Who was Charles E. Chapin?

Last night I encountered the following bit of information about the man who edited the Evening World during the time of the strike:

In 1898 Pulitzer hired Charles E. Chapin to run the Evening World. As editor, Chapin embraced the sensational, showing little empathy for the victims of the mayhem featured in his paper. Only once, after the September 1901 assassination of President William McKinley, did the World take a solemn tone, and this was near the beginning of Chapin’s tenure. From then on, the editor took a no-holds-barred approach to the news. He reveled, for example, in accounts of the 1904 General Slocum steamboat fire on the East River, which cost 1,000 lives, and, six years later, rejoiced at getting an exclusive photograph of the assassination attempt on Mayor William Jay Gaynor. He had little tolerance for timid editors or writers, firing those who ran afoul of his iron rule, and the paper’s staff loathed him. In 1918, however, fate caught up with Chapin, when, facing financial insolvency and mental instability, he murdered his wife. Unable, or perhaps unwilling, to commit suicide, he instead became the ironic figure of disdain in his own newspaper’s headlines. The acerbic editor ended his days incarcerated at Sing Sing, editing the prison newspaper and planting roses; he died in 1930.
Chronicling America

I mentioned this to some friends, and they – especially my friend Liv – were just as intrigued as I was and started doing research. So below are some sources if you want to know more.

A memoir Chapin wrote in prison
The paper Chapin edited in prison
American Heritage piece about him
New York Post article
City of Smoke
Revolvy

Unions and Strikes PDF

A PDF file of the chapter “Unions and Strikes” from David Nasaw’s book Children of the City: At Work and At Play. The chapter goes in depth about the newsboy strike of 1899, as well as several other children’s strikes from around that time period.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A5W7I_3cT92lHc10a6VuJY5FXjfM1ZC6/view

Chapter uploaded by Tumblr user mushmeyers.

Huber’s Museum goes Down in Flames

Sometimes I’d have eight or nine papers left over, and to get rid of them I’d run through the streets hollering things like “Extra! Extra! Ferry boat sinks in East River!!” or “Big gun battle in Sharkey’s Restaurant!!”
One day when I was stuck with eleven papers I took off down the street yelling, “Extra! Extra! Huber’s Museum goes down in flames!” Well, I was selling newspapers like hotcakes, when all of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder. It turned out to be a disgruntled customer. He held the paper in front of my face and said, “What are you pulling, kid? There’s nothing in this newspaper about a fire at Huber’s Museum!”
For a split second I didn’t know what to say. Then I blurted out, “I know, that’s such an early edition the fire hasn’t started yet!” and ran.
George Burns
Quoted in “Children of the City: At Work and At Play” by David Nasaw

Kid Blink’s con artist job

After Kid Blink’s newspaper days were over, he turned to more adult pursuits, as second-hand man to mobster “Chuck” Connors, also known as “The Mayor of Chinatown.”

“Chuck” Connors was a White man living in Chinatown who specialized in giving tours of the area to upper-class visitors willing to pay to see first-hand the “exotic and depraved” lives of Chinese working-class folk.

Because he knew some Chinese, Connors had special permission to access parts of Chinatown with his tours that were off-limits to most tour guides, or “lobbyglows” as they were called. Some Chinese accomplices even helped him stage scams to fit with customers’ images of what Chinese workers were like:

During Connors’ “vice tour,” he would regale his customers with stories of hatchet murders and white slavery. But the highlight of Connor’s tour was when he showed his customers the inside of a real-life opium den. These dens, of which Connor’s had several, were, in fact, total fakes. Connors employed several Chinese accomplices to stage his fabrications.

Two of his cohorts were George Yee and his wife Blond Lulu. As soon as Connors gave them the secret knock, signaling his impending entrance with his crew, George and Lula would fake a drug-induced stupor, while smoking something purported to be opium, complete with exotic aromas. Then, as the tourist watched in amazement, Connors assistant would proceed with a solemn monologue, spoken through a megaphone, saying, “These poor people are slaves to the opium habit. And whether you came here or not to see them, they would have spent the night smoking opium as you see them doing it now!”

Then on cue, Yee would stop smoking and rise shakily to his feet. Yee would then start dancing slowly, gyrating his body in a suggestive way, while singing a little ditty entitled “Alle Samee Jimmy Doyle.” Connors would tell his enthralled customers that this was unimpeachable evidence that Yee had become crazed, due to the effects of his non-stop opium smoking. Then without another word, Connors would lead his crew out of the apartment to a Chinese restaurant, which would complete that particular tour. Meanwhile, George and Blond Lulu would tidy up a bit and get ready for the next go-around, which took place in just a few hours.

Source

It is unclear exactly what Kid Blink’s role was in this heist. In some sources, he is named as Connors’ right-hand man. In others, he is called one of the best tour guides in Chinatown. It’s possible Kid Blink could have been the above-mentioned assistant with the megaphone. Or he may have lead tours on his own for the slightly less prestigious customers. In any case, the skills of deception he learned as a child selling papers were put to good use in his adult life.

For more on “Chuck” Connors, see this article.