How the other half lives

Upon looking through countless images I found on this topic. The two images in this post are two similar images of children, most likely between the ages of 5-8 sleeping in gutters outdoors. It is not easy to establish what ethnicity the children are, however I can guess that most likely these children are not 'native' American's. The image shows the extremities of living in urban New York during this period. It is a very difficult place to grow up in. In keeping with the Ragged Dick theme, it is evident these children are being treated the same and are facing the same perils that Dick faced during his story. However what is different is that this is very much real, and it is hard to escape it.

What I find so remarkable about these images is that there are no adults trying to help these children. There are no stories that I could find of adults helping children living out on their own like this. Ragged Dick as a story romanticises this struggle of growing up in American cities like this. However realistically, the struggle was real and many look past this. From what I have looked into, there are few novels or movies that tell stories of growing up in New York during this period as really how it was. Instead, they will look onto making a story of it, which is to be expected in this genre. There is a lack of knowledge about this with today's American public.

You could argue these boys have been left alone like this because they are foreign, which indicates frictions in society in New York. As has been the case over the years in large cities; there is definitely a class division as well. With those in the upper echelons of society looking down on those who live on the streets, decades before any sort of welfare was considered in court, these boys who are clearly either orphaned or abandoned from a young age by their parents who were left to fend for themselves. Whether the parents could not afford to look after them or were forced to lose them.