Jacob Riis published “How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York” in 1890, describing how life at New York’s slums was like. He provided rich and complete details to his readers when it comes to sounds, smells and situations. Here are three sounds described by Riis:
1) A child dying from measles: “Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail - what do they mean? They mean that the soiled bow of white you saw on the door downstairs will have another story to tell - Oh! a sadly familiar story - before the day is at an end.”
2) The noises made by the slums’ inhabitants: “What if the words ring in your ears as we grope our way up the stairs and down from floor to floor, listening to the sounds behind the closed doors - some of quarrelling, some of coarse songs, more of profanity. They are true”.
3) The noises heard on winter nights: “On cold winter nights, when every bunk had its tenant, I have stood in such a lodging-room more than once, and listening to the snoring of the sleepers like the regular strokes of an engine, and the slow creaking of the beams under their restless weight, imagined myself on shipboard and experienced the very real nausea of sea-sickness.”
