Journalist Jacob Riis was one of the early adapters of flash photography.

This classic photograph of a Bohemian family rolling cigars in New York in 1890 was taken by Jacob Riis for his book, How the Other Half Lives. As was usually the case with immigrant families, the entire clan, even the children, were involved in the industry, which was conducted over long hours in the cramp tenement in which they lived. It was a hard-knock life, and as the following excerpt from a 1898 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle about a cigar-making family makes clear, it was sometimes hard to fathom:

“CIGAR MAKER’S SUICIDE: John Wachtel, 50 years old, a cigarmaker, who lived with his wife and three children on the third floor of the tenement at 48 Morgan avenue, in the Eastern District, committed suicide there shortly after 2 o’clock this morning by shooting himself in the abdomen with a .32 caliber revolver. Wachtel had been drinking heavily for some time. Latterly he entertained the impression, which was groundless, that his oldest daughter, Abbie, was disobedient. The girl helped him to make cigars and her hours were sometimes unusually long. Wachtel for the past few weeks frequently quarreled with his wife regarding his daughter’s supposed disobedience. The mother generally took her daughter’s part and this seemed to annoy Wachtel all the more. He left the house yesterday about 2 o’clock. Wachtel did not reach home until 2 o’clock this morning. A quarrel ensued, after which Wachtel went to the front room and shot himself.”