After a long day of selling papes and dreaming of Santa Fe, Les wandered
into the lodging house. After greeting Kloppman, he climbed the stairs and
strolled over to his bunk.
After Jack married his sister, Sarah, and his brother, David, and his parents had died, Les had moved out of his home, despite Sarah's wishes and true to Jack's wishes, and into the lodging house. Les had been captivated by Jack's life since he first met Cowboy and, after moving out, had submerged himself in it all. He slept in the bunk formerly occupied by Jack, wore the black cowboy hat Jack had given him, after the strike had ended, and dreamed constantly of going to Santa Fe and becoming a cowboy. The other newsies who had once been fond of the youngin', were now quite disquieted by his transformation into Jack, Jr. Les insisted on being called "Cowboy" and while, to his knowledge, all newsies complied, he was unaware that when not present, the other newsies mocked him, calling him "Cowboy Wanna-be".
While Les provided much amusement for the newsies, they seemed to find more humor in the sad state of their once beloved friend, Bryan Denton. Calling him "Demented Denton", the newsies had a field day with Denton's mental breakdown. While most all of the newsies were convinced Denton was completely insane, he was not. He had only had a mild mental breakdown when the strike had ended, and he had lost contact with David. After his malfunction he moved into the logging house with the newsies he knew, and became a newsie himself. At first his main concern was staying close to Davey, but soon his work consumed him and he lost all interest in anything besides the day's headline. He was entirely unaffected by Davey's death, though partly his fault, but to buy a pape from him on the street and even conduct a small conversation, you'd never know he was ill.
Denton walked into the bedding area of the lodging house and climbed into the bunk just below where Les now lay staring thoughtfully at his "Western Jim" magazine. Denton emptied his pockets onto the bed and counted the day's earnings. Denton never made much, though it never upset him, or occurred to him, for that matter, since he was horrible at selling dull headlines. He never fabricated headlines, but uttered them as they were written as he would have wanted any newsie to do for his headlines had he ever written any that were worth proclaiming.
Even with meager earnings, Denton was still able to afford to stay in the lodging house, though many of the newsies believed it was because Kloppman felt bad for him and gave him a discounted rooming fee. Food was no problem for Denton either, every morning he visited the three nuns that gave away bread in exchange for listening to their melodic proclamation of God's love. The nuns were fond of Denton, especially since he joined in singing everyday.
So, Denton put the petite pile of coins back in his pockets and stripped down to his bedclothes to turn in for the night.
After Jack married his sister, Sarah, and his brother, David, and his parents had died, Les had moved out of his home, despite Sarah's wishes and true to Jack's wishes, and into the lodging house. Les had been captivated by Jack's life since he first met Cowboy and, after moving out, had submerged himself in it all. He slept in the bunk formerly occupied by Jack, wore the black cowboy hat Jack had given him, after the strike had ended, and dreamed constantly of going to Santa Fe and becoming a cowboy. The other newsies who had once been fond of the youngin', were now quite disquieted by his transformation into Jack, Jr. Les insisted on being called "Cowboy" and while, to his knowledge, all newsies complied, he was unaware that when not present, the other newsies mocked him, calling him "Cowboy Wanna-be".
While Les provided much amusement for the newsies, they seemed to find more humor in the sad state of their once beloved friend, Bryan Denton. Calling him "Demented Denton", the newsies had a field day with Denton's mental breakdown. While most all of the newsies were convinced Denton was completely insane, he was not. He had only had a mild mental breakdown when the strike had ended, and he had lost contact with David. After his malfunction he moved into the logging house with the newsies he knew, and became a newsie himself. At first his main concern was staying close to Davey, but soon his work consumed him and he lost all interest in anything besides the day's headline. He was entirely unaffected by Davey's death, though partly his fault, but to buy a pape from him on the street and even conduct a small conversation, you'd never know he was ill.
Denton walked into the bedding area of the lodging house and climbed into the bunk just below where Les now lay staring thoughtfully at his "Western Jim" magazine. Denton emptied his pockets onto the bed and counted the day's earnings. Denton never made much, though it never upset him, or occurred to him, for that matter, since he was horrible at selling dull headlines. He never fabricated headlines, but uttered them as they were written as he would have wanted any newsie to do for his headlines had he ever written any that were worth proclaiming.
Even with meager earnings, Denton was still able to afford to stay in the lodging house, though many of the newsies believed it was because Kloppman felt bad for him and gave him a discounted rooming fee. Food was no problem for Denton either, every morning he visited the three nuns that gave away bread in exchange for listening to their melodic proclamation of God's love. The nuns were fond of Denton, especially since he joined in singing everyday.
So, Denton put the petite pile of coins back in his pockets and stripped down to his bedclothes to turn in for the night.