Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 April 1890 — THE BOY. [ARTICLE]

THE BOY.

He is Being Crowded Almost Entirely Out •f Employment. What is to become of the boy if the present tendency to crowd him out of employment goes on? asks the N. Y. Tribune. Messengers with beards seem to be growing all the time, and the elevator boy ha 3 been largely replaced by the elevator man. Cash boys, once common in the city, have given way to cash girls to a great extent. The uniformed, brass-buttoned call-boys at the hotels are little mors than a memory, and in their places are men. It is true there are still newsboys about the entrance to the bridge, and other places where there are generally crowds of people, but news* women and newsmen are competing with them in ever-increasing numbers. Uptown the newsdealer has virtually driven the boys out of the business. With bootblacks the story is the same. A few of them still pursue their calling, but grown Italians have seized hold of the best corners, and with their big armchairs easily take away the business of their youthful rivals, whose customers have to balance themselves on one leg against a sharp corner of the building. There are a few boy peddlers of shoestrings and handkerchiefs, but this occupation is far more appropriate to those who have arrived at years when an .amble is the natural gait. On trains there are still many lads who go about distributing illustrated papers, light novels and candy, and then go about again collecting them, incidentally selling a few of the articles, but even here the men are getting ahead of them. Yes, what shall become of the boy is a serious question. If the present movement toward his displacement continues the only thing left for him to do will be to grow up and become a man, but unfortunately this takes time.— N. Y. Tribune.