"The great cities of the earth are so many alchemist's retorts into which are constantly pouring vast quantities of human raw materials, presently to emerge as finished products in infinite variety. Of these magic retorts New York is the greatest, because its receipts of raw humanity, domestic and foreign, are largest, and the wonders of transformations wrought in it by its powerful chemicals are the most marvelous."
David Graham Phillips, Old Wives For New
