A drawing based on this photograph appeared in the 1890 edition of How the Other Half Lives, with the caption "In the Home of an Italian Rag-Picker, Jersey Street." Riis described how poor Italian workers did the dirty work of rag picking:
"Only a few years ago, when rag-picking was carried on in a desultory and irresponsible sort of way, the city hired gangs of men to trim the ash-scows before they were sent out to sea. The trimming consisted in leveling out the dirt as it was dumped from the carts, so that the scow might be evenly loaded.
"The men were paid a dollar and a half a day, kept what they found that was worth having, and allowed the swarms of Italians who hung about the dumps to do the heavy work for them, letting them have their pick of the loads for their trouble. Today Italians contract for the work, paying large sums to be permitted to do it. The city received not less than $80,000 last year for the sale of this privilege to the contractors, who in addition have to pay gangs of their countrymen for sorting out the bones, rags, tin cans and other waste that are found in the ashes and form the staples of their trade and their sources of revenue."