Horatio Alger, Jr.

Feisty, twelve-year-old Jenny, also known as Tattered Tom because of her ragged mix of clothing, survives in 1870's New York City by sweeping streets and avoiding her abusive guardian until a chance meeting with a sea captain and his sister brings a marked change to her life and fortunes.

Despite the obstruction of a rival from school, fifteen-year-old Ben, who supports his widowed aunt and cousin, secures an excellent position at a Boston firm and good friends who help him to get through difficult times.

Mistreated and half-starved at the boarding school where he has been placed by his evil guardian, fifteen-year-old Tom Brace runs away to seek his fortunes and true identity in late-nineteenth-century New York City.

After the death of his carpenter father, fifteen-year-old Harry Raymond, now the sole support of his mother and younger sister, finds his plans for a business career in New York City overturned when his discovery of a fraudulent insurrance scheme leads to his kidnapping and forced indenture on a ship bound for China.

Disowned by his father after being falsely accused of theft, a hardworking and honest sixteen-year-old farm boy leaves home, in the late 1800s, determined to clear his name, and soon finds employment as the private secretary to a congressman in Washington, D.C.

While searching for the kidnapped young orphan that his mother had taken in, sixteen-year-old Mark Stanton is shanghaied aboard a California-bound ship and, after many hardships far from home, finds friends, fortune, and the answer to a long-ago mystery.

In late-nineteenth-century New York City, orphaned, fifteen-year-old Rufus Rodman works hard as a "baggage smasher" and newsboy but finds his fortunes changing after he exposes a confidence man, saves a life, and solves a diamond robbery.

“Horatio Alger, Jr. (1834-99) was a prolific writer of dime novel stories for boys. From the debut of his first novel, Ragged Dick, in 1867, Alger was instrumental in establishing a new genre of dime novels known as the ‘city story.’ The genre arose out of the wide-spread urbanization that followed the Civil War and paralleled the rise of industrialism. Alger’s stories heroicized the young street urchins living in poverty among large, urban centers such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. With uncommon courage and moral fortitude, Alger’s youths struggle against adversity to achieve great wealth and acclaim. These rags to riches stories were enormously popular with the public and flourished in the decades from 1870 to 1890.” – From Stanford University’s “Dime Novel and Story Paper Collection” online

Now working in a brokerage firm, Rufus lives in a nice house with his sister Rose, but when their abusive stepfather tracks them down, both children take unusual measures to protect themselves.

Two of the famous nineteenth-century author's stories of the rewards of virtuous living are presented in this tiny volume.

Tom, a plucky New York City newsboy, suspects that his unscrupulous uncle is trying to swindle Tom's widowed mother out of a large inheritance.