K so I asked if y’all wanted it here so here’s some depressing historical newsies facts!
Massive TW/ Death, Su!c!de, Starvation, abuse... basically just assume it’s got it all
Ok so let’s get down to this, don’t say I didn’t warn you. (I’m going to be real blunt and say it as it was)
Albert did actually exist! However two weeks after the strike he killed himself. Not too sure why, but he was only 14 at the time. Could have been because of malnourishment and he figured it would be better to just be gone than suffering and struggling, or perhaps he just wasn’t happy. But either way... our beloved Albert sadly passed :(
Joe Pulitzer did actually have a daughter named Katherine, but she passed away at the age of 2 from pneumonia I think I read? So my queen... :(((( here’s a website I found about more details if you’re interested.
Crutchie? He made it through his teen years, but I assume after he grew out of the working range to be a Newsie, he was left unemployed. Yes he did have polio in a leg, and the poor guy died at the age of 21 from starvation :(
Lodging houses were filled with illnesses. And carts would come collect deceased bodies. The kids had no one to care for them, no funerals, no one to love them, and sadly they were all buried in cardboard boxes in huge masses together. Carts would be stacked to the brim with these boxes, to the point where there were reports of the piles wobbling and even falling.
Most newsies had abusive past. Orphans, run aways, you name it (then again I think any ‘canon’ fan fic will tell you that)
Jack Kelly did not exist. He’s completely a work of fiction, the ‘strike leader’ was actually 14 year old Kid Blink. Not sure why he was degraded in both 92sies and Livesies but uhhhh.. yeah? And he scabbed at one point, leading him to be brutally beaten up by multiple newsies for three days straight until he proved his loyalty to them again.
(Here’s a bit of a happier fact) Spot Collin and Race Higgins are perhaps the same person. We really don’t have much info on them, besides this newspaper insert from 1899, describing Spot and his support for Manhattan while rocking some epic pink suspenders
It’s so easy to romanticise this period of time. Yes 1899 was becoming more advanced, but the Victorian period was full of flaws. It was absolutely disgusting conditions for the working class, and that leaves us wishing to ignore it and instead glorifying and romanticising the beauty of it. It’s ok to seek beauty in the bad; but completely ignoring it isn’t good.
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