Ragged Dick

As the boys continue their walk around New York City, Frank hears a man yell what sounds like, “Glass pudding.” Frank learns that the man works as a glazier. Frank wants to visit Central Park, so the boys get onto a crowded horse-car. Two seats become empty next to a middle-aged woman whose sharp features and thin lips suggest an unpleasant personality. Suddenly, the woman cannot find her purse, and she accuses Frank of stealing it. Shocked, Frank proudly says that she is very mistaken, but the conductor may search him. The other passengers tend to believe Frank because he does not look like a thief, but the woman insists that criminals often dress well.

Dick’s humorous comments keep the other passengers amused. When the conductor examines Dick’s pocketbook filled with blank paper, Dick states: “I didn’t like to expose the contents of my valooable pocket-book, for fear it might excite the envy of my poor neighbors” (97). After the conductor searches both Frank and Dick, he suggests that the woman check her own pocket again. This time, she finds her purse, yet she refuses to apologize to the boys.

Frank laughs at Dick’s jokes, amazed that the poor bootblack always seems to be cheerful. Dick tells him that he sometimes gets sad. Dick describes when he was freezing last winter, wishing that he had somebody to care for him and give him plenty to eat and wear. Frank compassionately offers to care for Dick as his friend.

When Frank sees Central Park, he is disappointed that it is still rough and unfinished. Dick shows him Wall Street, where bankers and brokers make important transactions, and the marble Custom House, which reminds Frank of pictures of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. After gazing at the view from the Custom House roof, the boys descend the steps.

In front of the Custom House, they encounter a tall, young man with small eyes and a large nose, dressed in pants that are too short for his legs. This man from the countryside anxiously asks if money is paid inside the building. He had fifty dollars but could not decide in which bank to deposit the money. A stranger had hurriedly told him the bank was not open and the stranger needed fifty dollars before he boarded his train. He offered the countryman a sixty-dollar check so the countryman gave him his cash, believing that he had made a profit of ten dollars. The boys ask to see the check, which is made out to a nonexistent bank, Washington Bank, and signed by someone named Ephraim Smith. The boys are certain that Smith is a swindler. Dick calls a policeman who recognizes the man’s description as that of an experienced criminal. Dick does not respect the countryman who ought to know how to take care of himself: “A feller has to look sharp in this city, or he’ll lose his eyeteeth before he knows it” (104). The boys decide to take the ferry-boat to Brooklyn, but as they enter the boat, Dick points to a man whom he believes is the fifty-dollar swindler.

Dick explains to a surprised Frank that the countryman’s description of the criminal had reminded him that he had seen this swindler in the past. On the boat, Dick approaches the uneasy Ephraim Smith, informing him that the police are waiting to arrest him when he goes ashore. Dick persuades the criminal to give the fifty dollars to him by telling Smith that he will then go free. The boys return to the Custom House where they locate the miserable countryman and return his money. Overjoyed, the countryman invites Dick to stay at his country home for a week at no cost.

At Astor House, Frank tells his uncle, Mr. Whitney, that Dick has been a terrific guide. Unused to kindness, Dick is touched by Frank’s benevolence. Mr. Whitney encourages Dick by hoping that he “will rise and prosper in the world. You know in this free country poverty in early life is no bar to a man’s advancement” (108). Mr. Whitney reveals that he was poor, apprenticed to a printer until he got eyestrain, and then invented a machine that made him rich. The businessman emphasizes that he improved by studying books, which gave him ideas for his invention, in his leisure time. He advises Dick to save money and learn.

When Frank finds out that Dick slept in a box the previous night, he begs Dick to promise not to gamble anymore. Frank suggests that he rent a room instead. Frank asks Dick to write letters to him at his Connecticut boarding-school. Dick agrees to his request, but fears that his own writing will resemble “hens’ tracks.” Dick wishes that he were more like Frank.

Mr. Whitney reminds Dick of the importance of his choices: “Remember that your future position depends mainly upon yourself, and that it will be high or low as you choose to make it” (110). The inventor gives Dick a five-dollar bill, but Dick initially refuses it because he has not earned the money. Mr. Whitney clarifies his action: “Sometime when you are a prosperous man, you can repay it in the form of aid to some poor boy, who is struggling upward as you are now” (111). Dick gratefully accepts the money, bids farewell to Mr. Whitney and Frank, and experiences loneliness without his new friend.

In his new clothes, Dick dines at a nice restaurant that would have formerly excluded him because of his ragged, dirty appearance. He does not want to spoil his suit by sleeping outside so he decides to rent a room instead of spending his money at the theatre: “This would be the first step towards respectability, and Dick determined to take it” (114).

He decides to find an inexpensive place on unpretentious Mott Street in a shabby lodging-house kept by Mrs. Mooney, whose son Tom he had met. The landlady and her servant assume that none of the rooms will be good enough for Dick, since the good-looking, well-dressed youth now “might readily be mistaken for a gentleman’s son” (114). Not fastidious, Dick bargains with the landlady to pay seventy-five cents per week for a small room on the third floor. When the landlady asks about his occupation, Dick simply replies that he is professional. Dick is happy to have guaranteed shelter and a bed for a week.

When Dick awakens from a good sleep in his rented room, he is initially bewildered. Then he recalls his new lodgings and Frank’s care in giving him good advice. Finding a wash-stand in his room, Dick cleans himself. He also decides to buy a comb and a brush if he can find cheap ones. Dick now has a higher personal standard of appearance. Ashamed of his old, ragged clothes, he determines to earn more so that he can replace his new suit when it wears out.

Previously, he had lived from day to day, but as a result of Frank’s influence, Dick forms “the ambitious design of starting an account at a savings’ bank, in order to have something to fall back upon in case of sickness or any other emergency” (121). He resolves to save his remaining four dollars. He quickly obtains six jobs and earns sixty cents before breakfast. Dick purchases a comb and a hearty breakfast with part of his earnings, alert for more business.

It does not occur to Dick that his altered appearance might provoke other bootblacks into thinking he is “putting on airs” because Dick is a “thorough democrat, using the word not politically, but in its proper sense, and was disposed to fraternize with all whom he styled ‘good fellows,’ without regard to their position” (122). However, Micky Maguire, a red-haired, freckle-faced bootblack from Five Points, has “a jealous hatred of those who wore good clothes and kept their faces clean. He called it putting on airs, and resented the implied superiority” (122). Reckless and bold, Micky leads a gang of ruffians and served two terms in confinement at Blackwell’s Island. Unsuccessful at earning money that morning, the ill-tempered Micky decides that he does not want any boy looking like a gentleman in his working area. He and his friend Limpy Jim see Dick in his new clothes. Micky slaps Dick on his shoulder and Dick quickly turns around.

Micky tries to start a fight with Dick by accusing him of stealing the new clothes. When Dick emphasizes that stealing is not his way, Micky takes offense as if Dick has called him a thief. Micky assumes that Dick will be an easy target because he knows that Dick rarely fights, but Dick avoids these conflicts because of common sense, not cowardice. Dick jokes that fighting is bad for the complexion because the eyes and nose tend to turn red, white, and blue. Micky is two inches taller than Dick, but Dick moves back when he swings his fist. Then Dick lands a defensive blow. Although Micky is losing the battle, his fury makes him keep fighting. The arrival of a policeman prompts Micky and Jim to flee. The kindly policeman encourages Dick by pointing to a well-dressed gentleman passing by. He informs Dick that the man had started as a newsboy and became a prosperous bookstore owner.

Dick is becoming ambitious. He takes four dollars in bills and another dollar in change to deposit in a bank. He awkwardly signs his name, “Dick Hunter,” in the volume containing the names of depositors. When Dick receives his own bank-book, he feels like a capitalist for the first time and vows to save every cent he can spare from his earnings. However, Dick realizes his lack of education is a problem; he “was too sensible not to know that there was something more than money needed to win a respectable position in the world” (130).