Chapter Three: In Which The World Will Know and We Meet Katherine
Word Count: 3, 067
Manhattan, 1899
"Man, them fire sirens kept me awake all night," Race complained.
"Fire sirens is like lullabies to me," Mush said. "The louder they wail, the better the headline. The better the headline, the better I eat. And the better I eat - "
"The further away from you I sleep."
Cassie laughed, and Mush opened his mouth to retaliate, but Davey and Les walked up.
"Morning everybody. Sorry we're late, we had to help our mom with something."
"Oh, they got a mother!" Race exclaimed. "I was gonna get me one."
"...What'd ya do with the one ya had?" Romeo asked.
"He traded her for a box of cigars!"
"'Ey, they was Coronas!"
"We got a father, too!" Les added.
"Oh, a mother and a father."
"Hey, ain't we the hoi polloi?"
"So how's it going today?" Les asked, decidedly changing the subject.
"Ask me after they put up the headline."
"Here it comes now!"
When it was done being written, Cassie couldn't believe her eyes. She was sure the case was the same for everyone else. "New newsie price?" Albert cried. "Sixty cents per hundred?!"
"What'd you say?"
"Is that news?" Davey asked, sounding the slightest bit confused. Cassie wanted to roll her eyes, but didn't, remembering what Mush had said the day before. Of course, Davey wouldn't know, but still...she sped over to get a closer look.
"It is to me!" Elmer said in disbelief.
"They jacked up the price of papes. Ten cents more a hundred!"
"I could eat two days on a dime!"
"I don't believe this," Cassie whispered to herself. Ten cents more a hundred? As Elmer had said, they could eat two days on a dime. Pulitzer made so much money already, and here he was, trying to make more. It didn't make sense. The more she thought about it, the more upset she became. Pulitzer had never cared about them to begin with, but she would have thought he'd be satisfied. Apparently not.
"I'll be sleepin' on the streets!" Crutchie said.
"You already sleep on the streets."
"In a worse neighborhood." the newsie replied ominously.
At that moment, Jack finally arrived, and Cassie let out a breath she wasn't aware she had been holding. Jack! Jack could fix this. He'd probably fixed worse in the past. She didn't know how long he'd been a leader, but when he led, they all followed. "Hey, what're you all standin' around here for?"
"Hey Jack, get a load of this," Crutchie said, gesturing to the headline.
"Like Pulitzer don't make enough already."
As Weisel called out for the newsies to come get their papers, Jack waved a perfunctory hand. "Relax, fellas, it's gotta be a gag."
"Line up boys."
"Good joke, Weasel, ya really got the fellas goin'." Jack said, laughing as if it really was just one big prank. One thing Cassie admired about Jack Kelly was that he had no fears. At least, none that she was aware of. He approached every confrontation and scenario with ease and confidence, and a small part of her truly did want to believe that it was a joke. The rest of her knew that it was extremely unlikely, but who knew? Maybe Weisel would say something like "Okay, ya got me," and there would be a different, exciting headline and everything would go back to normal. "I'll take a hundred an' be on my way."
"A hundred'll cost ya sixty."
Jack's easygoing smile faltered. "I ain't payin' no sixty."
"Then make way for someone who will." Weisel snarled, and Jack looked down. No, thought Cassie, he's not going to give up that easily.
"You bet!" The oldest newsboy said after a moment. "Me and the fellas will take a hike over to The Journal!"
"Yeah!" shouted Cassie with everyone else.
"Ain't worth the walk," Specs said, running up. "They upped their prices too."
Jack thought. "Then we'll take our business to The Sun!"
"Same all around town. New day, new price." For the first time (surprisingly!) since she'd become a newsie, Cassie wanted nothing more than to punch the smug smirk off Weisel's face. She didn't know how to punch, of course, so even without the repercussions, she wouldn't be able to, but at the very least, she could enjoy the imagination. At this point, Jack was letting his anger surface.
"Well, why the jack-up?"
"For those kinds of answers, you gotta ask further up the food chain." So are ya buyin'? Or movin' on?"
Jack didn't answer. "Come here, fellas. Come here."
"They can't just do that, can they?" Albert asked angrily.
"Why not? It's their paper."
"It's their world."
"Ain't we got no rights?"
"We got the rights to starve! Let's just get our papes and hit the streets while we still can." Cassie nodded in agreement. She had to agree with Crutchie. They might be able to afford a few things for a few days, but it was highly unlikely they wouldn't be able to keep it up for very long. Everyone else broke out in shouts of agreement or disagreement or neutrality, so that no one could hear what anyone else was saying.
"Hold on!" Jack shouted. "No one is payin' no new nothin'."
"Ya got an idea?"
"Would ya keep your shirt on and let me think this through?"
They started yelling again.
"Stop crowding him!" screamed Les, pushing people out of the way. "Let the man work it out!"
Apparently, the newsies thought this was a good idea, because they were all silent for a moment. Cassie watched Jack from her perch next to Romeo. He was clearly concentrating hard.
"Hey Jack. Ya still thinking?" Les asked after a moment of silence.
"Sure, he is. Can't ya smell smoke?"
Another moment passed, and Jack waved them back over. "Alright, here's the deal. If we don't sell papes, nobody sells papes. No one gets to that window until they put the price back where it belongs."
"You mean like a strike?" asked Davey.
"Well, you heard Davey – we're goin' on strike!"
"No, no, I didn't say that - " Davey tried to protest, but his voice was quickly drowned out by everyone else's. A strike? They couldn't go on strike. It'd be bad enough if they were planning on buying the papers with the upped prices. At least they'd be making some money. But now? How long could they go on not making any at all?
"We shut down this place, just like them workers shut down the trolleys!"
"Yeah, and the cops'll bust our heads!" Finch admonished. "Half of them strikers is laid up with broke bones!" Yes! And that was another thing. Even if they could last long enough for the ever-stubborn Pulitzer to agree to roll back prices, they could end up injured or even in the refuge. Cassie was liking this strike idea less and less with every second. But then, it wasn't as if she'd argue with Jack either. He usually knew what he was doing.
"The cops ain't gonna care about a bunch of kids. Right Davey?"
"Leave me out of this! I'm just here trying to feed my family."
Cassie scoffed quietly. As much as she disagreed with the prospect of a strike, this was worse. What did he think, that they enjoyed slaving away in the sun and rain and snow selling papers they probably wouldn't even read themselves?
"What, and the rest of us is here on playtime?" He lowered his voice. "Just because we only make pennies don't give them to right to rub our noses in it."
"I know, but it doesn't matter. You can't strike, you're not a union."
"What if I says we is?" Jack said, a little louder.
"There's a lot of stuff you gotta have in order to be a union. Like...membership."
That was very true.
"What do you call these guys?" Jack asked. He gestured to them.
Romeo waved cheerfully beside her, and she looked and saw the other newsies doing the same.
"And...and officers."
"I nominate Jack president!" Crutchie exclaimed quickly.
"Gee, I'm touched."
"What about a statement of purpose?"
"Yeah, I must've left that in my other pants."
Jack had a point. Obviously, these weren't all the requirements, but if he wanted them to be a union, she supposed they could be. This strike thing was obviously something he was serious about. A lot of the things Jack planned never came to fruition – he did best, Cassie noticed, when he was thinking on his feet. But something about the idea of striking must have clicked in his head because he was not letting up.
Race raised his hand. "Uh, what's a statement of purpose?"
"A reason for forming the union."
"Well, what reasons did the trolley workers have?"
"I dunno! Wages, work hours, safety on the job..."
"Well, who don't need that?"
The newsies all choroused their agreement, and Jack lowered his voice again. She couldn't make out what he was saying, but it must have either been something really clever or really personal, because Davey made a face like, you didn't.
"So, are union is hereby formed to watch each others' backs. Union'd we stand – hey, that's not bad! Somebody write that down."
"I got a pencil!" Les offered.
"Well, meet our secretary of state!"
'If you wanna strike, the membership's gotta vote."
"Okay, so we'll vote. What do ya say, fellas – the choice is yours - do we roll over and let Pulitzer pick our pockets, or do we strike?"
Well, when you put it that way...
She still didn't think the strike was the best idea...but it couldn't hurt to try. And she had to admit, she was impressed. With the other newsies' determination, and with Davey's formalities – everyone seemed to have thought this through.
"Strike!"
"You heard the voice of the membership. The newsies of Lower Manhattan are officially on strike!"
"Uh, wouldn't our strike me more effective if someone in charge knew about it?"
"Well, it would be a pleasure to tell Weasel myself!"
"Yeah, and who tells Pulitzer, huh? Davey?"
"I don't know..." Davey glanced over and smiled. "I guess you do, Mr. President."
"Hey, we do. So what-what do we tell 'im?"
"Well, that newspaper owners need to respect our rights as employees."
"Yeah, Pulitzer and Hearst gotta respect the rights of the workin' kids of this city!"
"They can't just change the rules whenever they feel like it!"
"That's right! We do the work, so we get a say!"
Davey looked around at the expectant faces of all the newsies and his face broke into a grin. "We got a union!"
The excitement of the strike hadn't quite died down, but everyone had worn themselves out. Jack, Davey, and Les had visited the World and were promptly kicked out, leaving Les to shout at the closing doors how "you can tell Pulitzer that a few days into this strike, he's gonna be beggin' for an appointment to see me. You got that?" and then deciding that he got it. So they made their way to Jacobi's Deli, where Jacobi served them water sometimes on particularly hot days.
"And who's the big spender that ordered the seltzer?"
"Over here," Albert called, raising a hand.
"That'll be two cents."
"Two cents for a glass of seltzer? Ah, just gimme a water."
"How did I ever see that coming?" Jacobi said sarcastically, handing Albert the "extra" water on the tray.
"I'd say we launched our strike in a most auspicious manner," Davey declared, raising his glass.
Mush saw Cassie nod, but other than that, there was no response. Mostly just confused silence. "I don't know about that," he started, not entirely sure what auspicious meant, "but we sure scared the bejeebers out of Weasel!"
Everyone agreed, and Crutchie added, "Oh, and didja see the Delanceys? They didn't know which way was up!" They laughed.
"So what's next?"
"Oh, well, now we have to spread the word. Let the rest of the city's newsies know about the strike."
"You heard the man, let's go out and spread the word!"
"I'll take Harlem," Mush offered, standing up.
"Oh, I got Midtown."
"I got the Bronx."
"And I got the Bowery.
"Specs, you take Queens. Tommy Boy, you take the East Side. And who wants Brooklyn?"
Mush sat back down and covered his face with his hat. He didn't even have to look to know that everyone else was doing the same.
"Come on, Brooklyn!" Jack urged. "Spot Conlon's turf?"
No one responded.
"Finch! You're tellin' me you're scared of Brooklyn?"
"I ain't scared of no turf!" Finch, who was known for not fearing anything (or at least trying not to let on that he was), replied. Mush looked up at him. "But that Spot Conlon gets me a little...jittery."
"Fine, me and Davey will take Brooklyn."
"Me? No, I - "
"Why is everyone so scared of Brooklyn?" asked a woman's voice. The smartly dressed woman from yesterday entered and everyone turned to look at her.
"What're you doin' here?"
"Asking a question. Have you got an answer?"
Jack sighed and stepped down from the table. "Brooklyn is the sixth largest city in the entire world. Ya got Brooklyn, ya hit the motherlode." He paused. "Say, for someone who works for The Sun, you'se spendin' an awful lot of time hangin' around at The World. What's that about, huh? You followin' me?" He ducked behind Davey's chair dramatically. Mush looked on, wondering how they knew each other – because they very clearly knew each other.
"The only thing I'm following is a story," the girl said. "A ragtag gang of ragamuffins wants to take on the king-makers of New York? Do you think you have a chance?"
"Shouldn't you be at the ballet?" Jack asked. The newsies all laughed (except for Cassie, Mush saw, who had an eyebrow raised).
"Aw, is the question too difficult? I'll rephrase. Will the richest and most powerful men in New York give the time of day to a gang of kids who haven't got a nickel to their name?" she asked, in a tone similar to that of someone who was explaining something to a small child.
"Hey, you don't gotta be insultin'!" Cructhie called. "I got a nickel."
The woman smiled shortly. "So, I guess you could say you're a couple of Davids looking to take on Goliath."
"Um, we never said that," Davey stepped in.
"You didn't have to. I did."
"You know, I've read a lot of papes in my day, and I never noted no girl reporter writin' the hard news."
"Well, wake up to the new century! The game's changing." She smoothed her skirt. "Now. How about an exclusive interview?"
"Ain't your beat entertainment?"
"Oh, this is entertaining. So far."
"WHat's the last news story you wrote?" Jack asked, getting in her face.
"What's the last strike you organized?" she retorted without missing a beat. Everyone ooohed. Their faces were only inches apart when Romeo stepped up.
"You're out of your league, Kelly. Methinks the lady needs to be handled by a real man."
Mush rolled his eyes but couldn't keep from smiling.
"You thinks wrong, Romeo."
"How'd she know my name?"
"Get outta here," Jack muttered, pushing Romeo away.
Davey walked to Katherine. "I say we save any exclusive for a real reporter."
"Do you see anyone else giving you the time of day?" She sighed. "Alright, so I'm just busting out of the social pages, but...you give me the exclusive, let me run with the story, and I promise I'll get you the space."
"You really think we could be in the papes?" asked Crutchie tentatively.
"You shut down a paper like The World? You're gonna make the front page."
Now that got people's attention.
They started chattering excitedly as Jack said, "You want a story? Be outside the circulation gates tomorrow mornin' and you'll get one. Oh, and bring your camera. You're gonna want to snap a picture of this!"
"Let's go boys, play outside, I gotta set up for dinner and I got payin' customers who need the tables," Jacobi said, coming back in.
"Come on, we got newsies to visit!"
"Yeah, you won't be shooin' us off when we get our mugs in the papes!"
They helped Jacobi clean up and headed outside, energy and excitement levels high again.
Walking back to the Lodge, Cassie and Romeo caught up to Mush.
"So. We're really going through with this, huh?" Cassie asked.
"Yep. I mean, hey, you wanted somethin' interestin' to happen, didn't ya?"
"I guess, but this seems pretty precarious."
"What?" Romeo interjected.
"Uncertain. We don't know what's gonna happen with this. You heard what Finch said! We could get seriously injured."
"Cassie, we could get seriously injured just by bein' alive. Why not try somethin' new?"
"Yeah," agreed Romeo. "And besides, it'll probably only last a few days. When Pulitzer realizes that he ain't makin' money, he'll realize what he did and roll back prices."
"Exactly."
"I hope you're right."
"I always am," he said, grinning.
A/N: I wasn't entirely sure how to end this chapter so there ya go
I really wanted to paraphrase/write The World Will Know, but it wasn't turning out right, and I love the song. I didn't want to ruin it lol. Anyway, I tried, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I would love it if you could review with what you liked (or didn't) or anything you'd like to see!
-mouse :)