Introduction

“Now Dick had listened to all this conversation. Being an enterprising young man, he thought he saw a chance for a speculation, and determined to avail himself of it. Accordingly he stepped up to the two just as Frank’s uncle was about leaving, and said, “I know all about the city, sir; I’ll show him around, if you want me to.” The gentleman looked a little curiously at the ragged figure before him. So you are a city boy, are you? Yes, sir,” said Dick, “I’ve lived here ever since I was a baby.” “And you know all about the public buildings, I suppose?” “Yes, sir.” / “And the Central Park?” “Yes, sir. I know my way all round.” The gentleman looked thoughtful. “I don’t know what to say, Frank,” he remarked after a while. “It is rather a novel proposal. He isn’t exactly the sort of guide I would have picked out for you. Still he looks honest. He has an open face, and I think can be depended upon.” “I wish he wasn’t so ragged and dirty,” said Frank, who felt a little shy about being seen with such a companion.” Horatio Alger, Jr., Ragged Dick. What is it that the Kander and Ebb song says about New York City? “If I can make it there, / I’d make it anywhere.” From its origins as a Dutch mercantile center to its modern incarnation as the financial center of the United States and a target for the terrorists of 9/11, New York, as the song suggests, has held a special place in the country’s national mythology.