Figure 1.-- This photograph shows Simon Mellitto, age 10, selling newspapers outside F.W. Woolworth store, you can even see some of the prices. Simon had a brother who also sold Newspapers. The photograph was taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in JUne 1910. Simon wears a suit, I'm not sure if it is with knee pants or knickers, but he wears the black long stockings that were so common at the time.

Simon Mellitto (United States, 1910)

This photograph shows Simon Mellitto, age 10, selling newspapers outside F.W. Woolworth store, you can even see some of the prices. I'm not sure about Simon's name, I think it is Italian. We do not know just where the photographwas taken. As a newsie, Simon earned 25-75 cents per day. His father's occupation was listed as locksmith, making about $12 per week. Simon had a brother who also sold Newspapers. The photograph was taken by Lewis Wickes Hine in June 1910. Hine of course was the most important photographer chronicalling child labor and the social conditions affecting children in the early 20th century. Simon wears a peaked cap. An older boy would have probably worn a flat cap. He also wears a suit, I'm not sure if it is with knee pants or knickers, but he wears the black long stockings that were so common at the time. The Woolworth store he is standing in font of was a great store. These stores made F. W. Woolworth one of the retailing giants in America. The stores were one of the original American five-and-dime stores, later called dime stores because of inflation. As a boy in the 1940s and early 50s, it was my favorite store. I used to get my toy soldiers there.







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Created: 6:57 PM 4/5/2008
Last edited: 6:57 PM 4/5/2008