Horatio Alger Jr : 203 books

Excerpt: “Augustus Fitz-Herbert, as all are aware, Having crossed the Atlantic, and got a moustache on, likewise being son of a known millionaire, stands of course on the very top round of the fashion. Being taught to consider himself, from his birth, as one of the privileged ones of the earth,...

Alone and penniless on the streets of New York, runaway orphan Sam Barker turns to theft and petty crime to survive.

Cheated of his inheritance by his scheming stepmother, young Gerald Lane goes to work for a lawyer who sends him on a perilous mission to Montana to recover stolen money.

He congratulated himself upon being still the possessor of twenty-five cents in silver. It was not much, but it seemed a great deal better than being penniless. A week before he would have thought it impossible that such a paltry sum would have made him feel comfortable, but he had passed through a great deal since then.(Excerpt)

Fifteen year old Harry Gilbert worked in a grocery to support his widowed mother, but lost his job to the storekeeper's relative. After escaping a trick trap set by his tormentors, Harry discovers a tin box that changes his life.

A short story, set in the USA. A young man in a private school learns that his guardian has lost his inheritance in some poor business dealing; as a result, there is no money left and he must leave the school to make his own way in the world. The story follows his adventures as he escapes being cheated,...

Fred Fenton is the Erie train boy, a young lad selling sundries on the trains traveling north from New York and through this work supporting his mother and siblings as the family struggles to survive in a New York tenement house.

Jack Harding was a boy of twelve. One morning as jack left to buy milk for breakfast he found a basket on the doorstep. Having found a baby girl on their doorstep seven years previously, Jack and his parents are alarmed when a lady claiming to have been the infant's nurse arrives to reclaim the child.

In this story we find Andy Gordon, the son of a poor widow, as the hero. Being eager for an education, he is obliged to work after school hours to get it. He is a good student and is well liked and highly respected. Herbert Ross, one of Andy's classmates, is the son of a wealthy lawyer. He is a conceited,...

On Broadway, not far from the St. Nicholas Hotel, is an office of the American District Telegraph. Let us enter. A part of the office is railed off, within which the superintendent has a desk, and receives orders for boys to be sent to different parts of the city. On benches in the back part of the...

In deference to the expressed wishes of some of his young friends, the author has essayed a story of the sea, and now presents "Charlie Codman's Cruise," as the third volume of the Campaign Series. It will be found more adventurous than its predecessors, and the trials which Charlie is called upon...

A poor family is surprised with an infant on their doorstep on New Year’s Eve with a note and monetary support requesting them to raise the child. Eight years later, the child is stolen and the family is put into more trouble trying to find her. This is a story of how love and good morals are reward with a fairy tale “happily ever after” ending.

For a sane person to find himself suddenly incarcerated in a lunatic asylum is enough to excite a thrill of horror in the most stolid. Ben shuddered and started back, pale and sick with apprehension. He was a brave boy, but it required more courage than he possessed to preserve his coolness under such circumstances.(Excerpt)

This inspiring and vivid story helps shed light on the life of street boys in the city of New York, and the stories become part of a catalyst that will shape America’s legislation and future.