Evening star., 1897-01-16


newsboy cry to be heard on the globe.
Washington Is one Of the few American
cities wherein the newsboy remains an i'm
portant institution in the eye and the ear
of the streetfarer. One reason perhaps is
that he has remained honest and not fallen
irto habits that have brought his kind into
disrepute in other cities. Elsewhere, notably
In the major commercial cities, the newsboy,
like the bootblack with the portable kit,
Is passing, and he has become so, compare
lively scarce as to render unnecessary the
drafting Of any municipal laws for his
guidance. In these cities the street corner
news stand, the Il" railroad news stand.
and, finally, the news girl, have combined
to pull the cobbles from beneath the news
boys feet.
In New York city, for instance, there is
but a remnant of the rapid, shrill-voiced.
dime-novel brigade of newsboys, those YER
table Gavroches-fungi of the war-sud-
denly organized more than thirty-five
years ago to meet the requirement of a
time; to cause men and women to hold
their breath the while they shouted vic
tory or disaster through the streets with
equal unconcern. Even this remnant is
un-American. The boys do not howl head
lines in clear English, sharply enunciated,
however butchered. Instead they Shrek
the names of the newspapers they purvey
~ ~ "eifu patols, partiy fldolsh. parity
German; of south European a modicum, of
English hardly any. "Woil!' "Choinal!'
"Hoil!.thus the New York newsboys an
noCnce their presence in the Tenderloin
and in the neighborhood of City Hall Park,
the two districts to which they are prac
tically restricted, owing to lack of patron
age elsewhere in the city.
Prospect of the Future.
1t is the same in Chicago, in Philadel-
phia, in Boston, in st. Los. in San Fran
cisco, in a majority of the great cities on
this continent. 1t is not unlikely that in
some of these cites ten years hence the
newshoy will be as extinct as the dodo.
Not that he is being deliberately crowded
to the wall. He is given every possible
show in all of the cities mentioned Wash
inston is the only city il the United States
where there has appeared to be any neces-
sity for curtailins his opportunities or di--
rectirg his business methods 1t is plain
competition to which he Is succumbing in
the big cities. r.. q
The news stands found at the leading
points in cities has reduced the opportuni-
ties of the newsboys. The sentimental or
gallant man in New York or Chicago has
of late years gotten into the habit of taking
his morning or evening paper from the lit
tie, Shr1veled old woman, or the bright,
pretty young girls who take up jammed
points of vantage In those cities.
The st. Louis man has effected his relief
from the necessity of halting and diving
papers in a peculiar way. Almost to man
the st. Louis newspaper readers subscribe
for their papers, and have them left at
their doors, so that the ST. Louis newsboy
depends in the greatest measure upon
transient custom. st. Louis newspapers are
beaten only by the Washington Star in the
number, proportioHate to the respective
populations of the two cities, of newspaper
readers whose names are inscribed upon
the local subscription lists.
Aa FOund in PhiInIeInI,in
Mark Twain said. good many years ago,
that the city newsboy is an index to the
character of city's people. That epigram
has now lost some of it's force, but it still
holds good to a certain extent. The Phila-
delphia newsboy Of the present day. for in
stance. is the most quiet subdued respect-
able young person in the news-vending line
to be found in the United States. He is
really dignified; sometimes embarrassngly
polite. His face and hands bear distress
ing indications that he understands the use
of soap and water. His shoes are often
brightly polished. and he has a penchant
which he frequently gratifes, for collars
and cuffs and cravatS.
He calls his printed wares in the smallest.
mildest. actually modulated tone of voice,
and he does not move around at all He
establishes himself upon a corner and STAYS
there No other boy is unprofessional
enough to infringe upon territory thus
taken up. Not even an extra" containing
startling news, arouses the Philadelphia
newsboy to action. He retains his stand
upon his corner, and in a sort of expos-
tulatory, pleading tone informs passersby
that the newspapers he carries under his
arm contain information of a really re.
markable character, well worth the buying.
But the Philadelphia newsboy knows his
gait He knows that If he INDUCED in vo-
ciferous bawling the mild Philadelphians
would turn from him with disgust. and he
would sell no papers.
Appeals to SymDatby
The New York newsboy is a taWny. foxv
little fellow of no particular race. but
with something in him of all races. He is
an accomplished actor, and depends as
much upon his capabilities for arousing
sympathy for livelihood as upon the sale
of his "poipes" On a wintry night he will
curl up at the base of a statue in a public
square. or huddle at the foot of an IL"
stairway, with a bundle Of old papers un-
der his arm, and feign sleep, carefully scru-
unizing pedestrians from the tail of his
eye, however. The scheme hardly ever fails
to work There is money in it,
Elderly ladies happen along shake the
poor little pitiful outcast, who awakes with
start and in fears, and means over the
bitterness of being Stuck" the certainty
life when he goes "home," and so on. The
tale, skillfully told and patheticaily elab-
GRATED, almost Invariably wrings a quarter,
half dollar, and often even a dollar, from
inc syhpdtHetlc rQlu lsASy OF the mellow man
who has just dined pretty WELL There are
dozen curly-headed little New York news
boys. with Raphael faces, who make a
business of working this scheme, and have
never been knoHn to buy newspapers to
sell them. The decline of the New York
newsboy is in good measure ascribable to
swindling practices in which some of them
began to engage a few years ago. They
would sell week-old papers, neatly folded
and sprinkled to give them freshness to
rushing men of business. who failed to dis
cover the fraud until the swindling boy had
made it p0ib sfterward seen to patronise eheadse
news stands.
The Chicago newsboy is hoarse, below
ing youth who lives. when he is not making
the day and night hideous. in the unspeak.
able "Levee'' of the city by the unsalted
sea. He often lands in Joliet, for the
'Levee'' teaches him evil ways, the most
common of which is the rolling or rob
bing. of drunken men who stumble their
foolish way along the Chicago streets. and
get themselves led into the ambush Of
Knockout" dives by class of rewsbovs
always On the lookout for such opportuni-
ties. The Illinois state prison is full of ex-
newsboys who declined to submit to the un-
derminirg competition of news stands and
newsgiris. and took to highway robbery
and till-tapping as more profitable, If less
safe, means of livelihood.