Most newsies, however, had homes to return to at night. They attended school during the day and sold newspapers at night and on the weekends. Although some girls hawked newspapers, the newsies were primarily boys, ranging in age from eight to fifteen. The ones in the movie were older than that though.
To get started in thir business enterprise, the newsies borrowed money from their parents, older brothers or sisters, or friends. In 1899, it cost fifty cents to buy one hundred newspapers, which sold for one cent.
The newsies thronged outside the newspaper offices, waiting for the papers, hot off the press. As they waited, they played games, threw balls in the street, pitched pennies, and played craps. They drank pop and ate candy, ice-cream, and frankfurters. They also drank coffee and smoked cigaretted, which worried many adults.
Once the circulation managers threw open the office windows, the games were over. The paper ruch began and the playful boys became enterprising businessmen as they stepped up to the window to buy thier newspspers from the manager.
Through out the 1880s and 1890s, the newspaper industry boomed. Millionaire publishers such as William Randolph Hearst, who owned the NewYork Journal, and Joseph Pulitzer, who owned the New York World, enjoyed tremendous success. They continued to invest money in their newspapers, creating splashy headlines and putting out extra editions.
But by 1899, the huge profits tapered off. Although Hearst and pulitzer competed with each other, they both wante to recover thier investments. They considered raisingthe cost of their newspapers, but they feared that customers would buy other papers instead.
HEarst and Pulitzer were shrewd businessmen. If they couldn't charge the customers more, they could rercover their losses by charging the newsies more. And so they did. The raised the cost of the whole sale proce that the newsboys paod for the papers. The cost of the paper for the customer remained the same, but the newsies' cost increased from fifty centss to sixty cents for one hundred papers.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti
copyright 1999
all rights reserved.