By Dan Hagen
The 21-year-old Jacob Riis was
jobless, homeless and foodless — starving, in fact — on one cold, rainy night
in 1870.
Tortured by his lonely poverty and
the depression it inspired, he was determined to kill himself. It looked like
the only way out.
At the point when his thoughts
were darkest that night, an abandoned stray dog snuggled up to him. That
physical and emotional warmth, that outstretched paw, offered to him by a
creature no one cared about or wanted, was the only thing that saved his life.
Later that night, he had a gold
locket stolen while he was sleeping in a police station to warm up, and then
the police officers mocked him and kicked him out. That human cruelty steeled
his resolve to become one of America’s greatest muckraking crusader
journalists. But only canine affection made that crusade possible.
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