#louis ballatt

[emmedoesntdomath]

ANOTHER QUESTION I WAS TOO DUMB TO ASK:

WHAT ARE ALL YOUR NEWSIE SHIPS/SEXUALITY HCS/GENDER HCS?!?!

I spent like, a long time thinking about how I was going to do this one, because this will be a ridiculous list. here goes nothing

(also, most of these don’t exactly match what I put in the headcanons. I might go back and change them later)

Francis “Jack Kelly” Sullivan (bisexual, he/they)/David “Davey” Jacobs (gay, he/him) <- I once saw a video compilation of bye bye bye by nsync with jack, and it’s lived rent free in my mind ever since. also, jeremy and michael’s jacks specifically give me he/they vibes

Antonio “Racetrack” Higgins (panromantic, demisexual, he/him)/ Sean “Spot” Conlon (queer, he/him, she/they) <- I feel like spot changes depending on the version, which is definitely not how other people do it, but that’s okay. second set of pronouns are for uksies spot. 

Albert DaSilva (demiromantic, gay, he/it)/ Finch Cortez (he/they)<- don’t come @ me, ralbert shippers, please. I support and love that ship, but doing this way felt more practical. 

Michael “Bumlets” Herrera (bisexual, he/him)/ Jonathan “Skittery” Farrell (gay, he/him) <- hi these are my official headcanon names for them and no I’m not willing to change my mind thanks

Nick “Mush” Meyers (panromantic, they/he)/ Louis “Kid Blink” Ballatt (bisexual, he/him) <- honestly, they’re as canon as javey.

Sarah Jacobs (lesbian, she/her)/ Katherine “Plumber” Pulitzer (bisexual, she/they) <- your honor, I love them. 

“Jojo” De La Guerra (gay, grayromantic, they/them)/ Benjamin “Button” Davenport (gay, he/they/it, ftm) <- I actually refuse to type of jojo’s full name. sorry. 

Snitch (gay, he/him)/ Lorenzo “Itey” (queer, they/it) <- *laughs evilly* you should ask me how I feel about the name itey.

Henry (gay, asexual, he/him, ftm)/ Elmer (alloromantic, he/him) <- elmer is just made of love, and you can fight me on that. 

Dutchy (✨confused✨, he/they/she)/ Snoddy (queer, they/them) <- it feels very on brand to have dutchy being confused. 

William “Bill” Randolph Hearst, Jr. (bisexual, he/him)/ Darcy (gay, he/him) <- who exactly is darcy, anyway, historically??

Bart (biromantic, polyromantic, he/him)/ Myron (gay, he/him) <- LOUD AND CLEAR BROOKLYNS HEREEEEEEE

Hotshot (pansexual, he/him)/ Sniper (queer, they/them) <- that one’s for you @sparkedblaze <3 <3

Charlie “Crutchie” Morris (grayromantic, asexual, he/him) <- crutchie, my love

Leshem “Les” Jacobs (straight, he/him) <- ✨ally✨

Medda Larkin (aromantic, asexual, she/her) <- I love this woman so much, I swear to god

Morris Delancey (queer, asexual, he/they) <- I won’t say I’m a delancey apologist, but I want to give morris a hug.

Oscar Delancey (bisexual, in denial, he/him) <- yes, you read that right. no, I will not take it off.

Romeo (aromantic, he/him) <- pov: I’m dying on this hill

Specs (queer, they/it) <- specssssssssss

[newsboys-of-1899]

How old were most of the newsboys at the time of the strike?

Hello again :) Newsboys varied in age, but most fell between the ages of about 5-15.

The youngest child arrested in connection with the newsboy strike was Moses Burns, age 11, charged with “attempting to brain another boy”. The oldest were A J Klock and Bertha Saffe, age 23, arrested for unknown reasons.

As far as major players go, the only two I have ages for are Kid Blink and David Simons. According to census records as well as his gravestone, Louis “Kid Blink” Balletti turned 18 just weeks before the start of the strike, though when he was arrested he told reporters at the station that he was 16 years old and that his last name was Ballatt for reasons we can only speculate. David was twenty at the time of the strike, and if our extrapolation of census records are right, he may have had a wife and child at the time, giving him much more to lose than the average striker who were just selling for pocket change!

As always, we know very little about most of the other strikers, including Racetrack Higgins, Crutch Morris, Scabbutch, and the thousands of others who helped lead the strike. Anybody with information leading to the discovery of details about their lives will gain my eternal gratitude.

Please keep the questions coming! I enjoy answering them.

[thats-our-cue-girls]

Here's Some Blush No-one Asked For!

Nick 'Mush' Myers and Louis 'Kid Blink' Ballatt had been living together for a few months now and were beginning to settle in well. But every single meal had been made by Mush, and Blink was starting to feel guilty. He loved his cooking, but after he'd been working all day, it didn't feel fair that he had to come home and cook for the both of them. So one night, as Mush walked through the front door, Blink barreled into him, pushing him straight into the living room.

"Jesus! What happened?" He laughed as he fell backwards onto the couch.

"I've got a surprise for you. Tonight I'm making the food." Blink declared proudly, grabbing a blanket and throwing it over him. "You get to relax and sleep or whatever you want."

"Honey, are you sure-" Mush was cut off as he tried to speak.

"Yep. I can cook something for us so you don't have to." With a roll of his eyes, Mush sat back down, sighing contently as he huddled into the blanket.

"Thanks, honey." Blink beamed and rushed to the kitchen, leaving Mush to close his eyes and begin to drift off after his long day.

-----

It had barely been twelve minutes, when Mush shot bolt up right, woken by the smell of smoke and the fire alarm blaring.

"Blink? BLINK!" He scrambled to his feet and slid to the kitchen, fearing the worst.

"It's alright!" A cough came from the black cloud and Blink waved a cloth around, clearing it a little to see Nick's aghast face. "I'm fine."

"FINE?! THE KITCHEN'S IS ON FIRE!!!" Mush screamed, using a broom handle to shut off the alarm and opened a window to try and swat the smoke out.

"It ain't on fire..." Blink mumbled, peering into the oven. "Okay, turns out I can't cook." He said, sounding exasperated. Mush sighed and pulled on a pair of oven-mitts, holding whatever mess Blink had made at arm's length and dumped it in the bin.

"Let's try that again, alright?" Blink nodded like a child that had been sent to bed early, and stood behind Mush as he started cutting vegetables. "Do you wanna help?" He laughed, gesturing for him to stand beside him.

"You sure?" Blink grabbed a potato peeler and held it as if it was a deadly weapon. With a shake of his head, Mush moved to stand behind him, taking his arms around his waist and holding his hands. He guided his hand to a potato and began carefully removing the skin until Blink eventually managed to get the hang of it. In no time he'd finished peeling it without taking his finger off, which he saw a a huge accomplishment. Mush took him through dinner step by step, making sure to keep him far away from the stove and smiled fondly every time he'd stick his tounge out in concentration, or put his hands on his hips proudly after accomplishing a small task. It took them a little longer than usual, but they did end up sitting at their table with a plateful of homemade food infront of them.

"Sorry you didn't get to relax today... Wasn't what I planned." Blink said in-between mouthfuls.

"I prefere it when we do it together, actually." Mush kissed his cheek and although they stayed silent for the rest of the meal, they knew that no more words were needed.

----------

[be-more-chill-evan-hansen]

Y’all I just typed up a really long post about stuff I found about the real newsboys strike that I was going to use for my research paper and TUMBLR FREAKING REFRESHED AND I LOST IT ALL SO HERE’S SCREENSHOTS OF THE ARTICLES I FOUND FROM “THE SUN” THAT ARE DATED AROUND JULY 28-31, 1899 BECAUSE I TYPED THEM UP TO MAKE IT EASIER TO READ BUT APPARENTLY THAT’S NOT HAPPENING

Kid Blink admitting to selling boycotted papers: [article dated July 28, 1899]

~

Race’s real name is in fact “Ed” not “Anthony” (Sorry Alexa) [Article dated July 31, 1899]

~

Newsboys in Rochester went on strike against the World and the Journal around the same time (and they had a leader named “Ike”): [article dated July 31, 1899]

~

I will reblog this with updates when I find more stuff, but this is what I have so far. 

[ursananas]

Mmmmmm me want som blushhhhh. I bet you couldn't have guessed. I'm probs gonna start working on som blush art 2 soon

ask and you RECEIVE 

[goodnight-meinprinz]

Newsies Aesthetics - Kid Blink💀

Requested by anon ❣️

___

Feel free to request a character I should do an aesthetic for!

[zawazawanightmares]

Rea Amano Vs. Louis Ballatt

[jackcowboyhero]

To the editor: Have you given names to the other newsies like Bumlets and Swifty yet? Because I would love to hear them if you have

I have consulted the Arkives Of De Union and my partner-in-crime @pandolfo-malatesta, and I think these are the only boys whose real names we've mentioned:

Jack Kelly - Francis Sullivan (canon)

Skittery - Roman Kučera

Snoddy - Calvin Angier

Spot Conlon - Sean Conlon

Kid Blink - Louis Ballatt (historical)

Tumbler - Andy (unknown last name)

We’ve also given names to a few of the unnamed newsies--@dragonsinwisteria and @daughtersofexiles and I named the Brooklyn newsie who climbs out of the water when Jack and Co. are visiting Spot “Hawk” (we may have had a Real Name for him too, but I can’t find it), and I’m pretty sure we named the boy who watches Jack leave the Refuge at the window (not Ten-Pin, the younger one), but I can’t find his name at the moment, either.

Feel free to add your own names!  There are (or were?) also several popular names going around the fandom over the years, and people are uncovering more and more historical names, too, which is really interesting!

[benr3y]

some historical facts/headcanons about Kid Blink (Louis Balletti) because he doesn’t get nearly half the amount of appreciation he deserves

- He’s ginger!!!!

- He actually was historically and people called him “Red Blink” bc of it how cute is that tbh why does nobody talk abt it

- Wrote poetry!!

- He also did this historically, if you haven’t read his poem Hail To De Strike please do

- He was tough but idk why people picture him as some edgelord he’s just a 16 year old who lied to make himself seem cooler

- He’s Italian! Whenever you see someone spell his surname ‘Ballatt’ that’s because he told interviewers that was his surname so they wouldn’t know he was Italian since Italians weren’t very well perceived by the public at that point in time

- He was smart & charismatic and man i just love him,

- He got into a fight with a guy one who literally pulled a gun out and held it to his throat but he didn’t back down? The guy ended up getting arrested but what the fuck dude

- He was arrested a few different times once because he had dynamite?? Wyd

- He worked at chinatown for awhile then was right hand man to a mobster how iconic

- died of tuberculosis in 1913 (32 years old)

- overall an amazing kid and I’d give my life for him.

[daniellewade]

HAPPY STRIKE DAY!

On this day July 21st, 1899 a band of New York newsboys refused to buy the newspapers of Joseph Pulitzer, The World and William Randolph Hearst, The Journal sparking a childhood labor movement that would inspire many more for decades to come.

here's the story: 

In 1898 the price of the paper was raised from 65¢ per hundred to 85¢ per hundred, at the newsies expense, due to the influx of people papers purchased during the Spanish-American War. However after the war ended, the publishing giants Pulitzer and Hearst refused to put the price back to what it had been before the war. At this high rate the newsies could no longer make enough money to pay for their own lodging and food. 

So a young Brooklyner, Louis Ballatt "Kid Blink" got together with a group of fellow newsies and they decided to boycott the publishers. The kids refused by to buy and sell their papers. Then after several rallies of nearly 5,000 newsies, many of which were broken up by men hired by Pulitzer and Hearst, the young group of New York boys and girls decided that they would march across the road of the Brooklyn bridge, bringing both the traffic and the entire city to a standstill. 

With this movement, papers could no longer be distributed across New England, lowering Pulitzer and Hearst's circulation by nearly 70%. After several days of barricading the Brooklyn bridge, the newspaper giants agreed to speak with Kid Blink and his army of newsies. They came the the agreement that the newspapers would remain at the cost of 85¢ per hundred, but that the publishers would buy back the newsies unsold papers. And on August 2nd, 1899 the union was disbanded.

[newsiesking-blog]

♕ Just popping in to say that I’m alive folks. Things have been really busy over here, and I swear I’m ready to just knuckle down and hibernate for a few years. SO tired. I’m excited tho. Halloween is coming up, and my nephews want me to dress up. I haven’t dressed up in YEARS, and it’s probably the shittiest thing I’ve ever put together, but I’m totally going as Louis Ballatt. So I’m going to be a drunk Louie Ballatt for Halloween. No regrets. 

                                                                     • eyes drafts • ..... SOON. 

[emmedoesntdomath]

Gib your opinion on Blink now please ☺️I love him sm and I NEED to know

(I say this about all the newsies but it’s so fucking true)

fun fact- blink (or kid blink, depending what we’re referencing) is one of the only newsies who we know actually existed! he was actually the leader of the manhattan newsies, and his real name was louis ballatt. at the time of the strike, we can guessimate that he was roughly 13-14. he, ed “racetrack” higgins, and “crutch” morris led the strike until it ended in 1900 (there was also reportedly a “spot” conlon, but his leadership has only been mentioned once in all of the stuff I’ve read).

obviously, all of the newsies have nicknames that they go by. the reason for this is best explained in 92sies, where we’re told that jack’s real name is francis sullivan. changing your name was actually a very common and popular practice among the newsies, because it’s a lot harder to get caught/arrested if the police don’t know who they were searching for.

well, blink got his nickname because when he randomly showed up one day at the distribution booth, he was wearing an eyepatch on one eye, and the other would blink rapidly at the sun. he absolutely REFUSED to socialize and make friends, and that SCOWL (some people tried to give him a rather unfortunate nickname that reflected that lovely expression, but blink caught on faster).

eventually, he bonded with a similarly viewed newsie (mush), and he slowly started talking about his childhood, and growing up in the factories (which is how he hurt his eye- because of the faulty machinery- and the reason he was so unused to the bright sunshine all the time). by the time davey came around, and the strike happened, blink had become known as the guy who made jokes at the WORST times possible, and who somehow managed to come up with at least three different stories of girls he “hooked up with” in five minutes that could be disproven as soon as someone asked mush where he was.

mush was good like that.

[newsboys-of-1899]

Was Kid Blink’s name Louis Ballett, or Louis Balletti? I’ve seen both said, and I’m curious as to if there’s a certain answer, or if both are accepted as possibly correct.

A very good question! The answer is a really interesting bit of historiography (or at least it’s interesting to me).

On the evening of July 27, Kid Blink was arrested for disturbing the peace. The Sun reported on the arrest the next day, saying that at the station, Kid Blink “described himself as Louis Ballatt of 179 Park row”. The Evening Telegram, reporting on the same arrest, name him as Louis Dallatt of the same address. However, the name Louis Ballatt/Dallatt does not appear on any census records of the time, and neither does 179 Park Row. So what’s going on?

I cannot take credit for solving this mystery. As far as I can tell, that honour belongs to the blog newsieshistory, who in 2014 made a post suggesting that the newspapers in 1899 made a few mistakes and that Kid Blink was actually Louis Balletti of 1 Roosevelt St.

Full details are available at the post linked above, but in summary, 179 Park Row was on the same corner as 1 Roosevelt St, and census records for that address list a family with the last name Balletti living at 1 Roosevelt who had a son named Louis who was about the right age. Searching the newspaper record for Louis Balletti returns several articles from the next few years connecting that name with the nickname Kid Blink, and the name Kid Blink with the address of 1 Roosevelt. This is further confirmed by death records and arrest records under the name Louis Balletti on days that newspapers report Kid Blink doing the same.

He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Queens.

[itteryskay]

He didn't change it and continued to go by it for an extended length of time as far as I know (he was a small time idiot and got arrested for possession of dynamite and also bragged about killing a guy he didn't kill)

Also he had a series of other nicknames which were:

Red Muggsy

Muggsy ((possibly McGee too but I can't remember I haven't interacted with history pals in a while))

Kid Blink

Kid Wink

Blind Diamond

Red Blink

Which is why in newsies historical circles he has been affectionately dubbed 73-names-McGee

If we include the fact that he went by fake English-sounding variants of his Italian name the list also gets bigger. The name on his grave and censuses is Louis Baletti (discrepancy on whether there's a double L in Baletti or not) but when he got arrested he called himself Louis Ballatt.

Sorry for hijacking I'm a mess.

Correct me if I'm wrong, lads.

a slightly less cursed hc: when kid blink turns 18 he changes his name to man blink ~ crutchie anon

That’s still cursed honestly but I love it

Also since it’s 1899, he wouldn’t be considered a man until 21!

[ursananas]

he may be half blind but that doesn’t mean he can’t see through your bullshit

[be-more-chill-evan-hansen]

Bringing back some old stuff for the upcoming anniversary of the newsboys strike

Y’all I just typed up a really long post about stuff I found about the real newsboys strike that I was going to use for my research paper and TUMBLR FREAKING REFRESHED AND I LOST IT ALL SO HERE’S SCREENSHOTS OF THE ARTICLES I FOUND FROM “THE SUN” THAT ARE DATED AROUND JULY 28-31, 1899 BECAUSE I TYPED THEM UP TO MAKE IT EASIER TO READ BUT APPARENTLY THAT’S NOT HAPPENING

Kid Blink admitting to selling boycotted papers: [article dated July 28, 1899]

~

Race’s real name is in fact “Ed” not “Anthony” (Sorry Alexa) [Article dated July 31, 1899]

~

Newsboys in Rochester went on strike against the World and the Journal around the same time (and they had a leader named “Ike”): [article dated July 31, 1899]

~

I will reblog this with updates when I find more stuff, but this is what I have so far.