Newsboys' Strike: 120th Anniversary

July 24, 2019

Newsboys' Strike: 120th Anniversary - Day 4

"A 14 year old boy selling newspapers alone, past midnight"
Lewis Hine, photographer
wikimediacommons

By the 24th of July, the strike had really heated up. Not that it was tame at the beginning. The newsies resorted to violence pretty much from the get go. They stole newspapers from "scab" newsies selling the "yellow" or boycotted papers, tearing the papers to shreds, attacked newspaper delivery wagons, and ganged up on traitors in hoards and mobs. One newspaper described one scene as "the street being black with them". That's a lot of kids! Even the police force had a hard time controlling them. Many of the children arrested were either handed over to the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Children or the Juvenile Asylum. Some of the kids were escorted to the police station by supportive mobs of kids, and in some cases rewarded with fruit and candy by their admirers.

It's interesting to see how the reporters and public in general viewed the newsies which can be found in how they're described - urchins, small vendors, "noisy nuisance", mob of small boys, etc. The reporters also, it seems, took great pleasure in writing out their street accents to further color the characters in this swelling drama. I think we'll really start to see how much the public relished the drama as we hit the climax of the strike, articles are lengthier and more detailed. There is great coverage of the newsboys rally in a couple days - yep, just like Disney shows in their movie Newsies. I think the newsboys' strike, like the messenger boy strike, and the bootblack strike mentioned in today's articles, amused, amazed, and inspired the public. New York city at this time was a dangerous place to be if the newspapers are to be given any credit. The striking atmosphere was heavy for all kinds of groups of people struggling against a system they felt was unfair. The fact that children were standing up and expressing their grievances - and being successful - was pretty extraordinary. Besides that, this was the age of thrills and the extreme (think Barnum & Bailey's circus). I wouldn't say it was celebrated, but it was tolerated with a shocked, scandalized sort of wonder.
So while the strike slightly revealed the darker side of child labor made famous by the American photographer, Lewis Hine, the shocking violence and organization of the newsboys strike was, in many ways, a form of entertainment absorbed by newspaper readers. Though, I don't think the people negatively affected by the "noisy nuisance" would've viewed it that way...

Well, enough of my ramblings. Here are the articles of day 4 of the strike - July 24, 1899:

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NEW YORK TRIBUNE