The overcrowded northern and western cities were ill prepared for the surplus of immigrants they received throughout the twentieth century. The popular low paying jobs kept most of the adults working throughout the day while their children were at home or working beside them. Children were able to help their families economically by getting a factory job. Children Sleeping on Mulberry Street is perhaps the saddest picture out of the Jacob Riis, How the other half lives collection. It shows three very young children sleeping in the street with no parent in sight. Whether or not these children are homeless is unknown, but Riis’s image tried to show that life was hard enough for immigrants that three young children, not much older than seven, end up sleeping on the street without their parents. The children’s clothes are very dirty, and they don’t have any footwear. These children look like they haven’t been bathed in a while. Besides health hazards, crime was a really relevant factor. With the available jobs paying very little, people had to find other means to make a living which put the kids’ lives in danger. New York City and other immigrant dominated cities had minimal infrastructure put in place to develop and ameliorate children’s lives. Children were losing time to develop physically and mentally by working in these traitorous factories.