When Alger's Ragged Dick put himself forward for hire as a guide for a rich boy who is visiting the city, the boy's businessman uncle hesitated to entrust his nephew to him. But after reflection the older man decided that although Dick "isn't exactly the sort of guide I would have picked out...he looks honest. He has an open face, and I think he can be depended upon "(55). Thus, although Alger believed that private generosity and charity alone were necessary to remedy the evils of capitalism, he knew no one could truly succeed alone. Dick's contact with the rich boy Frank because of Dick's shining honesty resulted in his becoming a young gentleman, not just because Dick was a hard worker. And, in the story of Tom, the street tomboy, rather than rise to prosperity through her labor, Tom became the genteel 'Jane Lindsay' at the end of the...
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