Jacob A. Riis 1849–1914. The Battle with the Slum. 1902.
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| by and by they would consider it. Just now it was too valuable for factory purposes. When the city had grown opulent, in say twenty-five years, they would be willing to hand it over. Fatal delusion! Men do not grow that kind of sense as they grow rich. The land will be always “too valuable.” When we in New York were scandalized at last into making a park of the Mulberry Bend, it cost us a million and a half, and it had made the slum a fixture, not to be dislodged. No! the way to fight the slum is to head it off. It is like fighting a fire. Chasing it up is hard and doubtful work; the chances are that you will not overtake it till the house is burned down. |
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| A Fourth Ward Colony in the Bad Old Days. |
| There were those who thought when the Civil War was over, that a big fire would not be the |