Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US, also butcher boy) a seller of sweets, fruit, soft drinks etc, working typically in a cinema or a railway train, thus defined by n. indicating a specific commodity, e.g. candy, news.

1880		C.L. Martin A Sketch of Sam Bass (1956) 58: The ‘butcher boy’ on the train also participated in the fight. [...] It is believed that the ‘butcher’ shot both Frank Jackson and Sam Pipes.
1883		G.W. Peck Peck’s Bad Boy and His Pa (1893) 66: Pa said I was mistaken, cause they never prayed in circus, ’cept the lemonade butchers.
1894		‘Sl. of the Circus Man’ in Boston Daily Globe 17 Dec. 35: The men who sell peanuts, red lemonade, palm leaf fans, animal and song books and concert tickets are known under the general term of ‘butchers.’.
1917		R. Lardner ‘Three Kings and a Pair’ in Gullible’s Travels 38: Her escort [...] was a guy named Bishop and she’d met him on the trip up. The news butcher introduced them, I guess.
1919		C.H. Darling Jargon Book 6: Butch – A news dealer on railroad trains.
1921		P. & T. Casey Gay-cat 147: In all thet crowd with a circus, who’s gonna spot three or four safe-crackers wot is woikin’ as razor-backs er ticket-butchers er the like.
1929		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 2 Mar. [synd. col.] The candy and lemonade butcher was busy seving drinks in the foyer.
1945		J. Marshall Santa Fe 110: The butchers sold cheap, dirty books, bad candy and cheap cigars [DA].
1946		(con. 1910s) J. Thompson Heed the Thunder (1994) 145: The news butch was in on the green-goods racket. He was a peddler of brass watches and glass diamonds. He sold marked cards and crooked dice. And almost always he sold whisky.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1955		(con. 1890s) H.F. in Randolph & Legman Ozark Folksongs and Folklore (1992) II 659: News-butchers on the trains used to carry these [obscene] poems.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1962		C. Clausen I Love You Honey, But the Season’s Over 114: That’s a good mark-up, even after you hire a few candy butchers to sell it in the seats.
1975		J. Roe Same Old Grind 59: ‘When me and the old lady was playing the Rialto, Otto was the candy butcher [...] selling chocolates’.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 102: We’re talking about me selling blow jobs on the street like a candy butcher.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 64: What we called a butcher, someone who sells novelties, Coca Cola, ice cream or candy floss.
2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Butcher — Strolling refreshment merchant, peddler of lemonade, candy, pretzels, and other edibles.