1507

JACOB RIIS A.L.S.

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JACOB RIIS A.L.S.
<b>1507. JACOB RIIS </b>(1849 - 1914) American photographer and journalist who undertook to improve slum conditions in the schools and tenements of New York. Superb content A.L.S. 3pp. 8vo., Ontario, Sep. 13, [1901] to a newspaper editor. One week after William McKinley was shot by the crazed anarchist Leon Czolgos and just hours before McKinley's death, Riis laments the murder and atypically blasts foreigners living in the United States. In part: "<i>...News just received from the next settlement about President McKinley. In God's name, when shall we get up sense to fire out bodily this vermin that is ever plotting and preaching against the society we are trying to [?]...what business have we to let them stay here?...If there is nowhere they can go - if no other country wants them - so much the better...give them a place of their own, a St. Helena [where Napoleon was exiled], where they may live as they please until they have all killed each other off...</i>". Last page mounted, top margins of all three pages affixed to each other, overall very good. Obviously, Riis is directly referring to Csolgosz and to Emma Goldman, despite the fact that Czolgosz was born in Detroit. Sold with a second Riis A.L.S. on his letterhead, 1p. 8vo., New York, Mar. 29, 1908 donating a copy of his book <i>Theodore Roosevelt, the Citizen</i>. Two pieces.<b> $150-200</b>