New York City can be a very difficult place for someone who doesn’t have any money. American novelist and journalist Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) wrote about the music publishers of “Tin Pan Alley”—before it was given that name—in the short story “Whence the Song” in Harper’s Weekly on December 8, 1900:
 
“New York’s tough without the coin, isn’t it? You never get a glance when you’re out of the game.”
 
   
Wikipedia: Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (/ˈdraɪsər, -zər/; August 27, 1871 – December 28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Dreiser’s best known novels include Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). In 1930 he was nominated to the Nobel Prize in Literature.
 
Google Books
8 December 1900, Harper’s Weekly, “Whence the Song” by Theodore Dreiser, pg. 1166:
“New York’s tough without the coin, isn’t it? You (Pg. 1166A—ed.) never get a glance when you’re out of the game.”
 
Google Books
1001 Greatest Things Ever Said about New York
Edited by C. J.  Sullivan
Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press
2006
Pg. 124:
“New York’s a tough town without the coin, isn’t it? You never get a glance when you’re out of the game. — Theodore Dreiser
 
NY Daily Quote
Friday, March 18, 2016
Out of the Game
“New York’s a tough town without the coin, isn’t it? You never get a glance when you’re out of the game.”
Theodore Dreiser, quoted in 1001 Greatest Things Ever Said about New York