Books with author Horatio Algers Jr

*This Book is annotated (it contains a detailed biography of the author). *An active Table of Contents has been added by the publisher for a better customer experience. *This book has been checked and corrected for spelling errors. Jack Harding was a boy of twelve. One morning as jack left to buy milk for breakfast he found a basket on the doorstep. Having found a baby girl on their doorstep seven years previously, Jack and his parents are alarmed when a lady claiming to have been the infant's nurse arrives to reclaim the child.

*This Book is annotated (it contains a detailed biography of the author). *An active Table of Contents has been added by the publisher for a better customer experience. *This book has been checked and corrected for spelling errors. Kit, a young teen boy, is an orphan. He is cheated of his inheritance by his guardian. His guardian sends him off to work with a brutal, stupid blacksmith. The boy runs away. He joins the circus. He is followed by the blacksmith. The boy stays away from him. He becomes a big star in the circus. Later, he is restored to his rightful place with the help of a man who was his father's friend.

Fourteen-year-old Dick Hunter lives on the streets of New York in the 1860s. His parents are dead, and he has been on his own since the age of seven. He shines shoes to earn a living. He sleeps in boxes. He jokes about having a mansion on Fifth Avenue and about owning shares of Erie Railroad stock. But he cannot imagine ever being more than a bootblack who spends every cent he earns and lives hand-to-mouth--until by chance he meets Frank Whitney. Ragged Dick; or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks is arguably the best known of Horatio Alger’s American rags-to-riches stories. Published in 1867, it promotes the values of hard work, thrift, honesty, integrity, and bravery. Alger paints his story in bright colors: the novel swirls with shops, crowds, and a range of characters, and while it could not be called exciting in any modern sense it nonetheless remains unexpectedly readable to this day. The title character is Richard Hunter, better known as Ragged Dick, an orphan living on the streets of New York and scraping a living as a shoe shine boy. Although he is quick witted and has a basic morality, he lacks direction--but when he is employed to act as a guide to the city to Frank Whitney, a boy of his own age, he is impressed with Frank's manners and education and determines to better himself. Dick later meets Henry Fosdick, an educated youth who has fallen on hard times through no fault of his own, and Fosdick agrees to tutor Dick. They take a room together and, with the aid of kindly Mr. Greyson and a sudden twist of fate, are soon on the road to financial security and social respectability. As a veritable "diamond in the rough," Ragged Dick is as innately virtuous as he is streetwise and cocky—and his story still makes a great read.

“Ragged Dick” was contributed as a serial story to the pages of the Schoolmate, a well-known juvenile magazine, during the year 1867. While in course of publication, it was received with so many evidences of favor that it has been rewritten and considerably enlarged, and is now presented to the public as the first volume of a series intended to illustrate the life and experiences of the friendless and vagrant children who are now numbered by thousands in New York and other cities. Several characters in the story are sketched from life. The necessary information has been gathered mainly from personal observation and conversations with the boys themselves. The author is indebted also to the excellent Superintendent of the Newsboys’Lodging House, in Fulton Street, for some facts of which he has been able to make use. Some anachronisms may be noted. Wherever they occur, they have been admitted, as aiding in the development of the story, and will probably be considered as of little importance in an unpretending volume, which does not aspire to strict historical accuracy. The author hopes that, while the volumes in this series may prove interesting stories, they may also have the effect of enlisting the sympathies of his readers in behalf of the unfortunate children whose life is described, and of leading them to co-operate with the praiseworthy efforts now making by the Children’s Aid Society and other organizations to ameliorate their condition.

"Ragged Dick is a well-told story of street-life in New York, that will, we should judge, be well received by the boy-readers, for whom it is intended. The Hero is a boot-black, who, by sharpness, industry, and honesty, makes his way in the world, and is, perhaps, somewhat more immaculate in character and manners than could naturally have been expected from his origin and training. We find in this, as in many books for boys, a certain monotony in the inculcation of the principle that honesty is the best policy, a proposition that, as far as mere temporal success is concerned, we believe to be only partially true. However, the book is very readable, and we should consider it a much more valuable addition to the Sunday-school library than the tales of inebriates and treatises on the nature of sin, that so often find place there."--Putnam's Magazine, July, 1868.

"I wish I could send you to college, Guy," said Mr. Fenwick, as they sat in the library, reading by the soft light of a student lamp.The speaker was the Rev. Mr. Fenwick, the pastor of a church in Bayport, a few miles from New Bedford, Massachusetts."I don't think I care much about going to college, father," said Guy, a bright, manly, broad-shouldered boy of sixteen."When I was of your age, Guy," replied his father, "I was already a student of Harvard. You are ready for college, but my means are not sufficient to send you there.""Don't worry about that, father. There are other paths to success than through college.""I am rather surprised to hear you speak so{2} indifferently, Guy. At the academy you are acknowledged to be the best Latin and Greek scholar they have had for years.""That may be, father.""It is so. The principal so assured me, and he would not misrepresent just to please me.""I am glad that I have so good a reputation.""With such qualifications it seems certain you would achieve success in college, graduate high, and, in time, become a distinguished professional man, or perhaps professor.""Perhaps I might; but, father, in spite of my taste for study, I have one taste still stronger.""What is that?""A taste for adventure. I want to see the world, to visit strange countries, to become acquainted with strange people."As the boy spoke his face became flushed and animated.

Jed, Mr. and Mrs. Fogson, The Scranton Poorhouse, An Exciting Contest, Jed Secures an Ally, Mr. Fogson Makes up His Mind, Fogson's Mistake, Mr. Fogson is Astonished, Jed Leaves the Poorhouse, Jed Reaches Duncan, Jed's First Appearance on the Stage, Percy Dixon is Bewildered, Fogson in Pursuit, Jed's Luck, Two Old Acquaintances, Miss Holbrook, Spinster, Jed Meets an Old Acquaintance, Mr. Fogson Receives a Letter, Discharged, Jed's Poor Prospects, Jed Arrives in New York, Jed Makes Two Calls, Jed's Bad Luck, A Startling Discovery, Without a Penny, In Search of Employment, An Intractable Agent, A Strange Commission, A Surprise Party, Jed Entertains an Old Acquaintance, Jed Returns Good for Evil, At Bar Harbor, The Poorhouse Receives Two Visitors, The Detective, Mrs. Avery's Story, "Who Was Jed?" Jane Gilman, The Detective Secures an Ally, Jed Learns Who He Is, Guy Fenwick's Defeat,