My Mamie Rose: The Story of My Regeneration

, I belonged, no longer a child, to begin the journey, whic

leak Decem

the picture of the boy s

ar them in day time, how much less at night. To be "collared" by a "cop" at this hour me

tarted in the direction of the Bowery and Chatham Street, now call

wn" was not much more familiar, but, somehow, I knew t

view of the City Hall. So far I had been once or twice before on some adventurous trip, but not beyond tha

fore the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge, City Hall Square was not as bril

er of diminutive humanity. Before I had time to draw my stiffened hands from the pockets to w

, at least, fifteen boys were hugging it as closely as their mothers' breasts. The iron frame was entirely invisible, and my s

d ever familiar to the newsboy-"Cheese it, the cop!" rang out, and, like a

uarters of this particular crowd. It was not warm in there, but, at any rate, it was a shelter against the c

. Just dozing, preliminary to falling into sounder sleep, I was suddenly and swiftly aroused by a grasp

possession. The late comer took a bundle of newspapers from under his arm and carefully proceeded to prepare his bed. First, he spread a n

ll, it was enough to s

'll tell you what I'll do. If you don't kick in your sleep, I'll let you lie d

y sleep was absolutely motionless, and from that night dat

uture colleagues? It seemed to be a well defined destiny. Behind the coming of each new recruit was the little tragedy, which had made the leading actor therein a stray waif of

ption. He is neither hampered by professional jealousy or suffered by tolerance. The field is open to all, and it rests with the boy how he will fare. However, in spite of this almost essential selfish

ere the temptation is very strong upon me to tell you that remorse, anguish and despair were racking my soul; that it was homesickness or a great longi

e troupe leaving their dreary abiding place. My future colleagues had so often had this torture inflicted on them that, now, with just an envious sniff, they could bear it with stoical fortitude. I, sti

k's is still d

ing itself was, how was I

t in "regular" beds and those who had "carried the banner"[#] in the Frankfort street hallway. This distinction did by no means establish two different social strata among us. Fate was so uncertain that t

the night w

leader of the gang, who had the proud distinction of being about the only one who had a "home to go to" whenever he felt like doing so. The same qua

my appearance presented itself rather grotesquely and disheveled on that eventful morni

new one?" h

in the af

to sell

he affi

any m

nvincing

I was "staked" to a nickel to buy my first stock of papers, and those who know Tim Sullivan

e a few tricks of the trade and advised me to invest my fiv

what had been for several years my home, I w

"sleeping" when lucky, and "pulling through somehow" w

a dull longing to make the world at large feel my revenge for having dealt so unkindly with me. Whatever good traits there had b

d as myself. Those who were orphans had, at l

fess to having crept up to his former home, at some safe time, to have a peep at forfeited comforts. I welcomed these references and day d

in years I was still a child, and if a child has but little in his life to love, and that little is taken out of his life, that child can turn into a veritable little demon. Those, whom I had believed my parents, turned out to be nothing more tha

I wanted to be a power among newsboys. I wanted to be respected or feared. As I did not care which, I succeeded in the latter at the expense of the

. Some men, after great sorrows or disappointments, seek forgetfulness in battle, being entirely indifferent to their ultimate fate, and they always make good fighters. My position was not altogether dissimilar from the

all more than one incident which sti

s my favorite victim. Certain traces of refinement were discernible in him and this gave me many opportuni

the Row," offering his wares with the unprofe

and was on the point of sending my foot on its mission, when two motherly-looking women stopped to buy a paper from "the cherub." Wits are quickly s

create the impression that my hasty approach ha

ipers," I cried, but

claimed all t

ed one. "Have you no home, n

by me for a future reckoning with

hivering with

e misery of many loveless ye

ut to hand a dime to my intended scapegoat

k at the othe

y dilapidated clothes and scratched face owed their piti

she

y, here is a p

e was gone before I could realize what had happened. There, penny in hand, I stood, d

r: "Say, lady, I ain't got much to give, but I'll give you all me poipers

his little touch of nature. I forgo

y temperament made me enjoy the many "scra

a constant participant in these "goes," as I was almost daily called upon to defend my sounding title of "Newsboy Champion of Park Row" against

d by my outdoor existence in all sorts of weather, and, without knowing it, my advance in the art of f

y" Flynn, "Pop" Kaiser and others of equal prominence. In due time overtures were made to me. I was properly "tried

money quickly. I had no definite idea why I wanted to accumulate money with such feverish haste. I had some dim desire to wanting to have a lot of it,

nd only sense of the word. My boyhood, dreary as my childhood, closed behind me without a pang of regret on m

BY MY