The year is 1899. In New York City, thousands of orphaned children flood the streets to shine shoes, sell newspapers, anything to keep food in their stomachs and clothes on their feet. A select group, the Manhattan newsboys, or Newsies, hawk Joseph Pulitzer's New York World. Jack Kelly, the "leader" of the crew dreams of going to Santa Fe, where he can have a "big life in a small town" and his friend Crutchie, so named for his use of his crutch for a bum leg, agrees to go with him someday. They, and the other Newsies, go down to the circulation gate to buy their papers for the day. There they confront the Delancey "bruddas," who were rumored to have beaten up striking trolley workers, they run the circulation window for the World. Mr Wiesel, or "Weasel" to the Newsies, sells the boys their papers for the day. Jack then meets Davey and Les, a pair of brothers who are new to the whole game since their father got in an accident at work. Jack and Les strike a deal to be partners and go about their days hawking the newspapers. Meanwhile, Joseph Pulitzer is consulting his assistants to come up with a way to boost circulation. They decide to raise the Newsie price to sixty cents per hundred instead of fifty. Later that evening, Jack and the brothers run into Snyder, who is chasing after Jack to arrest him. The escape to a Vaudeville theater, owned by Jack's pal Medda, and hide out for a while. Jack meets Katherine, who is reviewing Medda's show for the New York Sun. They exchange some flirtatious words and Jack ends up drawing a portrait of Katherine on an extra newspaper. The next morning,When Jack and the other newsies find out the next morning that their price has been hiked, they immediately start planning a strike, headed by Jack. Katherine meets them at a Deli, where she tells the boys that she's writing an article, to expose the strike. SHe writes the article before the strike and describes them as a couple of Davids ready to take on Goliath.
Word Count (thank you google docs): 358
