Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Story of an East-Side Family
But that was many years ago, when the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the hive of industry; a period when iron in ship construction was merely to hold the great wooden bodies and wooden coats in place. The ferry at the foot of Jackson Street then plied its way, crowded night and morning, with the happy, contented men whose trade craft was at once their pride and protection. But the Old ferry stopped running years ago. A new skill was needed in ship construction, and the owners of the little houses were scattered. Many of them had adopted other trades, some had gone into Shop-keeping, some had sold their houses and bought little places in the country; some living elsewhere derived an income from the little houses now dropping to pieces, which they had not the money to repair. Five and even six families were living in space designed for one. The houses had grown shabby and were but a degree better than the swarms of people who now called the shelter they gave home.
It was an August evening when the people, even on this street so close to the river, had panted for breath all day. The pavements were hot to the feet. Some of the men living in the little houses were sitting on the great blocks of marble and stone in the yard opposite, holding babies, watching children who were playing languidly about, the more energetic of them climbing the lumber piles. The women sat on the low wooden stoops with more babies and children under their half watchful care.
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