Carrying The Banner

Hey! That's my cigar

You'll steal another

Hey, look, it's bath time at the zoo

I thought that I'd suprise my mother

If you can find her

Who asked you?

From Bottle Alley to the harbor

There's easy pickings guaranteed

Try any banker, bum, or barber

They almost all knows how to read!

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

Ain't it a fine life

Carryin' the banner through it all

A mighty fine life

Carryin' the banner tough and tall

When the bell rings

We goes where we wishes

We's as free as fishes

Sure beats washing dishes

What a fine life

Carryin' the banner home-free all!

Hey Crutchie, what your leg say, gonna rain?

No rain, partly cloudy, clear by evenin'!

And the limp sells fifty papes a week, all by itself!

I don't need the limp to sell papes, I've got personality

It takes a smile that spreads like butter

The kind that turns a lady's head

It takes an orphan with a stutter

Who's also blind

And mute

And dead!

Summer stinks and winter's freezing

When you works outdoors

Start out sweating, end up sneezing

In between it pours!

Still, it's a fine life

Carryin' the banner with me chums

Still, it's a fine life

Carryin' the banner with me chums

A bunch of big shots

Tossin' out a freebie to the bums

A bunch of big shots

Tossin' out a freebie

Hey! What's the hold up?

Waitin' makes me antsy

I likes living chancey

Harlem to Delancey

What a fine life

Carryin' the banner through the-

Blessed children

Though you wander lost and depraved

Jesus loves you

You shall be saved!

Curdled (just give me half a cup)

Coffee (something to wake me up)

Concrete donuts (I gotta find an angle)

Sprinkled with mold (it's gettin' bad out there)

Homemade (papers is all I got, it's 88 degrees)

Biscuits (Jack says to change my spot)

(Wish I could catch a breeze)

Just two (maybe it's worth a shot)

Years old (all I can catch is fleas)

If I hate the headline

I'll make up a headline

And I'll say anything I hafta

'Cause at two for a penny

If I take too many

Weasel just makes me eat 'em afta

Got a feelin' bout the headline

I smells me a headline

Papes is gonna sell like we was givin' 'em away

Betcha dinner it's a doozy

'Bout a pistol-packing floozey

Who knows how to make a newsie's day

You wanna move the next edition

Give us an earthquake or a war

How 'bout a crooked politician?

Ya nitwit, that ain't news no more!

Uptown to Grand Central Station

Down to City Hall

We improves our circulation

Walking till we fall

But we'll be out there

Carrying the banner man to man!

We're always out there

Soakin' every sucker that we can!

See the headline:

Newsies on a mission!

Kill the competition

Sell the next edition

We'll be out there, carryin' the banner

See us out there, carryin' the banner

Always out there, carryin' the banner

We'll all be out there

Carryin' 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, carryin' the banner

See us out there, carryin' the banner

Always out there, carryin' the banner

Ah, ah, ah, go!