Maybe It's Worth A Shot

1955

New York City had a lot of newspaper businesses. Lots of newspapers businesses required lots of people to run the businesses. The food chain ranged from the big shots up at the top all the way down to the young boys who peddled bicycles at some outrageously early hour to deliver bicycles to the citizens of the city. Such was the job of a young boy by the name of Jack Kelly. He was the leader of the Manhattan group of peddling paper boys. Each boy had a bicycle and they would deliver newspapers to the people of Manhattan. Every single one of the boys had their own unique route. Some would deliver to businesses and others to the ordinary homes of New Yorkers. They would receive their pay from the places they delivered and they would use the money that they earned to buy papers in the morning. Most of the paper boys would be doing this to help their family earn a few extra cents. Life in New York City was very expensive at times and people did not usually have a lot of money, so it helped to have a few extra cents. The ordinary New Yorker would have a son who would wake up at some absurd hour, jump on his bike, ride out to the distribution center at the paper that they sold for, and then ride his route knocking on doors and  For most of the kids that were in that situation, life was perfect. They had free reign of the city and had some freedom before school started. There was only one issue. The gangs that thought they could rule New York City too. If a paper boy had a tip, the gangs would beat him up (on a good day), steal it from him and run off with the money. On a bad day, a paper boy wouldn't be able to deliver the papers for a good long while. Those paper boys, who had families and led somewhat normal lives, needed someone who could stick up for them against the gangs. Some kind of a leader or better yet, they needed some kind of a union. They knew of a group of boys who were a gang, in the sense that they fought with other gangs often. This other group of boys was also a group of paper boys around the city. The other paper boys did not typically associate themselves with the gang of paper boys. The gang was led by none other than Jack Kelly. Jack was kind to most of the other kids on the job, but he still made lots of kids nervous. None of the "normal" kids trusted him and saw him as a "bad boy." Jack Kelly was far from the "bad boy" status and only the kids he led and hung out with saw that. The day he became the leader of the gang he is in was a day that some kids cheered about and others wanted to cry about. One particular kid that was excited for this was named Crutchy. Crutchy was Jack's little "brother" in a sense. Of course, Jack considered all of the boys to be his brothers, but Crutchy was special. Crutchy was the only person who Jack would invite to sleep on the rooftop of the abandoned warehouse they stayed at. None of the other boys were invited up there. Even if they had a nightmare. Jack always came into the warehouse itself to comfort them. Old sofas with the stuffing bulging out from under the cushions littered the dirty floor of the warehouse. Over the years, Jack had dragged those into the warehouse along with the leaders before him. There was always one sofa left open just incase Jack ever wanted to sleep inside. He rarely did and he usually gave up his sofa to some kid from the street who needed a place to hide away from parents or the cops. Just because he was the leader of a gang didn't mean that Jack couldn't create a safe place for the kids of New York. He didn't really look out for the "normal" kids though. They had a place to sleep every night and they had parents who actually cared about them. Their homes were places that they didn't have to be afraid to walk into every night. Scared that tonight was going to be worse than the night before. That had been these boys' lifestyles until they found the gang. Before this group of boys had formed, they had been known as the Newsies of Lower Manhattan. But, things changed in New York and once the Depression passed, Newsies disappeared from the streets of New York. Replacing them were the young paperboys on bicycles. In the warehouse, there was an old picture of a group of newsboys from 1899 when they went on strike. Those boys had no doubt grown up and grown old, but that did not stop the paperboys' respect for the Newsies. Jack had always liked to remind the boys of where they had come from. When the Newsies went out of style, the Lodging Houses of New York City closed and the Newsies of New York City retreated to the underbelly of the city to escape the prying eyes of the cops and their fellow citizens who loathed seeing them on the streets. There, many of them were pulled into gangs, forced away from the healthy lifestyle that they had been longing for. The former Newsies had no choice and were nabbed from their hiding places in the city. Most of them shrugged off their dreams, at this point just looking for a way to survive. It had taken awhile, but eventually, during Prohibition, a group of them found each other and escaped from their old gangs. Together, they formed a new gang. Of course, staying true to their roots, they called their gang, The Newsies. The Newsies accepted non former Newsies as well and even new members. Just because you weren't a Newsie didn't mean you couldn't join the gang. The gang called themselves, The Newsies, not because of who was in it, but rather the principles they chose to live by. The Newsies chose to live like the original Newsies from 1899 did. Everyone was considered family. Most gangs in New York fought with an every man for himself mentality, but not the Newsies. The Newsies watched each other's backs and cared about their members. This was a tradition that they made sure to carry out on each member and that was all the new candidates had to promise to hold to once they joined. There was no terrifyingly cruel initiation where a new candidate might have to go and beat up someone. The Newsies wanted their gang to be as safe of a place as possible for its members. Of course because they were a gang, the safety had its limitations.  Regardless of this, kids with cruel families or no families, gravitated towards The Newsies. New members came often and the gang began to grow quickly. The Newsies gang encouraged everyone in their gang to lead somewhat normal lives meaning they had jobs and acted as trustworthy normal citizens of New York City. This lasted for approximately six months. Some of the younger members were able to become Newsies, selling newspapers yet again. Only a few managed to do this as the demands for people in other jobs were high. The normal citizen by day and gang member by night lifestyle worked for many of the members. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and a turf war began between one of the gangs, who behaved as a gang 24/7, and The Newsies. The Newsies' rival had been trying to attack in broad daylight since a lot of The Newsies were out in the morning. The rivals had an agenda to steal the majority of Manhattan during the daytime. One day, The Newsies decided to surprise their rivals by jumping one of their members. The Newsies sent out one of their boys the next morning and he found the person he needed to jump. Or so he thought. The Newsie jumped the man only to find that the person he had just jumped was not one of their rivals, but an ordinary citizen of New York. The man had been angry with The Newsie and to make matters worse, he knew that the boy was a newsboy. With his secret exposed, The Newsie tried to get away, but the man put the police on his case. The police were speedy to find the hiding place of The Newsies and in 1937, half of The Newsies wound up in jail, including two out of their three leaders. The other boys stuck together and went into hiding. Just because half of their brothers had been separated from them didn't mean that they couldn't still carry the gang. However, the rival gang, that had been attacking The Newsies previously, caught wind of what had happened to The Newsies. They quickly located The Newsies' new hiding place and made plans. The Newsies were careful and stayed hidden until their rivals found them. The leader of their rivals gave them a choice, all of them could stay together and join his gang or they would die. The Newsies could not decide what to do. They asked for three days of a wait and their rivals, just to humor the now small gang's request, agreed. The Newsies decided to disband their gang and they turned themselves into prison, deciding it might be safer for all of The Newsies. Many kids lost hope that day for themselves and were terrified of what was going to happen to them. Every other gang in New York City was known to be ruthless and they would stop at nothing to get new members. The Newsies had been the one beacon of hope for a lot of kids. About eight years later, a seven year old boy was abandoned to the streets of Manhattan. World War II had just ended and Jack Kelly's parents were both dead because of it. His father died during a mission over in France and his mother had died two years after Jack was born. Jack never figured out why she died, all his father would tell him was that she was very sick. With what or why, Jack was never told. A few years later, Jack's father enlisted and off to the war he went, never to return. After that, Jack spent some time in an orphanage. The orphanage was very cramped and Jack snuck out one night when one of the nasty women forgot to lock the door. Or as Jack saw them, the prison gates. Jack fled to the streets and became one of many who lived there. He had heard rumors of The Newsies gang and had wanted to join. Even if he was only a little boy, at least he would have someone to look out for him. Jack quickly learned that The Newsies were all in prison and due to that, many of them were dead. A few had paid for their crimes that way and others simply died due to sickness. Only a few of the younger boys, who had been little boys at the time and were now teenagers, remained. They had been too young to face much of a punishment and still were. Those boys lived in a place called The House of Refuge. Jack had heard once again from the older kids on the street that it was anything but that. Terrible things happened in The House of Refuge and every street kid knew it. Even if you were new, you were quickly informed. As was the case with Jack. There was a small group of little boys that met in an alleyway and stayed together. In their minds, they considered themselves to be a gang, but none of the big gangs full of grown men and teenagers saw them as a threat. The big gangs tried to pull the kids into their gangs, but the kids refused. This put a target on their backs. One day, the kids decided to fight back and they threw rotten fruit, the only weapon they had out on the streets, at the gangs ruining their fancy clothes and whatnot. The gangs hated this and vowed to retaliate in much harsher manner. Jack Kelly, a seven year old in 1945, was nervous for what was going to happen to them. They had only stood up for what was right. Later on that night, one of the leaders of the gang that the kids had thrown rotten fruit at, marched over to the police station and told him the whereabouts of the kids and what they had done. The police came and arrested the kids. After spending a night down at the police station, Jack and his cohorts were carted off to The House of Refuge. Jack was actually somewhat relieved. He remembered from the rumors that The House of Refuge was where the last few surviving boys from The Newsies gang were. Maybe they could start The Newsies again just so that some kids on the street could have a chance. Jack and his boys were thrown in a large room with all of the other kids who were mild offenders. A large group of boys stared back at them and a tall lanky teenage kid stood up from his place one of the bunks.