The
Roosevelt Bears
get out a
NEWSPAPER
When the station clock was striking four
The Bears got off at Baltimore.
They met a newsboy on the street
Who said the newsboys were to meet
That night at six in a nook of theirs
And they’d like to have the Teddy Bears
Drop in and help them plan and think
How best to earn some extra chink.
Said TEDDY-B, “I’d like to walk
Around to your club and hear you talk
And make a speech and help along
With dance or story, trick or song.”
“You ought to know,” the lad replied,
“That some months ago a newsboy died.
That night his papers didn’t sell
And he had no home; no one to tell
How cold he was and hungry too,
And he just died; was frozen through.
We mean to give a newsboys’ show
To buy a home where the boys can go.”
“They met a newsboy on the street who said the newsboys were to meet that night at six in a nook of theirs.”
This story stirred up TEDDY-G,
“You leave that show to me,” said he,
“I’ll use my wit from nose to paw
To make more cash than you ever saw.”
“I have a plan,” said TEDDY-B,
“Let us run a paper just to see
If our sheet won’t sell like sixty-three.
We’ll fill each page with jolly stuff
And give the boys the greatest puff.
We’ll reuse the price and earn the pay
To build that home in half a day.”
So off they went to try their hand
At a job they didn’t understand:
To edit, proof-read, print and sell
A newspaper and do it well.
The publisher took them all about
To show how a paper is gotten out.
They questioned every man they met
And with the manager made a bet
That they could put each page in rhyme
And get the paper out on time.
The bet was taken; the job was theirs;
A paper run by Teddy Bears
And they to have their own sweet way
With news and ads for a single day.
They said they’d do the best they could
And make a sheet that was bright and good.
Of all the orders boys ever hear
Who work on papers all the year,
The orders given to the boys that night
Beat every record out of sight.
They made the editors fume and frown,
And reporters chase all around the town,
And telegraph instruments click in chime,
And telephone bells ring all the time,
And linotypes go double speed
And set up type big enough to read,
And advertisers fight for space,
And presses go at double pace,
And everything hum on every floor
To beat all “scoops” ever made before.
But the paper was out on time next day:
The greatest paper, newsboys say,
That was ever printed in all the land
By the fastest press or done by hand.
Copyright, 1907, by Edward Stern & Co., Inc.
“When Teddy Bears would rulers be,
And hunt for men in cave or tree.”
They had floods and fires, and earthquakes, too;
And kings beheaded and discoveries new,
And ships upset and railroad wrecks,
And ten millionaires break their necks;
And the sun eclipsed at twelve at night,
And Japan start up another fight;
And Russia move clean off the earth,
And an elephant sleep in an upper berth;
And Niagara Falls turn upside down,
And the President wear a golden crown;
And ten feet of snow right in July,
And a man discovered nineteen feet high;
And robberies eight and murders ten,
And mosquitoes kill ten thousand men;
And a Wall Street smash, the worst in years,
That made the bulls and bears shed tears;
And Robinson Crusoe come back to life
And land in Baltimore with a wife;
And little Bo Peep who lost her sheep
Sold at auction mighty cheap;
And the money hid by Captain Kidd
Found in a box without a lid
By a colored boy in the Isle of Wight
A hundred thousand dollars bright.
A diamond mine they said was found
On Charles Street above the ground,
They had boys at school their lessons know,
In headlines deep a foot or so;
And all the girls in the world combine,
To go to bed at half-past nine,
Or if rules they broke to pay a fine.
And ending up on the final page
A prophecy of a future age
When Teddy Bears would rulers be
And hunt for men in cave or tree
With guide and gun, with horse and hound,
In a Colorado hunting ground.
The advertisements made that night
Were what the printers call a fright:
All shoved together, old and new,
Upside down and wrong side too,
Grocers had hats and caps for sale,
And tailors eggs, and barbers ale,
And department stores had railroad ads,
And big hotels sold writing pads,
And music stores sold soap and tea,
And theatres said admission free,
And a jeweller, the best in town,
Offered cheap a wedding gown.
A private school sold cheese and lard,
And furniture was offered by the yard.
When TEDDY-B saw what was done
He said he thought ’twould make good fun.
“For we mean,” said he, “to sell our sheet
And every record sale to beat.”
The papers sold at first for ten,
But when approved by business men
The price went up on every hand;
And with papers in such brisk demand
You couldn’t get a single sheet
By ten o’clock upon the street.
The money made for the boys that day
Bought them a home with grounds to play
And enough to spare to give each lad
The jolliest time he ever had:
A fresh air week down by the sea
With candy, cake and soda free.
The Bears were glad when their work was done
To start for the town of Washington,
To see the President and shake his hand
And then go home, as they had planned.