Reincarnated ~ A Modern Newsies Au (Nowsies)

Irving Hall | July 24, 1899

Aaaaaa I'm so excited!! 

Since more articles were in favor of it happening July 24, that's the date I'm choosing.

Also I'm probably going to surprise you all with one specific and new detail but I hope you'll love it.

It's a historical detail. But I've never used it in any of my stories, so it seems like it came out of no where. But I have articles to back me up. And like said, I think you'll like it.

Why am I treating this like a plot twist? Wow haha.

Have I mentioned I'm really excited for this chapter?

Enjoy! :)

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"Friends and fellow workers: This is a time which tries the hearts of men--this is the time when we've got to stick together like glue!"

That gets a cheering from the crowd. Kid Blink is satisfied with the enthusiasm to his opening. Several have came before him, but now, he knows that everyone's waiting to hear what he has to say.

"But there's one thing I want to say before I go any further," Blink continues. "I don't believe in getting no fellow's papers from him and tearing them up. I know I done it."

"You bet you did!" is shouted back to him.

"Ain't that ten cents worth as much to us as it is to Hearst and Pulitzer, who are millionaires?" he asks them. "Well, I guess it is. If they can't spare it, how can we?"

"Soak 'em, Blink!" the crowd shouts enthusiastically.

He shakes his head. "Soak nothing. I'm telling the truth. I'm trying to figure out how ten cents on a hundred papers can mean more to a millionaire than it does to a newsboy, and I can't see it. We can do more with ten cents than he can with twenty five. Anyway, we wants it. And we'll strike and restrike until we get it. Won't we, boys?"

There's a lot of enthusiastic cheering.

"But don't let's stop no more poor driver and dump over their wagons," he urges, "like we done in Madison Street the other day. I know I was one."

"You bet you was Blink!" newsies shout. "And a-leading, too!"

"Never mind that," he tells them. "Let's not do it no more. Say, will we, boys?"

"No!" is his answer.

"Say, you remember that day in Wall Street, when the gents threw money to us and told us to buy decent papers? You remember, say, don't you boys?"

"Yes!" they answer.

"That's all right, but, say, don't lets hurt no more poor drivers. We ought to win this strike. Oughtn't we, boys?"

"Yes!"

He smiles. He's convinced them. "You know me, boys?"

"You bet we do!"

And so he finishes strong. "Well, we'll all go out to-morrow and stick together like plaster, and we'll win in a walk."

He's satisfied when they all start cheering. He sees them all looking up at him in awe.

It didn't sit right with him how violent they were; and now they're agreeing with him when he says they should stop.

He steps down from the stage. 

Mush is there, smile wide. "You did it," he murmurs.

Ever so quickly and subtly, Blink kisses Mush's cheek. "I told you I would."