Excerpt from People We Pass: Stories of Life Among the Masses of New York City (Classic Reprint)
The first seven of these short stories were published in harper's magazine. The one called Low Dutch and High is here put forth for the first time. While the stories were being published in the magazine, one critic quite honestly declared that he — or she — questioned the extent of the author's familiarity with the life he was treating. On the other hand, a talented friend wrote that The only trouble with the stories is that it seems as though the author must have at one time lived in a tenement, else he could not describe tenement scenes as he does. The truth does not hide behind either the criticism nor the praise.