Carrying the Banner

[RACE]
Hey!
That's my cigar!

[ALBERT]
You'll steal a-nuddah!

[SPECS]
Hey, look! It's bath time at the zoo

[HENRY]
I thought that I'd surprise my mother

[ALBERT]
If you can find her

[NEWSIES]
WHO ASKED YOU?!

[RACE]
From Bottle Alley to the Harbor
There's easy pickings guaranteed

[FINCH]
Try any banker, bum, or barber
They almost all knows how to read

[JACK]
It's a crooked game we're playin'
One we'll never lose
Long as suckers don't mind payin'
Just to get bad news

[NEWSIES]
Ain't it a fine life!
Carrying the banner through it all
A mighty fine life!
Carrying the banner tough and tall
When that bell rings
We goes where we wishes
We's as free as fishes
Sure beats washing dishes
What a fine life
Carrying the banner home-free all!

[FINCH, spoken]
Hey, Crutchie, what's your leg say, gonna rain?

[CRUTCHIE, spoken]
Uhh, no rain...
Ho-ho, partly cloudy clear by evenin'

[RACE, spoken]
Ha! And the limp sells fifty papes a week, all by itself!

[CRUTCHIE, spoken]
I don't need the limp to sell papes
I got personality

(sung)
It takes a smile that spreads like butter
The kind that turns a lady's head

[RACE]
It takes an orphan with a stutter

[FINCH]
Who's also blind-

[ALBERT]
And mute-

[ELMER]
And dead!

[CRUTCHIE, BUTTONS, JO-JO]
Summer stinks and winter's freezing
When you works outdoors

[JACK, TOMMY BOY, CRUTCHIE, BUTTONS, JO-JO]
Start out sweatin
End up sneezin'
In between it pours!

[NEWSIES]
Still it's a fine life
Carrying the banner with me chums
(Still it's a fine life carrying the banner with me chums)
A bunch of big shots
Tossin' out a freebie to the bums
(A bunch o' big shots tossin' out a freebie)

[FINCH]
Hey! What's the hold up?
Waiting makes me antsy
I likes livin' chancey

[NEWSIES]
Harlem to Delancey
What a fine life!
Carrying the banner through the-

[NUNS]
Blessed children
Though you wander lost and depraved
Jesus loves you
You shall be saved

RACE, ELMER & NUNS
Curdled
Just give me half a cup
Blessed children

[RACE, HENRY]
Coffee
Somethin' to wake me up

[RACE, ROMEO]
Concrete donuts
I gotta find an angle

[RACE, TOMMY BOY]
Sprinkled with mold
It's gettin' bad out there

[RACE, MUSH]
Homemade
Papers is all I got

[NUNS, SPECS]
Jesus loves you
It's 88 degrees

[RACE, JO-JO]
Biscuits
Jack says to change my spot

[SNIPER]
Wish I could catch a breeze

[RACE, FINCH]
Just two
Maybe it's worth a shot

[RACE, BUTTONS]
Years old
All I can catch is fleas

[JACK]
If I hate the headline
I’ll make up a headline

[JACK AND CRUTCHIE]
And I'll say anything I have'ta

[JACK, CRUTCHIE, RACE, AND ROMEO]
'Cause at two for a penny if I take too many
Weasel just makes me eat 'em afta'!

[NEWSIES GROUP 1 & NEWSIES GROUP 2]
Got a feelin' bout the headline!
I do too, so it must be true
I smells me a headline!
Papes are gonna sell like we was givin' them away!
What a switch! Soon we'll all be rich
Betcha dinner it's a doozy
'Bout a pistol-packin' floozy
Don't know any better way to make a newsie's day
Who knows how to make a Newsie's day!

[NEWSIES]
You wanna move the next edition
Give us an earthquake or a war!

[ELMER]
How ‘bout a crooked politician?

[NEWSIES]
Ya nitwit, that ain’t news no more!
Uptown to Grand Central Station
Down to City Hall
We improves our circulation
Walking ‘til we fall

But we'll be out there
Got a feelin' 'bout the headline, I smells me a headline
Carrying the banner man to man!
Papes are gonna sell like we was givin' them away
Betcha dinner it's a doozy
We're always out there
'Bout a pistol-packin' floozy
Soakin' every sucker that we can
Don't know any better way to make a Newsie's day!
See the headline:
I was stakin' out the circus
Newsies on a mission!
And then someone said that Coney's really hot
Kill the competition
But when I got there
Sell the next edition
There was Spot with all his cronies
We'll be out there
Heck, I'm gonna take what little dough I got and play the ponies
Carrying the banner!
See us out there, carrying the banner!
We at least deserves a headline for the hours that they work us
Always out there, carrying the banner!
Jeez, I bet if I just stayed a little longer at the circus

[NEWSIES]
We’ll all be out there
Carrying the banner man to man!
We're always out there
Soakin' every sucker that we can!
Here's the headline:
Newsies on a mission!
Kill the competition!
Sell the next edition!
We'll be out there
Carrying the banner!
See us out there
Carrying the banner!
Always out there
Carrying the banner!
Ahh, ahh, ahh, go!