Nature's Aristocracy: A Plea for the Oppressed

Chapter 5: Newsboys and Bootblacks

chapter 5 Newsboys and Bootblacks Success in Life.—Their Genius and Education. —Newsboys’ “Home.”—Dividing the Profits.—You May Borrow, but You Shall Never Pay. 1 It is not my purpose to give in this chapter the many cases where bootblacks and newsboys have become wealthy and influential men; for many whose names I find in the “scrap-book” would object to the publication of their lives. A correspondent of the Boston Traveller , writing in 1857, stated that there were then “ten leading editors of New York who were once newsboys,—four in Boston, twelve in Philadelphia, and fifteen in Chicago.” The newsboys, however, oftener seek other employments, and a far greater number of them are now among the merchants, army officers, politicians, and representatives of our country, than in the editorial fraternity; while men who once blacked boots on the corners or in the hotels are to be found now in nearly every community as manufacturers, merchants , aldermen, mayors, and congressmen; and even governors and senators have started, when boys, in the same humble trade. The reason why so many boys in this profession have succeeded so well in life is because the natural qualifications which fit them for bootblacks and newsboys are elements of success in the higher branches of labor and trade. A successful newsboy or an accomplished shoeblack will make as shrewd a trade as a Jew, and will weigh all its advantages and disadvantages with the wisdom of a banker. This is owing, no doubt, partially to his street education. Nature’s Aristocracy | 49 But to argue that he is indebted to that for all his talent would be to prove that boys in higher circles, who do not have that hard training , are always unfit to conduct the business which the newsboy seems to understand so well. If there were not many thousand people succeeding in life who never had this training, then we might think that successful bootblacks owed their wealth and position to the discipline which their early trade gave them. Culture and refinement are excellent helpmeets for a natural genius, and none appreciate the advantages of an education more than he does. But neither study nor “accomplishments” ever made a successful man of a person in whose construction Nature omitted the gift of genius; while the world is full of men and women whose natural endowments , without educational additions such as society now esteems, have made them leaders in the greatest and worthiest undertakings of their age. As a class in the community, the bootblacks and newsboys are naturally the brightest, the shrewdest, and the wittiest. 2 Several laudable attempts have been made in the larger cities of America and Europe to establish “Homes” for these boys, where they could get a good bed and palatable meals at the lowest cost price. Several of these institutions are now in operation, and, according to the reports of superintendents, are doing a great deal of good. It is said that boys who slept in door-ways and on the wharves before measures were taken to give them a better place now sleep in nice beds, and learn to comb their hair, wash their faces, and behave like little gentlemen. It is said, too, that the little laborers are taught to place their money in the bank, and to provide for themselves with economy and care. All of which is doubtless true, and reflects great credit upon the generosity of the projectors and supporters of those institutions. But, for reasons which will hereafter be explained, it seems to me as if all these “Homes,” as well as every place of the kind secured for the purpose of charitably assisting the industrious poor, had much better be abandoned, and the money expended in missionary work among the wealthy. To give the bootblack a “Home” which he could not provide for himself takes away his independence 50 | Nature’s Aristocracy and educates him into the habit of leaning upon other people, while the system which made and kept him poor is as much in force as ever; and the closing of a “Home” leaves the bootblacks who come into the field afterward no better chance for a livelihood than their predecessors had before the “Home” was established. “It may prolong life, but it does not cure the disease.” 3 A gentleman was walking down one of the principal thoroughfares of Boston late one night...