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The Alger canon is described by Carl Bode of the University of Maryland as "bouncy little books for boys" that promote "the merits of honesty, hard work, and cheerfulness in adversity." Alger "emblematized those qualities" in his heroes, he writes, and his tales are not so much about rags to riches "but, more sensibly, rags to respectability". With a moral thrust entrenched in the Protestant ethic, Alger novels emphasized that honesty, especially of the fiscal sort, was not only the best policy but the morally right policy, and temperance and smoking were to be abjured | 1 CHAPTER I p CHAPTER II p CHAPTER III p CHAPTER IV p CHAPTER V p CHAPTER VI p CHAPTER VII p CHAPTER VIII p CHAPTER IX p CHAPTER X p CHAPTER XI p CHAPTER XII p CHAPTER XIII p CHAPTER XIV p CHAPTER XV p CHAPTER XVI p CHAPTER XVII p CHAPTER XVIII p CHAPTER XIX p CHAPTER XX p CHAPTER XXI p CHAPTER XXII p CHAPTER XXIII p CHAPTER XXIV p CHAPTER XXV p CHAPTER XXVI p CHAPTER XXVII p CHAPTER I 3 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. New York April 1868 CHAPTER I RAGGED DICK IS INTRODUCED TO THE READER Wake up there youngster said a rough voice. Ragged Dick opened his eyes slowly and .
