Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Research paper - Essay Example Using the case studies reported by Mary Van Kleeck and Elizabeth C. Watson, and also the findings in the research of Jacob A. Riis, this paper will show how the children existed at that time. There will be references made to the law, and those required to enforce it, as well as to the organizations which sought to alleviate the suffering. One of the most poignant quotations in Watson's research, sums up the horror of the situation; when speaking to a little girl of about five years old, who cut out embroideries, n being asked how long she had been cutting embroidery, shrugged her little shoulders and replied, ! Ever since I was.(Watson, p.5) She lived in the Bronx where embroidery factories provided the work, and as soon as she could manage to use scissors, she helped in separating the strips of cloth. The question arises as to how and why such a set of circumstances was allowed to happen, to rob this child and thousands of others, of the natural, playful, learning experiences of a normal childhood. 'How the Other Half Lives', goes some way to providing answers. He explained the growth of the tenements as created by the need to house many very quickly, and how the rich moved out and away from the nice homes at the East River. Such houses were then taken over by 'real estate agents and boarding-house keepers' (Riis, Chp. 1 p1). The old houses became valuable commodities, where large rooms were divided into small, dark spaces, to squeeze more people in, make more money. The important fact of fixing the rents high because of the belief that the poor were destructive, immoral and lived in squalor: o cover damage and abuse from this class, from whom nothing was expected, and the most was made of them while they lasted(Riis, quoting a report to the Legislature, 1857, p.1) The need grew for more cheap housing; more immigrants came, wanting to be near their place of work, but the condition of that housing, and the fact that landowners or proprietors were also employers, kept people in the loop of poverty from which there was no escape. In his chapter on 'The Bohemians Tenement House Cigar Making', this system and the involvement of the children in the arduous task of just existing, he clarified thus: en, women and children work together seven days in the week in these cheerless tenements to make a living for the family, from the break of day till far into the night." (Riis, Chp.12,p.2) and.. ather, mother and son, together a full team, make from fifteen to sixteen dollars a week(Riis, p.3) They were paid $3.75 for 1,000 cigars, the parents had never had