Poor Little Joe (The Dying Newsboy)

DESCRIPTION: The singer is in New York (or London) when he meets a (newsboy) -- "Although he was singing, he wanted for bread; Although he was smiling, he wished himself dead." The poor newsboy is ignored by the well-to-do, and is at last found dead in the street
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1879 (Journal of the Andrew Hicks)
KEYWORDS: death poverty hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,Ro,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Randolph 716, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text plus a fragment)
Cox-FolkSongsSouth 152, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text)
Cox/Hercog/Halpert/Boswell-WVirginia-B, #33, p. 209, "Poor Little Joe" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Stout-FolkloreFromIowa 48, pp. 64-65, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text plus a fragment)
Neely/Spargo-TalesAndSongsOfSouthernIllinois, p. 254, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #101, "Poor Little Joe" (2 texts)
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 243-244, "Poor Little Joe" (1 text, 2 tunes)
cf. Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan, p. 482, "Poor Little Joe" (source notes only)
Roud #3111
RECORDINGS:
Red Patterson's Piedmont Log Rollers, "Poor Little Joe" (Victor 35874, 1928)
James Ragan [pseud. for Roy Harvey], "Poor Little Joe" (Challenge 394, c. 1928)
Earl Shirkey & Roy Harper [Roy Harvey], "Poor Little Joe" (Columbia 15376-D, 1928)
Arnold Keith Storm, "Poor Little Joe" (on AKStorm01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Won't You Buy My Pretty Flowers" (theme of a young person trying to sell something no one bothers to buy)
cf. "Poor Jim the Newsboy" (plot)
cf. "Jimmie Brown the Newsboy" (plot)
NOTES [208 words]: E. J. Kahn, Jr., The Merry Partners: The Age and Stage of Harrigan and Hart, Random House, 1955, pp. 18-19, writes:
"There had been no newsboys at all in the city [of New York] until 1833, at which time the Sun, departing radically from the view of all publishers that it was undignified to peddle their wares like tea-water or chestnuts, had appealed for venders. By 1873, when the unsettled post-war economic conditions had produced 10,000 homeless children in New York and when there were fifteen daily newspapers in the city, the streets swarmed with newsboys. They were a hardy lot, many of them orphans, who went by names like One-Lung Pete, Slobbery Jack, and Jake the Oyster, and who, if they toiled unremittingly and in good voice from four o'clock in the morning until after dark, could hope to earn a daily income of fifty cents or so."
That would be about the same amount of money as a private during the Civil War, but the private got food and clothing. Of course, the private might also have a family to support. The bottom line is, it wasn't really enough to live on unless one already had shelter.
Little wonder, then, that there are many songs about dying newsboys. The surprise is that the papers didn't print more of them! - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: R716

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