Extra Credit Victorian London Children going to work

While looking through the “The Victorian Dictionary” I came across a piece that talked about children going to work that caught my eye. Much like in the U.S children of poorer/working class families went to work early in life. In the article I read they talked about a young lad named Tom who went to school at age seven and then at about age ten started being “useful” as they would say and becomes either a news-paper boy or a printing boy. What caught my eye is that not too long ago I saw a Broadway musical called Newsies and although it was about U.S paper boys the same was true that kids boys needed to bring money back to families and at young ages would often be news-boys. While continuing reading I read more into the news-boys and the similarities were astonishing. I noticed that like the American newsboys they lined up in front of the cage asking for the copies they needed and rushed out into the streets doing whatever they could to sell them; for what every they couldn’t sell they didn’t make a profit off and lost money. Attached I have a photo of a newsboy in Victoria London. I also attached a video to the song they sing in the musical about getting and selling the papers in America. Also this is the line from the article that describes what the kids did to get their papers. “The boys at once make a rush towards the cage, and the taller ones elbow their way up to it, while the small boys must be content to wait until their turn comes. “Fifty copies!” “One hundred copies!” “Two hundred copies!” Each bawls out the number he wants, puts down his money, and runs off through the moist, cold, morning air to”- Max Schlesinger, Saunterings in and about London, 1853