The boys had finally gotten around to visiting Katherine at work like she had done for them so many times. Together they walked from the lodging house in Manhattan to Katherine's office at the Sun. They were coming to visit her new office, it had been a hard victory for Katherine to get an office so the boys were happy to see it. Her bosses hadn't wanted to give her an office because she was a girl but after she threatened to leave the paper for another with a raise, they'd had no choice but to start valuing her writing.
They boys stood outside the doors, receiving dirty looks by passers by and employees alike while waiting for Katherine. Eventually she received the message from the doorway that her friends were waiting and she met them at the door.
"Hello boys," she squacked enthusiastically. "I'm so happy to see you! Thank you for visiting me." She held the door open as they all crowded into the building with all of their rowdy charm. She ignored a dirty look from the doorman. Both she and the boys had proven that they had as much right to be in the building as anyone else, they'd proved it through the strike.
They followed Katherine up a flight of stairs and she led them into her office. Once they were all inside there wasn't room to walk, they were packed in like sardines. "Alright," Katherine coughed, "this is not gonna work."
"Do you want us to go?" Jojo said glumly.
"I was excited to see your work." Elmer added.
"Everyone clear out of my office, I've got an idea," Katherine announced. They took a few minutes to get out of the office due to the sheer size of their group. When they had managed to crowd the surrounding hallway Katherine spoke again, "follow me, I have something I wanna show you. The boys followed Katherine down two more flights of stairs and to a large hall full of shelves and shelves of newspapers in the basement of the New York Sun.
The hall was a place of wisdom and authority, or so they said. If it happened in New York it was recorded somewhere in this room, or it didn't happen. That's what Katherine's father told her, he would say that if it wasn't worth putting in the newspapers then it didn't matter, it was as if it didn't happen. It's easy to imagine why thinking like that would be damaging to a young girl.
The boys had mixed feelings on the papers. Some were interested, there were papers that were fifty-five years old in the room, the boys didn't even expect to live that long. David lost his rather formal demeanor quite quickly, running up and down the catacombs absorbing the knowledge. Jack was unimpressed, all of it was old news to him. "Why should I care?" he said bitterly. I've sold too many of these to count, the one's older than me don't exactly matter anymore, they're dated."
"Don't be so pessimistic Jack," Davey suggested. "There's more understanding in these pages than we could ever hope to obtain in our lifetimes."
"That's because it's all boring."
"I disagree Jack," Katherine added, "I wish I had all the time in the world to read these, I can't imagine experiencing all the different styles of writing contained within."
"Well you highbrows go ahead and enjoy your infinite wisdom. I've got enough of today's news, I don't need yesterday's too." Jack pulled paper and ink that he'd snatched from Katherine's office out of his pocket and began to draw as Davey and Katherine poured over the decrepit papers and the other newsies explored the Hall of Dead Newsprint.