life.  Alas, he was fed up with how things were going.  Since his parents had left him in the city at a young age, Jerry had to scrape together a way to live and lately, he didn’t feel as if he was actually living.

“I’ll travel is what I’ll do!” remarked Jerry.  “Gosh darnit I’ve about had it with this city!”

“No, you won’t,” called a voice.  It sounded near.

“Huh?” yelled Jerry.  He decided to find where the voice was coming from.

Jerry started to run.  He ran around the corner of a brick building and through an alley where he thought he had heard the voice from.  There was nothing there.

“Well that certainly is odd,” said Jerry.

Jerry proceeded to continue on his way to his apartment, all the while thinking about his bright idea of traveling.  “Where will I find myself?” Jerry pondered.

 

In a matter of time, Jerry found himself back at his apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  After walking inside, he had to maneuver his way between four sleeping bodies.  It was not unusual for something like this to happen, Jerry worked overnight for the most part and normally came home to something like this.  He proceeded to make his way to his own portion of the tenement, where he situated himself and fell asleep.

Jerry dreamed of leaving the big city.  He dreamt he was taken in his sleep, dragged to a boat and sailed off, far away from tenement buildings and slaughterhouses.  He dreamed the boat took him to a quieter place, a neighborhood where he could make a name for himself and settle down in.  He hated the repetitiveness of city life and dreamed he was on a farm.

Jerry woke to the sound of banging outside his room.  He made his way to the door and opened it.  A middle-aged Danish man with glasses stood looking at Jerry.

“Hello, I’m Jacob Riis,” said the man.  “I was wondering if I may scope out your building for a possible picture shoot.”

Jerry hesitated for a moment.  “Why, exactly?”  He wondered why anyone would care enough to even bother to show up to the building, let alone take pictures of it, something that Jerry thought was only done for the wealthy.

“Well, it’s for a report I’m making about life in the tenements.”

Disturbed by the mundane life of his, Jerry decided to allow this stranger to take photographs of the tenement.  “I guess you could,” he said finally.

 

As the tenement building is small, news spread very quickly.  All of a sudden, the neighbors acted as if they were going to be in a movie or something.  On his way to work, Jerry was stopped by one of his roommates.

“Hey Jerry, did ya hear about this Jacob Riis fella?  He said he’s gunna take some pictures of us or sumthin’,” said the roommate.

“Yeah, I heard,” said Jerry.  “I didn’t realize he told us all.”

“Yep, he sure did.  Dunno why but the man said we were to be all in the same room together.  Said he wanted us to look uncomfortable or sumthin’.”

“Well, that’s odd.  Why would he want us to do that?”

“Because I want my subjects to be crowded.”

Jerry spun around to see Jacob Riis.  Stunned, Jerry asked, “Huh?  Were you there the entire time Jacob?  Were you eavesdropping?”

“Absolutely,” laughed Jacob.  “it’s time to photograph.  Come with me.”

“But I have work.  I can’t just ditch my normal life just to be in your photos!”

“No, you won’t.”
The way Riis said these words bothered Jerry.  He recalled to the walk home from the slaughterhouse that fateful day.  The voice he heard had to be Jacob’s.  Jerry tried to push the thought aside, but couldn’t let it go.  The words were compelling, and Jerry gave in to Rii’s demand.

The group of tenement neighbors was told to crowd around each other in one room, even though many of them did not know each other and did not realize what was going on.

“You do realize we don’t all live in the same room, right?  There must be a dozen of us in here!” yelled one of the tenement neighbors.

Ignoring the comment, Jacob Riis continued to photograph the people and the tenement.  When he was satisfied he thanked the residents and left.

“That was mysterious,” remarked Jerry.  “What did you guys think about that guy?”

 

Some time passed and Jerry had continued to work his job at the slaughterhouse, always wishing, desiring something more.  Then one day, Jerry went to work how he normally would but there was something different.  Although he couldn’t tell what it was, Jerry was sure something was up.  When he arrived at the slaughterhouse, Jerry was surprised to find that the slaughterhouse had been boarded up and inaccessible.

Jerry walked up to a nearby man and asked, “What’s going on here?  What happened to Clean Cuts?”

“Closed down I’m afraid,” the man replied.  “Some fella released some report or sumthin’ and it caused a whole mess of trouble for the owners.  Sumthin’ ‘bout cleanliness or sumthin’.”

“Wha- how could this be?”  Jerry’s first thought was some rats had gotten into the meat.  Then, a gush of wind blew a lone newspaper into Jerry’s path.  Conveniently, the headline read, “SLAUGHTER HOUSES EVERYWHERE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK: Local Photographer Exposes Horrors of Unsanitary Conditions.”

“Jacob!” yelled Jerry.

The man looked at him in disbelief.  “My name’s not Jacob what are ya saying?”  He proceeded to walk away.

It was at this time Jerry had realized it was Jacob Riis who had exposed the slaughterhouse; it was Jacob Riis who had taken Jerry’s job away.  He grew frustrated, “How could this happen?” Jerry thought to himself.  Eventually, Jerry decided to get to the bottom of it all.  After all, he was now unemployed.

 

Jerry decided to write to Jacob Riis.  He expressed his disbelief, his frustration, and vented in his words.  However, Jerry failed to realize that he hadn’t seen Jacob in some time.  At this point, it was 1906 and the Federal Meat Inspection Act had been implemented.  Jerry sought for Riis over and over, every night he looked for the elusive photographer.

Oddly enough, it was Jacob Riis who found Jerry, not the other way around.  He had shown up to the tenement building.  Jerry, who had been scraping money together from odd jobs here and there, was barely able to afford rent, especially since the building had introduced revisions to better suit the residents who lived there, because of the Tenement House Act of 1901.

The two bumped into each other when Jacob Riis was checking up on the building after its renovations.  “There you are,” called Riis.  “How are you enjoying the luxuries mate?”

“Awful,” remarked Jerry.  “Ever since these damn renovations, the rent has gone up and the slaughterhouse closed because of the same code of ethics!”

“You don’t say.  Well now is the time to celebrate, Jerry.  For once, New Yorkers are living in situations that were only possible to the wealthy only decades ago!  You can always get a new job.”

“It’s been hard Jacob,” said Jerry.  “if it wasn’t for your damn renovations life would be much, much easier.”

“I see.  Well, why don’t you get a new job?  Maybe think about leaving the city?”

“I’ve been trying to, but being a slaughterhouse worker has been my passion since I was six years old.  And I can’t leave the city, I’m trapped.”

“Oh no you’re not!” yelled Jacob.

Jacob proceeded to grab Jerry and took him to Grand Central Station, where he put Jerry on the first train out of New York.

“So long, buckaroo!” Riis called out to Jerry.

The train took Jerry far, far away upstate.  Jerry eventually settled down in upstate New York, opened a farm, found a wife, bought some farm animals, and grew beats for the rest of his life.

 

Jacob Riis, on the other hand, went down as one of the most influential people of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  As a “muckraker,” Riis worked to expose the travesties of American cities of the time; his work helped to propel the Progressive Era into full effect.  His work, How the Other Half Lives, uncovered the difficulties tenement residents had to deal with, such as overcrowding and poor living conditions.  It was because of his work that the Tenement House Act of 1901 was passed.  This act helped to set requirements for standards of living.  With the help of other muckrakers, such as Upton Sinclair, who revealed the horrors of the meatpacking industry in his novel, The Jungle, Jacob Riis worked to improve the general welfare of Americans living in cities.