Author: Rebecca.
Title: Tramps in New York.
Description: New York: The American Tract Society, (1863). (1863). - Duodecimo (12mo), 6-1/8 inches high by 4 inches wide. Hardcover, bound in brown cloth titled in gilt on the spine with decorations in blind on the covers. The covers are bumped, rubbed & stained. 104 pages, illustrated with a frontispiece & a full-page plate. There is occasional foxing and the edges of the leaves are dampstained. Good.

Scarce

"I would not that innocent feet should have accompanied me in all my weary tramps through the vast city and environs of New York; but I have thrown together a few details of such of them as I believe may cherish generous impulses and furnish wholesome food for contemplation especially among that class of boys to which belongs my beloved and only son." -- Author's Preface.

Among the places the author visits are the policeman's Sunday-school, the Sailors' Experience-meeting, the Five Points Mission School and News-boys in their lodging-house. He also visits "one of our public schools for colored children" where "Our attention [was] attracted to the great variety of shades in the complexions of the children, ranging as they did from the near approach to ebony with broad African type of feature, up through the dark mahogany, the bright copper, the tawny mulatto, to the barely tinted Saxon.." The assistant principal then introduces him to "a bona fide African among us". The 10-year-old boy from Mozambique was released into Portugese hands by captors who realized that the market for slaves was full. The boy, called "Tony", speaks of having witnessed cannibalism.

The narrator, in a chapter called "What is a Lady?" visits "another of the colored public schools" where a white teacher is successfully attempting to have her female students define the idea of a "lady".

Another chapter describes a visit to "Commodore Nutt". George Washington Morrison Nutt (1848-1881) was an American little person who was an entertainer associated with P.T. Barnum. At the time of this visit he was about 30 inches tall.

In another chapter the narrator describes "Estare", a New Orleans slave girl who was sold to a French lady, a Catholic who tried to convert the girl to her own faith.

The wood-engraved frontispiece is signed "Waters", possibly Charles J.B. Waters. The plate is signed "Kinnersley", Augustus F. Kinnersely. Good .

Keywords: CHILDREN; ILLUSTRATED; TRAMPS; TRAMPING; STREET LIFE; POVERTY; CHARITY; MISSION; TRAMPS IN NEW YORK; REBECCA; THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY; NINETEENTH CENTURY; 19TH CENTURY; ILLUSTRATION; PLATE; ILLUSTRATED; POLICEMAN'S SUNDAY-SCHOOL; SAILOR'S EXPER

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