Newsboys are students. From the necessity of knowing the special
happenings of the day, as soon as they receive their papers they
quickly read the head lines. First, they can be seen to slowly spell
each word, but in a very short time they read without assistance. It is
one of the advantages to boys selling papers, it is an educator. To be
successful, they must become familiar with the news of the day and be
able to cry it to induce men to purchase.
After the inaugural parade, when most people were tired, the newsboys,
at their headquarters, “chipped in” and raised enough money to send
one of the boys “down town to purchase a copy of every paper sold in
the city.” The boy returned with New York, Philadelphia and Washington
dailies and a dozen sellers were seated on the cots, each earnestly
reading, and commenting on leading articles. One little seller said:
“Say, look here, fellers, Teddy has started to work, he made an
appointment. I guess he means business.”
Is there another organization whose members, when attending a
convention, are so interested in the news of the day as to send one
of their number—“down the avenue to purchase a copy of each of the
dailies the town takes?”
From the highest officers in the land; from the committee in charge
of the various divisions; from the foreign as well as the Washington
newspapers, praise and compliments were given these newsboys for the
almost perfect marching, in the parade.
They said:
“The newsboys’ band and cadets made the hit of the day, in the parade,
and made thousands of friends throughout the United States * * *
President Roosevelt was immensely pleased with the newsboys and could
not say enough of the remarkable appearance they made. The Newsboys’
Band and Cadets, sixty-five in all, which led the third brigade of
the civic grand division, are the first newsboys in America to be
recognized in an inaugural parade. The band thirty-eight pieces, is
uniformed in red with black trimmings; the cadets, twenty, with red and
white trimmings. The cadets march under the leadership of Drum-Major
Francis McGarry, the youngest drum-major in the world, and a little
fellow who has to take a hitch-step every other step in order to keep
up with the procession. The general appearance and manly conduct of the
young gentlemen elicited many favorable comments. They were an object
lesson of a very remarkable character, which is calculated to arouse in
them a higher degree of patriotism and love for their country.”
_PART THIRD_
[Illustration: “I AM AN OFFICER OF THE SELLERS’ AUXILIARY; GET BUSY.”]
[Illustration: “LADY, I AM SORRY I RUN AWAY WID DE MONEY.”
_See Page 68_
]