It was interesting, depressing, and inspiring. We took the "Getting By" tour. We viewed the Gumpertz apartment and the Baldizzi apartment. I was saddened by Nathalie Gumpertz's story. Her husband Julius walked out of their home one day and never returned (quite common in the late 1860's and early 1870's for men to leave their families and plan their own disappearance, apparently). One of her children died after her husband left. After a few months she started a sewing business from her tiny apartment, selling dresses at $3 a dress. It took five days to make a dress.
There is a happy ending for Nathalie, though. She came into a $600 inheritance meant for Julius. All her neighbors wrote legal petitions attesting to his disappearance, so that Nathalie could legally inherit the money in his absence. Nathalie got the money and moved to the Upper East Side. Good for her.
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