Cast Upon the Breakers

You look like a good truthful boy. Here are ten dollars for you. Oh thank you maam! Youre a gentleman said Mike overjoyed. No I dont mean that but I hope youll soon get a handsome husband. My young friend I dont care to marry though I appreciate your good wishes. I am an old maid from principle. I am an officer of the Female Suffrage Association. Is it a good payin office maam? asked Mike visibly impressed. -from Chapter X: Mike Puts on a Uniform Its entirely possibly that the 20th-century concept of the American dream would not exist without the cheerfully idealistic novels of Horatio Alger Jr. Enormous bestsellers in their day Algers rags-to-riches tales nurtured the nations faltering idealism during the economic inequities of the Gilded Age. Known as the lost Alger story Cast Upon the Breakers first appeared under a pseudonym in serial form in Argosy magazine in 1893. The tale of Rodney Ropes and his pals who transform hard work and integrity pay off in wealth and comfort it is vintage Alger a relic of 19th-century Americana that is still an inspiring delight in the 21st century. American writer HORATIO ALGER JR. (1832-1899) wrote well over 100 novels among them Ragged Dick; or Street Life in New York (1867) Sink or Swim (1870) and Tattered Tom; or The Story of a Street Arab (1871).