The Other Half
“The other half” is a metaphorical term that generally describes—by definition—those in the lower fifty percent of the economic strata. In this particular usage—and by no means limited only to its use as the title—the term is really more of a metaphor not so much for the fifty percent who occupy an economic strata but for a far less literal and more figurative “half the country” willing to ignore how the “other half” lives in squalor, abject poverty, crime, unhealthy condition and, for a great many, despondency and lack of hope.
The Color Line
The color line is itself a metaphor, of course, but it is a metaphor that derives from a literal line drawn in the sand—or concrete—by tenements owners. Blacks were as segregated in the tenements as they had been in the South, many of whom had come to New York from Dixie as part of the Great Migration. All the power was vested in the landlords—the slumlords—and Riis paints a portrait of them in metaphor that was about as brutal as could be at the time:
“The Czar of all the Russias is not more absolute upon his own soil than the New York landlord in his dealings with colored tenants.”
The Criminal Element
Part of the history of the tenement in New York—a significantly large part—is the history of the gangs of New York. Tenements are the lifeline for the economically deprived and crime is the lifeblood of those made desperate when such circumstances spiral out of control. The author weaves a much more complex metaphor to describe this association:
“The gang is the ripe fruit of tenement-house growth. It was born there, endowed with a heritage of instinctive hostility to restraint by a generation that sacrificed home to freedom, or left its country for its country’s good. The tenement received and nursed the seed.”
Beer is Always a Bull Market
Tenement life is not a choice made entirely of free will. Or, even partly of free will in many cases. The decision to live this life is one made necessary by economic deprivation. And yet, even in the darkest days of nationwide recession and financial downturns, there is always one industry that never fails to thrive: the selling of alcohol:
“The very floor of one of the bar-rooms, in a neighborhood that lately resounded with the cry for bread of starving workmen, is paved with silver dollars!”
Voters
It has made a comeback rarely seen since the turn of the 20th century: partisan politics in which people vote not because of any tangible reason, but because they hate the other guy. Today, it is very often called tribalism. The author describes exactly the same thing happening today in ways it happened more than a century ago, uses a different metaphor. That’s the only difference:
“The colonization of voters is an evil of the first magnitude, none the less because both parties smirch their hands with it, and for that reason next to hopeless.”
