Figure 1.--These delivery boys were photographed November 17, 1928. On the "Wisconsin Times" newspaper between the boys legs can be read "I've Been Double Crossed says W.A. C..... The Kid has his leg in the way for the rest of the name. We see eight paperboys with their wagons. There is also a young woman. I'm not sure she delivered papers, butperhaps she did. The children were probably from Hartford, Wisconsin.

Boys continued, however, to earn money selling papers. Many got paper routes before and after school. I am not sure just when this became common. I do not think home delivery was very common in the 19th century, even the late-19th century. We begin to see boys with home delivery carry bags. Some of the first hime delivery boys may have been those boys delivering the Saturday Evening Post and other weekly magazines. As far as we can tell, school boys eaning extra cash by delivering papers became a well-established boy activity. It was very definitely a boy activity. Paper girls were virtually unknown. State laws permitted this type of child labor, although there were normally age limits. Ironically employment opportunities for young people were more limited by the 1920s than they are today. Thus paper routes were one of the major ways boys made mone during the mid-20th century. Boys carry the paper began to decline in the 1960s. I'm not entirely sure why boys delvering papers gradually disappeared.

Created: 1:28 AM 6/9/2008
Last updated: 1:29 AM 6/9/2008