The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1895-07-26
cHlcAeo,s APOSTOLIC aNEWsBoy.zs
One of the Curiosities Left Over From the
Big Exposition.

One of the CuriOsities Left over From inc
Big Exposition.
Probably 500, 900 people know him by
sight Certainly not 800 know his nane,
but anywhere he would be marked
man. He looks like old pictures OF the
apostles. His long black hair hangs
about his neck in locks which curl hi
the ends. His beard is like fringe
about his olive colored oval face. Els
ewes are large and lustrous. He quotes
Scripture with the air of a prophet. He
lives in the cheap temperance hotel and
saves exactly the same amount of money
every day of his life.
He is one of the curiosities left over
from the Worlds fair. When the great
exhibition was at it's height, he drifted
into the city. He came from Kentucky,
but neither whisky nor fast horses had
the slightest attraction for him. The
first day he struck Chicago he became
newsboy. His peculiar DRESS his awk-
ward manners and his strange personal
appearance made him at once the object
of the sharp wit and the rough jokes OF
the little arabs whose business 1t is to
sell papers on the streets
But Willie, as they call him IN
derision, met all their attacks with a
calmness which was disarming. When
they upset him and spilled his papers,
he got up and gently reproved them by
Quoting a verse from the Bible. When
they put Jumps of ice down his back,
he shook them out of his trousers leg
and babe them "do unto others as they
would have others do unto them"
Gradually he won their respect. They
have rough but strict rules OF honesty
among themselves, and they found
Willie was always ready to live up to
the very letter of the law. A penny's
change either way was matter OF
grave concern to Willie. The smaller
boys found friend in Willie. He was
willing to take their part on every oc-
oasion, and his long black hair was
waved in the thickest of many hard
fought fight in Newspaper alley, but al
ways he played the part of peacemak'
er and smote only that the right might
prevail /
At the same time Willie Is not slow
to look after his own interests. The first
day of his adventures as newsboy in
great city Willie took bis stand ct the 3,
corner Of State and Madison streets,
and there he has stood every day, in
spite of winds and weather. sickness
and repeated attacks of other boys who
had come to regard that crowded corner
as their particular property. Their first
plan was to fairly surround Willie with
small and shrill voiced boys, who
drowned his deep below with their
treble yells and cut off every possible
customer by darting between him and
the strange long haired vender.
But the small boys found Willie i'm
movable He had come there to sell pa
pers, and sell papers he would though
all the newsboys in Chicago should try
to prevent him. If he could not make
himself heard above their uproar he
could keep quiet. So early in the en-
gagement he spiked their guns in that
direction, and so for months Willie has
not called his papers. He simply stands
like an oriental figure on the busy cor
ner holding up copy of the paper be-
fore the eyes of every passerby.
1t is said Of him that be meyer gets
stuck" on his papers, because he never
goes home until the last one is sold;
that he lives on exactly the same amount
of money every day, and that he has
never sworn or told lie in his life, in
all of which particulars it may be OBJ
served that his apostolic appearance is
borne ut.-Chicago Tribune.