Unnamed News Butcher

In "Lion" and again in Go Down, Moses, when Boon Hogganbeck boards the train to Memphis at Hoke's, he buys "three packages of molasses-covered popcorn and a bottle of soda pop from the news butch" (188, 218 - although in the novel it's a bottle of "beer"). "Butch" is short for "butcher," a term that used to be used to refer to men or boys who sold newspapers, sweets and other goods that would appeal to passengers on a train.