Xmas newsboy swindles of the 1920s

Destiny sez, "My favorite Christmas story is Nelson Algren's remembrance of the 10-year-old swindler he had been, selling newspapers by the cemetery in Chicago in the 1920s."

Around Christmastime the paper guys had cards printed and sold them to us little paper guys for a nickel apiece. They read something like this:

Christmas comes but once a year
When it comes it brings good cheer
So open your heart without a tear
And remember the newsie standing here.

That got them, every time. Especially if there was a light fall of snow. And the swindle in the card routine was this: After he'd paid for the verse and would be thinking he owned it, you'd have to tell him no, it was your only card, you just wanted him to see the sentiment on it, it had cost you a nickel, so please mister could you have it back?

Link (Thanks, Destiny!)

[#1 posted by punctiliouspig , December 25, 2007 1:16 AM]

awww. i live in chicago..i might just try this.

[#2 posted by EvilTerran , December 25, 2007 3:48 AM]

After he'd paid for the verse and would be thinking he owned it, you'd have to tell him no, it was your only card, you just wanted him to see the sentiment on it, it had cost you a nickel, so please mister could you have it back?

That old tactic's alive and well among Big Issue salesmen round these parts. Half of 'em, if they actually manage to sell you their crappy magazine, will try to beg the copy back off you(!)

I guess they figure anyone who'd buy the thing in the first place's more generous/gullible than the rest of the population, so more likely to fall for the trick. "Mate, that's my last copy, I need to sell it another three times so I can afford the three quid for the night shelter." <:(

So much for "working, not begging".

[#3 posted by seventyeights , December 25, 2007 6:00 AM]

While you're on the subject of 1920's paperboys, it's worth checking out Brown University's archive of Carriers Addresses. They are basically pleas for Christmas tips in the form of poetry or short stories. The scans preserve 1800's typesetting and artwork.

Come, Gentle Reader, list the strain The CARRIER wakes for you again- Again he comes with greetings due, To wish a happy year to you. Again he thanks for favors shown Throughout the year that now has flown; Again he ask, that favors may Continued bless thy future way

http://dl.lib.brown.edu/carriers/index.html

[#4 posted by Crash , December 25, 2007 2:34 PM]

5¢ in 1920 is about 50¢ in 2006, or maybe 12 minutes' work for an unskilled laborer (working from the CPI).

[#5 posted by XuYu , December 25, 2007 9:44 PM]

Like those people in the airport that pretend to be deaf and want you to buy some crap!

[#6 posted by Crash , December 26, 2007 1:29 AM]

At first glance I misread that as "...and want you to buy some carp!" And really I think they'd have more luck if they did, because carp is delicious. There's a man who sells carp down the street from me and he does great. He's not even homeless, because he sells so much carp.

[#7 posted by Halloween Jack , December 26, 2007 7:04 AM]

Unfortunately, the traditional gift for paperboys in 1970s Wisconsin was a box of chocolate-covered cherries. I'd end up with several boxes. It was a decade or two before I could even look at one without gagging.

[#8 posted by slippery , January 3, 2008 4:19 PM]

People selling the Street Sheet here in the Bay Area do this too. They'll hawk a big stack of them but only the top one is a Street Sheet. The rest are the (free) Berkeley Daily Planet. Who wants to feel cheated when trying to do a small nice thing? jeesh.