September 4th is Newspaper Carrier Day

National Newspaper Carrier Day is observed annually on September 4th.  

Around the country, we honor the newspaper carriers who owe their start to an enterprising young immigrant in New York City over 180 years ago.  As the tradition gradually fades, the history becomes no less fascinating.  

According to a captioned photo released by the Museum of the City of New York, it was on September 4, 1833 that publisher, Benjamin Day, hired the first paperboy, 10-year-old Blarney Flaherty.  Flaherty answered Day’s advertisement for The Sun which had specified “steady men” could apply, but impressed by the boy’s sincerity, Day gave him the job.  Down on the corner, Flaherty could soon be heard hawking his sales pitch.  It would soon become a universal chorus of boys (and sometimes girls) calling, “Paper! Get your paper, here!”

A number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper.  A liberal discount is allowed to those who buy to sell again. ~ Benjamin Day’s 1833 advertisement in The Sun.

There is a Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame, started in 1960, created to acknowledge some famous newspaper carriers in our nation’s history.  Included in the Newspaper Carrier Hall of Fame are Martin Luther King Jr., Warren Buffet and John Wayne.