1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,680 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,840 --> 00:00:09,639 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,680 --> 00:00:12,680 Speaker 1: show that flips through the pages of history to deliver 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:16,840 Speaker 1: old news in a new way. I'm Gabe Lucier and 5 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:19,759 Speaker 1: in this episode we're talking about the rise of the 6 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:24,240 Speaker 1: American Newsy, a child labor nightmare that later gave rise 7 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:34,960 Speaker 1: to a beloved childhood institution. The day was September fourth, 8 00:00:35,240 --> 00:00:39,240 Speaker 1: eighteen thirty three. A ten year old boy named Barney 9 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:44,239 Speaker 1: Flaherty got a job as America's first newsboy. His hiring 10 00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:46,920 Speaker 1: led to a new labor trend in the nineteenth and 11 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: early twentieth centuries in which thousands of mostly young boys 12 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:57,680 Speaker 1: became the nation's top distributors of newspapers. Bernard Barney O. 13 00:00:57,840 --> 00:01:01,480 Speaker 1: Flerty was born on August thirty one, eighteen twenty four, 14 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 1: in Cork, Ireland. His family immigrated to America seven years 15 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,160 Speaker 1: later and settled in New York City, where his father 16 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:13,480 Speaker 1: became a policeman. Two years after that, shortly after his 17 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:17,280 Speaker 1: tenth birthday, Barney Flerty set out to get his own job. 18 00:01:18,000 --> 00:01:20,160 Speaker 1: He had come across a want ad in the New 19 00:01:20,240 --> 00:01:23,960 Speaker 1: York Sun, which read quote a number of steady men 20 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:28,640 Speaker 1: can find employment by vending this paper. A liberal discount 21 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 1: is allowed to those who buy to sell again. There 22 00:01:33,319 --> 00:01:36,479 Speaker 1: was no mention of an age requirement, so Flerty went 23 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: down to the Sun and inquired about how to get 24 00:01:39,120 --> 00:01:43,480 Speaker 1: started selling papers. He was soon directed to the Son's publisher, 25 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:47,960 Speaker 1: Benjamin Day, who was impressed with the boy's moxie. Day 26 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:50,640 Speaker 1: had hoped that a man would respond to his ad, 27 00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:53,720 Speaker 1: but after having Flerty demonstrate that he could throw a 28 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:58,040 Speaker 1: newspaper over some bushes, he decided to hire the kid instead, 29 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: and so once Amber fourth, eighteen thirty three, Barney Flerty 30 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,400 Speaker 1: became the first known paper boy in the United States. 31 00:02:07,280 --> 00:02:11,440 Speaker 1: As the job listing's wordings suggested, the boy wasn't actually 32 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:15,799 Speaker 1: an employee of the newspaper. Instead, he was essentially an 33 00:02:15,880 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: authorized distributor. He was allowed to purchase papers and bulk 34 00:02:20,240 --> 00:02:23,280 Speaker 1: at a discounted rate, and then resell them to the 35 00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:27,560 Speaker 1: public at full price. The upside for the paper was 36 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:31,280 Speaker 1: that its circulation increased without having to pay for additional 37 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: advertising or manpower, and although the Sun supplied the papers 38 00:02:36,040 --> 00:02:38,880 Speaker 1: at a discount a rate was still high enough for 39 00:02:38,960 --> 00:02:42,720 Speaker 1: its turn a profit. It was a win win arrangement 40 00:02:42,760 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: for the newspapers, but for flarity and for all the 41 00:02:45,720 --> 00:02:50,639 Speaker 1: future newsboys like in slinging papers was a very risky prospect. 42 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:55,760 Speaker 1: That's because newsboys or newsies weren't allowed to return their 43 00:02:55,880 --> 00:02:59,720 Speaker 1: unsold stock. The kids would collect their papers hot off 44 00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:02,920 Speaker 1: the prey each morning and then spend all day hawking 45 00:03:02,960 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: headlines on street corners and trapsing through neighborhoods to deliver 46 00:03:06,919 --> 00:03:10,440 Speaker 1: papers to their subscribers. Then at the end of the day, 47 00:03:10,800 --> 00:03:13,720 Speaker 1: if they still had papers left over, they had to 48 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:18,399 Speaker 1: eat the cost. This system often resulted in steep losses 49 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,280 Speaker 1: for boys new to the job, but even the seasoned 50 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:24,040 Speaker 1: pros could still take a bath on a slow news day. 51 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:28,360 Speaker 1: In fact, the average income for a nineteenth century newsy 52 00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: was just thirty cents per day. Because being a newsy 53 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,200 Speaker 1: was such a tough racket, the job typically fell to 54 00:03:36,240 --> 00:03:40,119 Speaker 1: those on the margins of society. The majority of American 55 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:42,920 Speaker 1: paper boys lived at home with their families and used 56 00:03:42,920 --> 00:03:46,360 Speaker 1: their earnings to help support the household, but many others 57 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: didn't have houses or families, and selling papers was their 58 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,960 Speaker 1: sole means of support. Those kids wandered the streets at 59 00:03:54,040 --> 00:03:58,160 Speaker 1: night and slept in stairwells or under doorsteps. They only 60 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,680 Speaker 1: sold papers when they were able to bet enough money 61 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:03,280 Speaker 1: to buy them, and every time they did it was 62 00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:06,480 Speaker 1: a gamble. Money that could have been spent on a 63 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,680 Speaker 1: hot meal was instead traded away for a chance to 64 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,360 Speaker 1: eat all week long. Oftentimes that gamble paid off, but 65 00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:19,120 Speaker 1: not always luckily. Social reform groups took notice of the 66 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,360 Speaker 1: young boy's plight, and in the late nineteenth century they 67 00:04:22,400 --> 00:04:26,440 Speaker 1: began opening lodging houses for newsboys and other kids who 68 00:04:26,520 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: lived and worked on the streets. Here they could eat 69 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,680 Speaker 1: a free meal and sleep in a warm bed, and 70 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: with that assistance, their meager earnings stretched that much further. 71 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:40,919 Speaker 1: That said, the newsies were still getting a raw deal 72 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,159 Speaker 1: from their partners at the daily presses, so it's no 73 00:04:44,240 --> 00:04:48,840 Speaker 1: surprise that New York City's newsboys eventually mounted several strikes, 74 00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:54,440 Speaker 1: most notably the Newsboy's Strike of eighteen ninety nine. Several 75 00:04:54,520 --> 00:04:57,839 Speaker 1: thousand paper boys refused to handle papers for the leading 76 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:02,120 Speaker 1: muckrakers of the day, William Randolph Hurst and Joseph Pulitzer, 77 00:05:03,040 --> 00:05:06,400 Speaker 1: but the publisher's competitors were all too happy to cover 78 00:05:06,440 --> 00:05:09,600 Speaker 1: the strikes in their own pages. Introducing the world to 79 00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:14,320 Speaker 1: such colorful characters as Ed Racetrack Higgins and Kid Blink, 80 00:05:14,839 --> 00:05:18,120 Speaker 1: two hard scrabble young newsies who dared to speak out 81 00:05:18,279 --> 00:05:23,200 Speaker 1: for better treatment. The eighteen ninety nine strike wasn't a 82 00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:26,479 Speaker 1: total success, but it put enough pressure on Hearst and 83 00:05:26,560 --> 00:05:29,880 Speaker 1: Pulitzer to get them to drop the no refund's policy. 84 00:05:30,520 --> 00:05:33,640 Speaker 1: From then on, the publishers agreed to buy back any 85 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:37,360 Speaker 1: unsold papers, eliminating the need for newsies to pull an 86 00:05:37,400 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: all nighter to avoid taking a loss. Bizarrely enough, the 87 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:46,680 Speaker 1: newsboy's strike also inspired a big budget Disney musical called 88 00:05:46,880 --> 00:05:50,920 Speaker 1: What Else Newsies. Both the nineteen ninety two film and 89 00:05:51,040 --> 00:05:53,840 Speaker 1: the Broadway show that spun out of it offer a 90 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:57,400 Speaker 1: somewhat fictionalized take on the story, with a lot more 91 00:05:57,480 --> 00:06:02,400 Speaker 1: singing dancing in melodrama than the actually lies. Still, Disney's 92 00:06:02,400 --> 00:06:05,240 Speaker 1: take manages to deliver the basics on the strike and 93 00:06:05,279 --> 00:06:08,200 Speaker 1: does a decent job of showing the gritty lifestyle of 94 00:06:08,320 --> 00:06:12,720 Speaker 1: turn of the century New York newsies. As the twentieth 95 00:06:12,720 --> 00:06:16,599 Speaker 1: century marched on, newsboys became a less common sight in 96 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,559 Speaker 1: American cities, not because of child labor laws, but because 97 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:24,480 Speaker 1: of the rise of newspaper vending machines. Instead of buying 98 00:06:24,480 --> 00:06:28,480 Speaker 1: a paper from a disheveled kid shouting extra extra, people 99 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:31,039 Speaker 1: could simply drop a nickel in a machine and help 100 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:35,799 Speaker 1: themselves to a fresh copy. Newsies disappeared from city street 101 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:39,240 Speaker 1: corners by the nineteen thirties, but their profession lived on 102 00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:43,280 Speaker 1: in the suburbs. As more and more Americans ditched big 103 00:06:43,320 --> 00:06:46,279 Speaker 1: city living for quiet life in the country, the need 104 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,560 Speaker 1: for paper boys migrated with them. Boys and girls alike 105 00:06:50,680 --> 00:06:54,839 Speaker 1: began making early morning deliveries by bicycle flinging rolled up 106 00:06:54,880 --> 00:06:57,920 Speaker 1: papers onto their neighbour's lawns and porch steps as they 107 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:02,600 Speaker 1: rode by. For about aout half a century, delivering newspapers 108 00:07:02,720 --> 00:07:06,279 Speaker 1: was many kids first job experience. Having a paper route 109 00:07:06,320 --> 00:07:09,040 Speaker 1: was treated as a rite of passage in some communities 110 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:13,320 Speaker 1: and in popular culture. Kids delivering papers became visual shorthand 111 00:07:13,480 --> 00:07:17,800 Speaker 1: for wholesome small town America, which is pretty ironic given 112 00:07:17,840 --> 00:07:22,160 Speaker 1: what life was like for the original newsies. These days, 113 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:25,840 Speaker 1: children still have paper routes in some small communities, but 114 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:29,160 Speaker 1: they are now the exception, not the norm. According to 115 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:33,960 Speaker 1: the Newspaper Association of America the NAA, more than eighty 116 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:37,720 Speaker 1: percent of today's carriers are adults, largely due to the 117 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:41,160 Speaker 1: greater distances that they have to travel to collect their papers. 118 00:07:42,160 --> 00:07:44,840 Speaker 1: One thing that hasn't changed, though, is that the vast 119 00:07:44,960 --> 00:07:50,400 Speaker 1: majority of newspaper deliverers are still independent contractors, although their 120 00:07:50,440 --> 00:07:55,360 Speaker 1: subscribers are now billed directly by the papers. A decade's 121 00:07:55,400 --> 00:07:59,160 Speaker 1: long decline in newspaper readership means that the banner days 122 00:07:59,160 --> 00:08:02,280 Speaker 1: of the Newsy's so behind them, but that doesn't mean 123 00:08:02,320 --> 00:08:07,239 Speaker 1: their historical and cultural contributions are forgotten. In nineteen sixty 124 00:08:07,440 --> 00:08:11,520 Speaker 1: the Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame was established. It honors 125 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:16,360 Speaker 1: famous former newspaper carriers, including the likes of Martin Luther King, Junior, 126 00:08:16,600 --> 00:08:22,000 Speaker 1: Walt Disney, Isaac Asimov, Wayne Gretzky, and John Wayne. There 127 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:26,440 Speaker 1: are also two annual tribute days for Newsy's past and present, 128 00:08:26,880 --> 00:08:30,360 Speaker 1: the International Newspaper Carrier Day, which is in the second 129 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,200 Speaker 1: week of October, and National News Carrier Day, which is 130 00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:38,040 Speaker 1: celebrated in the United States on September fourth, the day 131 00:08:38,120 --> 00:08:46,120 Speaker 1: when Barney Flaherty became the first to carry the banner. 132 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:49,839 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe Bluesyay, and hopefully you now know a little 133 00:08:49,840 --> 00:08:54,000 Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. If you'd 134 00:08:54,040 --> 00:08:55,920 Speaker 1: like to keep up with the show, you can follow 135 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:00,679 Speaker 1: us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, 136 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free 137 00:09:04,040 --> 00:09:06,440 Speaker 1: to send them my way by writing to This Day 138 00:09:06,760 --> 00:09:11,480 Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Casby Bias for producing 139 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:14,200 Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see 140 00:09:14,200 --> 00:09:18,079 Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.