The
average boy of the present day has better opportunities to make his way in the
world than us old stagers had when we were boys; but it is questionable if he
really appreciates the sacrifices made by parents or the advantages provided
for him by the public schools. The boy of half a century ago had to begin to
hustle not only for himself but that he might be a help in supplying the family
larder, that the younger ones could have a full meal three times a day, and
then a piece sandwiched in between the meals. There were no collegiate back then for the average boy, for by the
time he got through with the multiplication table and had acquired a smattering
of grammar, geography and was able to spell and read without stumbling over the
big words, there was a place waiting for him in some workshop, or he became his
father’s helper at his trade, but, mind you, it must not be inferred that the
old-time boy grew up a dullard and without education, for he could trip up the
most expert in the old-time spelling
school in spelling difficult words, and the books he read were of a substantial
and instructive character. The boys nowadays go to school till they are almost
old enough to get married, and they know but little of what sacrifices are made
to polish them up in foreign tongues, in the higher mathematics, in the
sciences, and all the other accomplishments of a classical education. It is a
good thing for the boys to get an education in the higher studies, but
unfortunately too many of them are unfitted for the battle of life, for by the
time they leave school, they think they are old enough to learn a trade, and
they drift off into callings which are never very remunerative.
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But there are others, and in this
class can be found the boy who attends school, and after the recitations are
over for the day is ready to pick up any odd job that will help clothe him
while his parents are working and economizing to keep him in school. The
carrier boys of the daily papers in this and other cities are in this class,
and generally you will find them wide awake and ambitious to do something for
themselves. We are not now referring to the newsboys who sell the dailies in
the streets – they are in a different class. Of the hundred or more boys in
Hamilton who carry the dailies to the homes of regular subscibers, a large
majority are scholars in the public schools. When possible they get out a
little earlier than the regular hour of dismissal so that they can get their
papers at the office and start on their rounds of delivery. The Daily Spectator
has some sixty of these boys, and they are as bright a lot as belong in the
city. Each has a list of papers that takes him a little more than an hour each
day to deliver, and for this work he averages about $1.50 per week. For six or
eight hours a week, this is not bad pay for a boy, and at Christmas they gather
in a number of dollars as Christmas gifts from the subscribers. This will at
least buy a boy his clothes and shoes, which is no small amount of saving to
the parents who are trying to give them an education. When a boy passes from
the public schools to the collegiate, there is added expense for books and
tuition which many times make the cost more than the parents are able to bear.
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Three or four weeks ago, W. J. Southam,
business manager of the Spectator, invited the carrier boys of the Spectator
down to his summer cottage at the beach to be his guests at a picnic. It is
needless to say that on the appointed afternoon every boy had his round
delivered promptly on time so that he was ready to take the car on the radial.
And such a time as those boys had! Everything in the way of amusement was
provided for them, and when suppertime arrived, such a feast was spread by the
ladies of the household as to make the average boy wish he had half a dozen
stomachs so that he could fill them all with dainties. Carrier boys now live in
a different atmosphere to what the old-time carries boys of the Spectator
enjoyed. Away back in the early ‘50s the boys worked in the office during the
day, and sometimes late in the night setting the type for the daily, or at some
of the many things in the printing office, and then they had to be out by
daylight in the morning to carry the paper so as the subscribers could have it
at the breakfast table. If a boy got $1.50 a week for ten or twelve hours’ work
in the day he was fortunate. There were no picnic suppers given by the
proprietors of the paper at the beach or anywhere else. Well, those carrier
boys had a grand time at the beach, and they are still talking about it. A
thing has got to have extraordinary merit for a boy to give it even a passing
thought an hour after he has participated in it. Then, George R. Allan, the
superintendent of the paper, was entrusted with the important task of making a
speech to the boys. George used to carry papers when he was a printer’s devil
in the Spectator office in the early ‘70s, and he could talk to the boys
understandingly. And, then, George is a school trustee, therefore his words
along educational lines were supposed to be loaded with wisdom. George told the
boys of a plan that William J. Southam had matured for their benefit that would
act as a stimulus in making them faithful in their work as carrier boys and
also assist them in their desire to take the full collegiate or commercial
course. The plan is this : Every carrier boy who passes the entrance
examination into the collegiate or commercial classes wi8ll have his tuition
and books paid for by the Spectator company so long as he remains a carrier boy
of the Spectator. Add to this the wages the boy receives for doing less than
two hours’ work each afternoon, and if he does not get an education, it is his
own fault. It is splendid work that Mr. Southam purposes, and it is creditable
to his head and his heart. The boys will appreciate the generous offer and take
advantage of it. The money they earn for carrying the paper will keep them in
shoes and clothes, and when they get through school, they will be fitted to
begin the battle of life either by learning a trade or along some line that
will be congenial and profitable.
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Talking about newsboys calls to mind
the old-time carriers of the country newspapers. In the larger town, the boys
not only delivered the weekly or semi-weekly paper within the corporate limits,
but had to go out into the more thickly settled country to deliver the paper to
subscribers. A. T. Freed tells of his experience in the Dundas Warder office in
the days when Robert Spence was the owner of that paper. On publication day,
after delivering his route within the village, he was sent out into the country
on horseback to deliver the paper at the farm houses; and generally it was late
in the evening when he got back to Dundas, tired and worn after a hard day’s
ride. Many of the carrier boys in Hamilton now ride a wheel when delivering
their routes, and it is no trick at all to distribute from 150 to 200 papers
within an hour after the papers are turned off from the press. The subscribers
get the news red hot now which in the old days it was old stuff at best,
generally foreign news two or three weeks old before it got into the hands of
the editor. The old-time carrier boys have grown grey with their threescore and
ten years, and when they remember the trials and tribulations they passed
through in order to learn the printer’s trade, they feel that if some Southam
had arisen in their day to pay tuition and books so that they could have spent
a year or two more in school, how much easier would their task have been.
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