On This Date in Minnesota History: February 27

February 27, 1905 – “Please mister, buy a paper.”

Attracted by something in the boy’s voice, the man to whom the appeal had been made turned just in time to see the little newsboy collapse in a pitiful heap on the sidewalk. Faint from an illness of over a week, his little body completely exhausted by a strain it was in no condition to stand, sheer weakness overcame the boy’s grit. Something seemed to snap as the newsie took his old stand at Fourth and Minnesota Streets this afternoon and he fainted dead away. Tender hands carried the little fellow into a nearby building and the police ambulance was called. The still unconscious boy was carefully placed on a stretcher and hurried to the city hospital, where he was found to be suffering from a long-neglected case of tonsillitis.

Example of a young newsboy¹

The boy is Sammy Applebaum. For over a week, although too ill to be out of his bed, the plucky little fellow has refused to quit work, but from early morning until late at night has taken his stand downtown St. Paul. Sammy’s companions noticed his growing paleness and advised him to “chuck it for a few days,” but he refused.

The physicians at the hospital say the boy’s system is completely run down and that he will be unable to leave the hospital for some time. “That boy needs days and days of solid rest,” said one of the doctors, “and he is going to get it if I have to sell his papers myself.”

The Saint Paul Globe;  “Newsie Gives Up; Little Sammy Applebaum Falls While Selling Papers”; Feb. 28, 1905; p. 2.

¹https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2f/7e/40/2f7e4073613bce98cec8e67e9a7bc313.jpg

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