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- Meredith & Cori

Watch Out,
I’m Coming Through!
  Bicycles have become the new way to get around.
May 13, 1902
Today, walking through Central Park is no longer the only option. The bicycle has become one of the most popular sports and everyday activities. It’s a faster way to get to work, and you get plenty of exercise. The bicycle was first invented in 1818 by Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun. It was exhibited in Paris, France. The invention needed to be fixed, though. The bicycle was an awkward vehicle. A man named Kirkpatrick Macmillian later perfected it to make it easier to ride . The machine never became a popular sport or even fashionable until later in the 1800’s. Now bicycles include gears, pedals and chains. Bicycle races are held all over the country. Go enter a race! For a day out with your family, go to the park, take a picnic and enjoy the great outdoors. Your family deserves a little fun once in a while!                         

 

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Fix The House to Your Delight
November 30, 1905

Sears

Women and Children Work in the Tenements

January 7, 1906
 It may come as a surprise to many that there are more than 130,000 women working in factories in New York.  Most of these women spend all day in discomfort from having to stand, and many are in great peril from the machines they operate.  Many work in areas of dirty air, and some work twelve to even fourteen hours a day.  By law, women can not work more than sixty hours per week and they can not work between nine o'clock PM and six o'clock AM.  There are some, however, who work seventy-eight hours a week for six dollars per week.

Children also work in the tenements to support their families.  Some children work in the New York City tenements because their mothers are taking care of the younger siblings and their fathers are also working to support the family.  Children who go to school as well as work have extra strain.  They are only able to work when they are not in school.  Even children old enough to attend school, often stay home to work instead.  These children do not get the education that they need, but unfortunately, there is no law against child labor. 

Read  more about the tenements
Ladies! Get your catalogues! It’s time to order from the Sears, Roebuck  & Co. Formally known to all of you as the wish book. This catalogue can treat all of your needs from hygiene to entertainment. The catalogue was originally started by a man named Aaron Montgomery, but two men named Sears and Roebuck helped to boost it. Very interesting that it was started by two men! Now it’s helping to rush along the century, and the American home.

Food is Made in Tenements
January 8, 1906
 Many enjoy ice cream on a hot, sunny day; however, many do not know that the ice cream they eat is actually made in the tenement houses.  A man reported a case of unfit food.  He explained that the food was made in a room where three men were sleeping.  Situations like these are all over the city and state. 

 Ice cream is not the only thing being made in the tenements.  Other foods including candy and macaroni are also being made.  The cool ice cream that children thoroughly enjoy on a hot summers day is dirty with dust from New York's city streets.  This dust filled food is being manufactured in the tenement houses. 

Currently, there is no law against the manufacturing of food in the tenements; however this manufacturing is extremely dangerous for the community.  The spread of disease is inevitable.  Also, the people manufacturing this hazardous food are severely underpaid.  These underpaid employees of the tenement houses are sometimes children.  Sometimes these children make food for other children to enjoy. 
Read more about the tenements