Volume 2 — 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.”

CLIV

“They met a newsboy on the street who said the newsboys were to meet that night at six in a nook of theirs.”

CLVThis 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.

CLVI

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,

CLVII

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,

CLVIIIAnd advertisers fight for space,

And presses go at double pace,

And everything hum on every floor

To beat all “scoops” ever made before.

CLIX

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.

CLX

Copyright, 1907, by Edward Stern & Co., Inc. “When Teddy Bears would rulers be, And hunt for men in cave or tree.”

CLXI

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

CLXII

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.

CLXIIIThe 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.

CLXV