A police officer, seeing the group of running boys, grabbed Kid Blink, assuming he was leading them, and arrested him for disorderly conduct. Kid Blink was given a fine and let go while a group of newsboys outside the court jeered at him. After the rumors of Kid Blink and David Simmons' desertion of the strike, combined with their failure to obtain a parade permit, the newsboys' faith in centralized leadership was diminished. Other newsboys stepped up to lead the strikers, but none of them had the same level of power and influence as Kid Blink once had. On August 1, 1899, the "World" and "Journal" offered the newsboys a compromise: the price of a hundred papers would remain at 60¢, but they would buy back any unsold papers. This meant that boys who had trouble selling all their papers would not be forced to sell late into the night to avoid taking a loss for the day. The newsboys accepted this compromise, ending the strike and disbanding the union on August 2, 1899. The leadership of the newsboy strike was less centralized than most unions, with boys in each neighborhood feeling more loyalty to the other kids in their area than to the centralized leadership. That said, some kids were more influential than others, organizing rallies, acting as spokespeople for the strike, and being interviewed by papers such as the "New York Tribune", "New York Sun" or "New York Herald". The papers often quoted the strikers with their New York accents depicted as an eye dialect, using such sayings as "Me nobul men is all loyal." The face of the strike was Louis "Kid Blink" Baletti. Kid Blink was 18 during the strike, and is described by papers at the time as an "undersized boy" with red hair and an eye patch over his left eye. He also went by the nicknames "Red Blink", "Muggsy McGee" and "Blind Diamond." Kid Blink was a charismatic leader. Several newspapers recorded speeches he gave at rallies, one of which reads in part "Friens and feller workers. This is a time which tries de hearts of men. Dis is de time when we'se got to stick together like glue... We know wot we wants and we'll git it even if we is blind." His speech at the Irving Hall rally won him a floral horseshoe for the best speech of the evening. Kid Blink was accused of betraying the strike and accepting a bribe to sell the boycotted papers, and though some sources claim he was acquitted of these charges he still stepped down from his leadership position after being accused.