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[newsboys-of-1899]

I just found this blog and am already in love with it if only for the fact that I’ve been wanting to research so much on this topic (it’s a current special interest of mine), but I’ve never been able to find where to start — so, thank you for having this all, I guess is what I’m saying!

Welcome here! I’m glad you like it! This was my own special interest dumping ground back in the day. I’d love to talk with you about anything you come across or any questions you have! You can dm me or ask on here whenever you like.

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Just submitted my essay wish me luck 😅

Good luck! I’m sure you did great :)

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Hi, sorry, me again! I’ll be out of your hair soon- but could I have a source for the strike results? Also are there any documents on what the children’s jails were like, specifically the refuge? I have some account of boys expressing fear or distrust of it but no trusted explanation of why.

I believe the Unions and Strikes chapter of Nassaw’s Children of the City (linked in the google drive) talks about the results of the strike. A scan of the agreement signed by the business managers of the two papers is also in there.

As for the refuge, newsiesquare has already made a wonderful post about it including links to more articles so I won’t repeat everything they said so well. Just read it here: https://www.tumblr.com/newsiesquare/177771446430/did-snyder-the-spyder-and-the-refuge-actually

Cw for child abuse/endangerment and police/ prison violence in the link.

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Hello, research paper person here, what exactly was the outcome of the strike? From the World’s statement, it seems as if nothing changed. However the World is one of the boycotted newspapers so I’m not sure if that is completely trustworthy?

Good instinct! Always question the bias of a source.

In this case, the boycotted papers remained at 60¢/100, but the papers offered buybacks on unsold papers. This meant the boys’ profit margins stayed the same but their working conditions improved as they didn’t have to stay out all night or eat the loss on unsold papers. That was the only change from the newsboys’ point of view.

From the perspective of the papers, though, a lot changed. The World and Journal’s popular image was tarnished and they no longer enjoyed the monopoly they’d held over the news before. People were buying other papers, including a smaller production known as the New York Times, dunno maybe you’ve heard of it, and the World and Journal couldn’t stop them.

From a business methods standpoint the strike also changed things. Faced with a shared threat, the two former rival papers started working together. This deal wasn’t ultimately enough to save them, but it did change their day-to-day operations quite a bit.

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Interesting. You’re right, it does say that. I imagine this was a mistake as the World itself claimed its wholesale price was 60c/100 in their August 3 “Plain Statement of Facts for Public Consideration.”

Hi, I’ve been looking through the newspaper articles and they all have different numbers for the the price was changed to. I know it was at 50 cents per hundred originally, but did it go up the 60, 70, or 75 cents? I’ve seen all three.

60 as far as I’m aware. Where did you see the others?

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Hi, me again, (my full draft is due on friday so im in crunch time for research rn) I know the strike started in brooklyn, but in “The Only Tie-Up in Town.” By The Sun (July 21, 1899) it talks about Spot Conlon (District Master Workboy of the Brooklyn Union?) crossing the bride to talk to Blind Diamond? Did the strike start in Brooklyn then Kid Blink took the reigns in a different borough or…?

but that same article talks about how if they wait a little then they can count on brooklyn. Once again, I thought they were already apart of the strike?

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the strike starting in Brooklyn. The two sources I’ve seen about where the strike started are newspaper articles about early actions in downtown Manhattan, and a letter from Seitz to Pulitzer where he claims things started a few days earlier in Long Island City which is in Queens. Unless you have some other source about Brooklyn that I’m not aware of?

It’s also worth remembering that sources about the strike are notoriously unreliable. The people reporting on what was happening were the very people most directly affected by it, so everybody had a bias. All history is mostly guesswork, but this especially has to be taken with a grain of salt. When things don’t match up between sources it may be that one source knew about something that the other didn’t, or it may be that one of them made things up to tell a better story that would make them look good.

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Hi, I’ve been looking through the newspaper articles and they all have different numbers for the the price was changed to. I know it was at 50 cents per hundred originally, but did it go up the 60, 70, or 75 cents? I’ve seen all three.

60 as far as I’m aware. Where did you see the others?

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hiii ! hope you're doing well :)

this question isn't exactly newsies, but i want to know about social classes in the late 1800s for a story but i'm kind of struggling with finding exact definitions. so could you give examples of some of the characters and what social class they would be in?

ik the newsies would be working/lower class and pulitzer and hearst would be upper class, but what about characters like medda, snyder, kloppman and the judge?

Hello! Thank you for the question!

Coming up with exact definitions of social classes is difficult because class is a social construct. If we put every person in the world in a line from richest to poorest, where would we divide it to say someone is upper class or not? Class is far more complex than that and is also determined by education, race, citizenship, languages spoken, and so much more. That said, let’s talk about newsies characters and class. I’m also going to add a couple people to your list that I think are interesting cases.

Medda is a burlesque performer, but she also owns the theatre where she works. This puts her a bit higher than most burlesque performers, but still very much within their world. Burlesque performers were considered akin to sex workers at the time, so she would likely have been looked down on by many, but still have enough personal wealth to get by on her own.

Snyder is a jail warden - a respectable job but not a particularly fancy one. He definitely has status over the working class people who make up most of his prisoners, but he is still very much a working man. In the novelization, he is seen to be totally in awe of being in a room with the mayor and Pulitzer in the scene where he’s asking to arrest Jack, as he is significantly below both of them.

Kloppman works for a non-profit group: the Children’s Aid Society. He and his family live in private quarters within the lodging house, so he doesn’t own property but he also doesn’t have to worry about making rent. He would be an upstanding member of society, but not wealthy.

The judge is a judge. Obviously. He is definitely educated and has a high-status job. He does work for his money, as opposed to Pulitzer and Hearst who hire other people to work for them, but the money he makes for that work would likely be pretty good.

Denton works for a newspaper. He has steady employment that is not manual labour, which puts him a step above most of the newsies’ families, but he is still very much a working man living in small rented quarters.

Katherine is an heiress. She chooses to work, but if she wanted to quit she would very much be able to. She would fit in with high society if she wanted to but people who don’t know who she is would likely assume she’s about on par with Denton.

Finally, Seitz is a business manager. He is above almost every other worker at the World, and WELL above the newsies. He is still a working man, but in a well-paying high-class job. Not a CEO, but upper management in a very powerful company.

Hope that clears some things up. If not please feel free to ask more questions!

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Hi, I’m doing a research paper on the strike and was wondering if you knew of any trustworthy articles I could use for research and reference?

Hello! The answer to this depends on if you are looking for primary or secondary sources. For primary sources check out cityhallpark1899.com for transcribed newspaper articles, or go to Chronicling America and search for yourself. There’s also a great number of resources in the blog’s google drive (link in description), including Pulitzer’s correspondence during the strike, several books about children or the poor of nyc at the turn of the century, and some great secondary source articles and book chapters. If you have more specific things you want sources for let me know and I will check!

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How old were most of the newsboys at the time of the strike?

Hello again :) Newsboys varied in age, but most fell between the ages of about 5-15.

The youngest child arrested in connection with the newsboy strike was Moses Burns, age 11, charged with “attempting to brain another boy”. The oldest were A J Klock and Bertha Saffe, age 23, arrested for unknown reasons.

As far as major players go, the only two I have ages for are Kid Blink and David Simons. According to census records as well as his gravestone, Louis “Kid Blink” Balletti turned 18 just weeks before the start of the strike, though when he was arrested he told reporters at the station that he was 16 years old and that his last name was Ballatt for reasons we can only speculate. David was twenty at the time of the strike, and if our extrapolation of census records are right, he may have had a wife and child at the time, giving him much more to lose than the average striker who were just selling for pocket change!

As always, we know very little about most of the other strikers, including Racetrack Higgins, Crutch Morris, Scabbutch, and the thousands of others who helped lead the strike. Anybody with information leading to the discovery of details about their lives will gain my eternal gratitude.

Please keep the questions coming! I enjoy answering them.

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Hi! in a few of your posts you referenced "Crutch" Morris being the secretary of the union, could you point me to the newspaper this information comes from? Thanks!

After Kid Blink and David Simmons’ alleged betrayal, there were several different sets of people elected to replace them. One of these committees included Crutch Morris as recording secretary. This is noted in the Tribune’s Illustrated Supplement. He was also involved in planning the rally at Irving Hall and was named as a member of the “committee of arrangements” at one point. He wasn’t in the spotlight much (we only have one direct quote from him as far as I can tell) but he was certainly an important figure in the strike!

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This may be a silly question but why does Crutchy only use one crutch?

As my high school chem teacher used to say: Unless it involves the removal of your pants there is no such thing as a stupid question

There are a variety of disabilities that require a variety of mobility aids to accommodate them. Some people use a crutch in each hand to help stabilize themselves. Some use a cane if they need a bit of help but are still mostly okay standing on their own. And then there are folks in the middle, like Crutchy, who only need support on one side like cane users do, but need a bit more support all the way up to their shoulder, so they use a single crutch. Bodies are varied and mobility aids are all different to fit them!

If you’re asking about the historical Crutch Morris, there is no record of what the exact nature of his disability was or what kind of aids he might have used. It may have been one crutch or two, and unfortunately we’ll probably never know.

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Hi!! I really love this blog, I think it’s very informative and it’s quite cool!! Do you have any websites that have actual newspapers and articles from the strike? I’ve been wanting to research it. :)

Yes! You can find scans of many newspaper articles discussing the strike by searching for the word “newsboy” on Chronicling America and setting the parameters to New York newspapers in July/August 1899. Many relevant articles are also transcribed on http://cityhallpark1899.com, which is far easier to navigate in my experience.

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Do we have a definitive confirmation Kid Blink and David Simons definitely scabbed? I've read that they were accused of it but later found innocent by most of the other newsies, although they stepped down from their positions to ease tensions. Also given how unreliable newspapers could be at the time, I can't help but suspect some of the stories were either directly from or at least supported by the publishers trying to weaken the strike. Any grounds for this theory?

That is a very interesting question, and one I have wondered about many times myself! Unfortunately there’s no way to know for certain, but circumstances are suspicious. Let’s start with evidence and then discuss what might have happened.

Several newspapers reported on Kid Blink and David Simons selling the boycotted papers, which makes the idea that the Times or Sun or whatever other paper just made the story up unlikely. However, the details of events are different from paper to paper. Some say the two had accepted a bribe to break the strike. Some say it was a power move to be seen as a strong leader who ended the strike. Some say they thought the strike was over. And then what happened after their alleged betrayal also differs. Some sources say their papers were torn up by the other strikers. Some say they were searched and found to have no bribe money on them. Some say they were called to trial with the other strike leaders, including one in which they defend themselves in almost Shakespearean prose followed by a full multi-verse poem supposedly spontaneously composed by Kid Blink. I am inclined to believe that the latter at least was written by somebody who was not actually in the room, but whose poem I dearly wish had been turned into a song for the musical if only for the beautiful repeated line of “Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike ‘em on the head.”

The complication in believing anything these papers report is that the very people reporting on events are the people whose business is most directly affected by the strike. The World and Journal desperately wanted to make the strikers look bad to end the strike as quickly as possible, and they used their influence to try to stop the other papers encouraging it too. The other papers, by contrast, wanted the strike to continue as long as possible. With their competition boycotted they stood to make a lot of money as long as the strike was on.

So possible explanations:

Kid Blink and David Simons scabbed. They saw people were upset and came back to the cause. The papers reported exactly the truth.

Kid Blink and David Simons scabbed and were not forgiven. The rival papers tried to lighten the damage they knew this would do to strikers’ morale by pretending there was a trial and the two were found innocent.

The Times/Sun/Tribune made up the story for a good headline. I think this is unlikely as it would be against their interests, but it’s possible.

Unfounded rumours spread as they tend to among children, and by the time the rumours were proven false the damage had already been done.

Kid Blink and David Simons were victims of a whisper campaign by the World and Journal who deliberately planted misinformation among the kids to sabotage their cause.

Personally I think possibilities 4 and 5 are most likely but it’s impossible to know for sure. July 25 was the high point in the strike. Just the night before five thousand boys had rallied at Irving Hall. Public opinion was on their side. The World and Journal were scared. Of all the days to scab, the 26th would not be the day I would choose! However, if I were a newspaper executive, July 26 is exactly the day I would resort to starting rumours about children…

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Hi there! I was wondering if you had any official newspaper documents/photographs involving the strike? (If you get what I'm asking????) Thanks!

Yes! The site cityhallpark1899.com has transcriptions of a lot of newspaper articles from the strike. The only photo I know for sure is of a named striker is the icon of this blog, David Simons. The google drive has a lot of great links and pdf books in it, plus some scans of Pulitzer’s correspondence and other primary and secondary sources. There should be a link to the drive not to far down this blog feed

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Just discovered this blog and the amount of research and resources is incredible! I'm trying to compile as much information as I can on the newsboys' strike, absolutely invaluable having so much information available in one place, thank you sm!

Thanks for writing! I’m really glad this blog could be useful to you. If you have any questions please do ask!

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sorry, one more question- what were the nationalities of most of the newsboys? and out of the most known ones (david simmons, kid blink, racetrack higgins, etc), are there any that were immigrates or could be based on their name or information about them?

Most of the newsies were from immigrant families simply because they tended to be poor and their families therefore needed the money earned by their children more than more affluent families did.

Specifically, we know that David Simmons was Jewish and that Kid Blink was Italian. We don’t know much about Racetrack Higgins, but from his name we can guess he was probably Irish or British. Kid Blink’s parents immigrated from Italy a year before he was born. I don’t know as much about David Simmons, but I’m sure somebody somewhere has information about when his family immigrated. And as always, if you know anything at all about Racetrack Higgins please send it to me, my family is starving.