Maggie, a Girl of the Streets

The story opens on a young boy, Jimmie Johnson of the Rum Alley children, who is brawling with children from Devil's Row (a nearby area in the Bowery, in Manhattan). Jimmie fights with Blue Billie of Devil's Row, but their altercation is interrupted by the arrival of Pete, an older friend of Jimmie's. Jimmie's parents constantly engage in terrible, noisy fights, and his father is an alcoholic. Jimmie and his siblings, Maggie and Timmie, do their best to remain unnoticed by their parents so as not to invoke their wrath.