| A Newsie's Essay |
| By Birdy |
| Swifty Darnell Mrs. O'Shea English Sept. 1, 1899 |
| What I did on my Summer Vacation This summer I was a newsie, just like I am every summer and after school. My uncle makes me go to school during the fall. A lot of my friends don't go to school, though because they are full time newsies. You probably heard about the strike we had. Well, that's what I did this summer. I went on strike. The whole thing started when old Joe Pulitzer jacked up the price of the papes from 50 cents a hundred to 60 cents a hundred. A lot of the guys can barly make a living paying 50 cents. This new kid, David Jacobs, sugested that we go on strike Jack Kelly liked the idea, so we went on strike. Jack's sort of our leader. We all went to talk to other newsies all over New York to get them to join the strike.Nobody would say yes at first because they were waiting to see what Brooklyn would doThe leader of the Brooklyn Newsies, Spot Conlon, didn't think we had Wht it takes to win the strike. We proved we could, though, and everybody joined the strike. We had a huge rally after everybody joined. It was held at Irving hall. It was great until the Bulls came. We all got arrested and tried in court but this reporter, Mr. Denton, paid all the fines, except for Jack's. Jack was tried seperatly from us because Warden Snyder had been After him for a while. Jack was found guilty and hauled of to the Refuge. Pulitzer bribed Jack and Jack turned scab on us. But he came back and we put out a newspaper of our own and got all the kids in New York to go on strike and we won! We all got to meet Teddy Roosevelt too! And that's what I did on my summer vacation. |