
Truant!

He's not going to school, he's selling papers - thus confirming the public's poor view of these wayward youths.
"Old timer"

This is a 1910 photo of a grown-up newsboy, named in the photo as a "Heavy Man Old Timer". Does he look like a thug?
"Jefferson Street Gang"

A bunch (at the time, they called them "gangs") of newsies behind a billboard, around a campfire. It's 10p, late and cold, after they had sold newspapers all day.
1942 Newsboy

This is what you remember as a newsboy - the local kid delivering papers to your home.
While working for long hours and low pay (they couldn't return unsold papers to the publishers), they were also considered "thugs" or "hooligans" by the public because they worked at night and their work took them to adult places such as saloons and vaudeville halls. They had to be street smart and good businessmen, achieving their education in daily life, not in school.
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