THE  CHILDREN   OF   THE   POOR
By JACOB A. RIIS,

AUTHOK or "HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES," ETC.

*'One of God's Children" — Progress in the Care ob^ Poor Children in
Neav York—The Children's Aid Society—Italians in Mulberry Bend—
The Schools—Some Typical Children of the East Side—Child Popula¬
tion OF THE Jewish Tenements—Child Labor in the Tenements—Some
Solutions of the Problem—Ambition among the School Children—The
Flag in the Schools—Street Camins and their Future—Boys' Clubs
—Little Housekeepers—The Story of "Buffalo."

UNDER the heading " Just One of God's Children," one of the
morning newspapers told the story not long ago of a ncAvs-
boy at the Brooklyn Bridge, who fell in a fit with his bundle
of papers under his arm, and was carried into the waiting-room by
the Bridge police. They sent for an ambulance, but before it came
the boy was out selling papers again. The reporters asked the little
dark-eyed newswoman at the bridge entrance which boy it was.

'* Little Maher it was," she answered.

" Who takes care of him ? "

" Oh! no one but God," said she, " and he is too busy with
other folks to give him much attention."

Little Maher Avas the representative of a class that is happily
growing smaller year by year in our city. It is altogether likely
that a little inquiry into his case could have placed the responsi¬
bility for his forlorn condition considerably nearer home, upon
someone w^ho preferred giving Providence the job to taking the
trouble himself.    There are homeless children in NeAv York.    It is