Delivering Newspapers 1899

Delivering Newspapers, New York City 1899
Photographed May 1, 1899.
American Mutoscope and Biograph Company
Camera: G.W. "Billy" Bitzer, Arthur Marvin

A distributor for the New York World arrives to drop off the latest edition to waiting newsies. As they scramble for copies a fight breaks out between two boys and the boisterous crowd of adolescents gathers around to witness the walloping. The location is uncertain, possibly Union Square Park near 14th Street, or Park Row also called 'Newspaper Row,' near City Hall Park where many of the major newspapers were located at this time.

NEWSPAPER BOYS GO ON STRIKE
The Newsboys Strike of 1899 was a youth-led campaign to force change in the way that Joseph Pulitzer's and William Randolph Hearst's newspapers compensated their child labor force. The strike lasted two weeks, causing Pulitzer's New York World to reduce its circulation from 360,000 to 125,000. The strike was successful in increasing the amount newsboys received by selling papers.
Newspaper boys, also called newsboys or newsies, were the main distributors of newspapers to the general public from the mid-19th to the early 20th century in the United States. Standing on street corners, walking through neighborhoods and hawking their papers throughout every city, they first appeared with the rise of mass circulation newspapers. Newsboys tended to be among the poorest classes of society, often seen sleeping on the streets.
The newsboys were not employees of the newspapers but rather purchased the papers from the publishers and sold them as independent agents. Not allowed to return unsold papers, the newsboys typically earned around 30 cents a day and often worked until very late at night. Cries of "Extra, extra!" were often heard into the morning hours as newsboys attempted to hawk every last paper.
- excerpts from wikipedia

One of the most famous period songs was A. Baldwin Slone's 1900 vaudeville hit "Jimmy, De Pride of Newspaper Row":
Jimmy Jones is me name, /
Selling papes is me game /
I'm the toughest kid ever on earth, /
If you ask me where's me home, /
From a box to de dome of the World Building* does for me berth . . .
- excerpt from 'New York: Songs of the City' - Nancy Groce

*The World Building was located on Park Row

01/01/12 - 4,874

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[daggertoungeomega]

what going to take place is all those people out are going to be rounded up, they will get what they are asking for as i said my people are powerful they can not be counted those who make war against have no chance i am one person when they come down to join me forget about it wake up people i dont bluff those egos will be crushed instantly and you will freeze in your tracks join the good fight.

[daggertoungeomega]

The front page and knowing when to know what's behind the headline, what would cuase a riot or the thinking of a person or group of people that would lead them to believe that a riot would take place. What would really happen the answer in the weather if such a thing that may cause a riot will take place but will not be allowed. the only one who would loose are those psychotic people who are the figures of laws for men.

[marteaga15]

What the? Massive tackle at 17 and a brawl at 45 lol

[cygnusx13]

it's a battle royale!

[claudia0102094]

aww.. where did you get it from?