Salvation Lassies Wouldn’t Sell Them

Evening Journal and Evening World Still Unable to Break the Newsboys’ Boycott.

Big Parade To-Night, Sure

New Leader of the Strikers Says President York Has Given the Necessary Permit.

To Have Six Thousand In Line

Meanwhile the Evening Telegram Is Heading Another Procession.

The managers of the evening editions of the World and Journal made a frantic effort to-day to get behind feminine skirts and thus foist their wares under the noses of the public without facing the danger of bodily injury. They approached Salvation Army lassies and endeavored to get them to handle the tabooed sheets.

Not only did the Salvation Army women refuse, but did not even think it worth while to report the offers at headquarters, for there is discipline in the army, and the soldiers would not be permitted to take such a step without its being sanctioned from above.

At the Salvation Army headquarters in Fourteenth street they were hugely amused at the attempt and said:—

“We hadn’t even heard of it here before. There is nothing in it, I can assure you,” one of the women said. “We have trouble enough to sell our own papers.”

So in spite of rumors to the contrary, eminating evidently from interested sources, the newsboys’ strike is a long way from being a thing of the past. In proof of it if anyone with eyes or ears needed any further proof—the boys purpose to hold a great street parade to-night. The parade was to have come off last night, but “Kid Blink,” who is said to have been tempted by the enemy, at least spoke prematurely when he said that the Mayor had given them the necessary permit. But since then the “Kid” has been relegated to that “dark backward and abyss of time” that has swallowed other over-confident leaders of men, and Morris Cohen has stepped into his shoes. The Mayor was friendly, though, to the project, it seems, and “Davee” Simons, treasurer of the newsboys’ organization, is responsible for the statement that President York, of the Police Board, has given the necessary permit, and that the deferred parade will come off to-night.

The plan is to start from City Hall Park and march up Park row, the Bowery and Third avenue to Fifty-ninth street, then to cross over to Fitch avenue and proceed down to Washington square, where the parade will disperse. There will be three bands, it is said; one for the Brooklyn contingent, another for Harlem and a third for the downtown boys. It is expected that 6,000 boys will be in line.

Meanwhile there is another notable procession to be observed by the interested. It is going on almost hourly as the six regular and one or more extra editions of the EVENING TELEGRAM leave the presses and take up their line of march to every corner of the greater city and suburbs where live news and fair treatment are appreciated. There were 330,000 in line in this silent parade yesterday, and the line is in motion again to-day and moving fast.

Besides these eloquent evidences of popular approval of the newsboys’ stand against the wartime exaction of the frenzied chrome and cadmium hued sheets, there are others. The West Side Newsdealers’ Association has passed resolutions approving the stand taken by their young co-laborers, and urging all newsdealers in the city to refrain from handling the objectionable sheets.

On top o fthat there is talk of adding the morning editions fo the World and Journal to the tabooed list.

In the interval there are to be more meetings in the interests of the striking newsboys. One has been called for to-night by the boys themselves at No. 415 Ninth avenue, and another of the brotherhood of Newsdealers and Stationers, at No. 19 Manhattan street.

And still the strike itself spreads. Bayonne and Asbury Park, Saratoga and White Plains have joined in the attempt to force the yellow poster sheets to either be just or go our of business.

Here is a sample of the attitude of the public:—

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING TELEGRAM:—

Kindly advertise in your paper that there are boys (“Scabs”) selling the Yellow World and Journal at Nostrand avenue and Myrtle and Classon, Brooklyn.

W. C. ENGEL.
Brooklyn, N. Y., July 24, 1899.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVENING TELEGRAM:—

Allow me the pleasure of a few minutes of your valuable time, and a little space in your no less valuable paper, which I hold as a warm friend to all newsboys. I sell the EVENING TELEGRAM every evening, and the demand is increasing at a rapid rate. The boys down here are on strike against the “yellows,” and we will not allow one of them to be sold. The TELEGRAM never sold as it is down here, and we are using what influence we have with our customers toward them buying it. Inclosed [sic] you will find a few of my sentiments toward the yellows:—

I sell evening papers at the foot of Grand
Suns, News and TELEGRAMS to beat the band;
I read the TELEGRAM every evening,
And I find its columns very pleasing;
No such trash that’s in the yellows,
That are blowing like a bellows
About strikes and arbitration,
Ten-hour laws, and wage stagnation.
They had better go and hide their faces,
for they are the twin yellow disgraces.

WILLIAM GOEBEL, Grand Street Ferry.
NEW YORK, July 27, 1899.

Source: “Salvation Lassies Wouldn’t Sell Them.” Evening Telegram, 27 July 1899, p. 8.