How the Other Half Lives

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SFC History 1201-15
1400 Words
Letter to Jacob A. Riis, Author of "How the Other Half Lives", New York City
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Institution:
Joseph O. Shepherd
17, Spine Street
Cape Town
February 3, 1891
Dear Mr. Riis
It is with great honor and pleasure that I write to you. I am, my dear sir, Joseph Oliver Shepherd, a permanent resident of Cape Town, South Africa- a major destination for European immigrants. In all my 24 years of life, I have lived in the middle-class suburbs of Cape Town. I am currently a finalist student taking literature at the University of the Cape of Good Hope. As you may have guessed, both my parents are English immigrants here in South Africa.
Dear Mr. Riis, I wish to convey to you that I have just finished reading your book, "How The Other Half Lived", and that I was very interested in reading it. I always delight to think that the world has sufficient space, position and place for everyone in a manner that we can all be comfortable. However, after reading you book, it has come to my attention that this is not always the case. Indeed, you have showed that some of us live under very underprivileged circumstances, what is worse is that lots of us, who are privileged, failed to note this reality in our societies. For your work and contribution, I will remain a great admirer of you.
I have read the whole book from cover to cover and I wish to assert in my opinion that every human being has the right to live in a clean and comfortable environment. In such times we live in, it is only reasonable to accept as contemporary people that all aspects of life are changing and developing so rapidly, to the extent that governments and or administrative organs seem overwhelmed to cater for the growing needs of the people or society as a whole. What is the pother for the most part is that this occurs at the expense of the poor or disadvantaged in the society. I cannot say much about how the poor in Cape Town actually live, the truth is, I am yet to witness. Even so, I must say that I have a high regard for the way you chose to act selflessly as a moralist and reveal the afflictions and suffering of the people under tenement life in New York by collections of essays and graphic photographs. I believe the situation is not by far different in the many developing cities of the world. I have to mention sir; I noticed that your text bears a bigot-kind of approach towards the opinions of the ignorant and arrogant rich and the middle class. Indeed, one cannot decline to note that very few of them care about the plight of poor people living in ghetto areas of the city. This has contributed in part to my conviction to write to you in addition to the fact that I have noticed "How the Other Half" deserves to be regarded as a powerful for change for the coming years.
I have to acknowledge that what surprised me the most while reading the book is the ordinary, day-to-day conditions of living for the people in the tenements of New York- especially in terms of overcrowding. I was moved, and left incredulous by the pictures depicting filthiness in specific tenement dwellings. Personally, I am accustomed to Cape Town’s trendy single-family dwellings, even for the low class people. I see this as people li...