Ragged Dick

After working for an hour polishing four customers’ boots, Dick dines at a cheap restaurant on a breakfast of coffee, beefsteak, and bread. Dick sees a bootblack friend, Johnny Nolan, standing at the door because he has earned no money. Dick treats the boy to breakfast. Energetic Dick typically earns three times as much as lazy Johnny, because “energy and industry are rewarded, and indolence suffers” (46).

Out on the street, Johnny hides from a man in a brown coat. The man had gotten Johnny a place to work on a farm in the countryside where he had to awaken at five in the morning to take care of cows. Despite having good food and a soft bed at the farm, Johnny prefers the bustle of New York City and his independence. Earlier, Johnny had fled his family home because his father was an abusive drunkard. When Dick and Johnny part, Dick reflects that Johnny “ain’t got no ambition” (49).

Dick polishes the boots of a stylish young man who gives him a two-dollar bill. When Dick hands the money to a clerk in a shop, the salesman tells him angrily that the bill is counterfeit. The store clerk threatens to have Dick arrested if he does not leave.

Startled to discover the two-dollar bill is counterfeit, Dick bravely stands his ground. He asks the clerk to return the bill, but the man uneasily refuses. Honest Dick insists he will bring the customer who paid him. When the waiting customer tells Dick he was starting to think he had cleared out with the money, Dick proudly asserts: “That aint my style” (51). Dick’s customer insists that his two-dollar bill is good. He and Dick enter the store. The scheming clerk, Mr. Hatch, tries to give them a bad bill, but Dick’s patron points out that his original bill is from a different bank. Mr. Hatch’s employer demands that Mr. Hatch search his own pockets where the good Merchants’ Bank bill is found. The swindling clerk loses his job and Dick is paid an extra fifty cents for his trouble. Feeling lucky, Dick plans to use his extra money to see the bearded lady, eight-foot-giant, and other curiosities at Barnum’s that night.

When he walks to Astor House, a prestigious hotel, to get more customers, Dick overhears a conversation between a 50-year-old gentleman, Mr. Whitney, and his 14-year-old nephew, Frank. On Frank’s first visit to New York City, Mr. Whitney must attend to business and cannot show his nephew the city sights. Enterprising Dick thinks he sees “a chance for a speculation” (55) and offers to serve as Frank’s guide. Mr. Whitney thinks Dick can be depended upon because he has an open, honest face. Frank objects to Dick’s ragged, dirty appearance. Mr. Whitney suggests something to Frank and then tells Dick to follow them into the hotel, despite a hotel employee’s reluctance to allow Dick to enter.

Frank is on his way to boarding-school and has a half-worn suit of clothes in his trunk. Mr. Whitney tells Dick that Frank will make a present of his neat gray suit to the bootblack. Dick is astonished by the novelty of receiving a gift. Mr. Whitney suggests that Dick should wash before he dons the clothing. Frank contributes a shirt, stockings, an old pair of shoes, and two handkerchiefs. Dick plans to buy a new hat cheaply on Chatham Street. Clean and groomed, Dick is almost unrecognizable. Except for his red, stained hands, he looks like a handsome, young gentleman. Amazed at his transformation, Dick recalls a performance at Barnum’s: “It reminds me of Cinderella […] when she was changed into a fairy princess” (58).

Dick gratefully calls Frank “a brick” and a “good fellow” (58), and he shines Frank’s boots for free. Frank replies that since he is better off than Dick, he can spare the clothes. Neither the hotel employee nor Dick’s friend, Johnny Nolan, recognizes the nicely dressed Dick.

Dick easily threads his way through the throng of vehicles to cross Broadway, but Frank anxiously waits for a space. Jokingly, Dick tells an old lady selling fruit that he was sent by the mayor to collect her taxes, while Frank pays her for two apples. Dick points out the mayor’s office, announcing he “once blacked his boots by particular appointment” (62).

On Chatham Street, Dick and Frank see rows of ready-made clothing shops, where the proprietors try to entice by claiming to sell at less than cost. Regarding their declarations, the street-smart Dick asserts: “There aint nobody of any enterprise that pretends to make any profit on his goods” (63). When Frank starts to walk into a shop where a black-whiskered man offers to sell a silver pitcher for a dollar, Dick tells his friend that “it’s a swindlin’ shop […] that man’s a reg’lar cheat” (64). The man numbers his articles for sale, rolls dice, and gives the customer the numbered article he draws. The customer pays a dollar, but the items are not worth sixpence.

At a different shop, Frank insists on paying seventy-five cents for Dick’s new hat. Dick points out the largest store on Broadway, owned by A.T. Stewart, and informs Frank about Barnum’s curiosities and a melodramatic play at the Bowery. At the New York Hospital, Dick tells Frank about a newsboy friend, Johnny Mullen, who was injured by an omnibus. Dick and several companions had paid the newsboy’s hospital fee.

The elegant Taylor’s Saloon reminds Frank of Aladdin’s palace. In the saloon, Frank orders ice cream for the boys and tells Dick about Aladdin’s magic lamp. A tall, gaunt man named Samuel Snap, agent of the Excelsior Copper Mining Company, overhears Dick’s joke about owning shares of Erie Railroad and tries to get him to invest in mining stock, promising a fortune in three years. Dick humorously reflects on the difficulties involved in being mistaken for a prosperous young man. Frank says that Dick probably earns his money more honorably than Mr. Snap since “some of these mining companies are nothing but swindles, got up to cheat people out of their money” (69).

Frank’s tour of New York City continues as Dick shows him imposing hotels, as well as the Mercantile Library and the Cooper Institute. At the Bible House, where an organization prints religious books, Frank learns that Dick has never read the Bible. Dick has trouble reading big words, and Frank wishes he lived in the city so he could teach him. Frank tells Dick that he would like to see him progress in life; however, “there isn’t much chance of that if you don’t know how to read and write” (72). Frank invites Dick to visit him at his home along the Hudson River, but Dick cannot imagine that Frank’s parents would want a bootblack as a guest. Frank encourages Dick to believe that he will not be a bootblack all his life. Dick develops a new goal: “I’d like to be a office boy, and learn business, and grow up ‘spectable” (73).

Frank tells Dick the inspiring story of Dick Whittington, a poor boy who became Lord Mayor of London when a rich merchant took him under his roof and rewarded the boy’s tendency to save. The merchant allowed Whittington to sell his cat for a fortune on an island overrun with rats. Frank gives hope to Dick that if he tries, he can become a respectable member of society. No one has ever spoken to Dick in this uplifting way. Dick promises to try; he realizes that he has not needed to remain ragged for so long. He had spent his earnings on gambling, the theatre, and other extravagances. Dick had planned to buy new clothes once, but another boy, Limpy Jim, had convinced him to play cards and he lost all his money to him. Since he had no money for lodgings, Dick almost froze sleeping outside.

Dick explains to Frank that the Newsboys’ Lodgin’ House will provide lodgings for five cents and trust the boys when they do not have enough to pay. However, Dick does not like to take advantage of the Lodgin’ House when he cannot pay for it. Frank suggests that Dick rent a furnished room somewhere so he will always have a home where he can sleep. Dick had never thought of this possibility.

Suddenly the boys see a man who appears to pick up a pocket-book stuffed with dollar bills. Dick whispers to Frank, who is unused to city life, that he knows this “drop-game.” The man pretends that he found the wallet but does not have time to find the owner since he must hurry to catch a train. He tells Dick that the owner will probably give him a large reward, but if Dick pays the man twenty dollars, Dick can return the pocket-book to the owner to claim the reward. To Frank’s astonishment, Dick seems to pay the man a sum of money in exchange for the pocket-book. Later, Dick reveals he only gave the man a worthless piece of paper and that he knew the wallet was stuffed with blank paper. When the swindler returns, Dick refuses to return the wallet. Frank admiringly tells Dick that he was too smart for the cheater. Dick agrees: “I aint knocked round the city streets all my life for nothin’” (83).