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 surprise my mother

If you can find her

Who asked you?

From Bottle Alley to the harbor

There's easy pickin's 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, 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 washin' dishes

What a fine life carrying the banner home free all

Hey, Crutchie, what's your leg say? Gonna rain?

Uh, no rain

Ho-ho, party cloudy, clear by evenin'

Ha, and the limp sells fifty papes a week all by itself

I don't need the limp to sell papes

I 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 freezin'

When you works outdoors

Start out sweatin', end up sneezin'

In between it pours

Still, it's a fine life, carrying the banner with my chums

A bunch of big shots tossin' out a freebie to the bums

Hey! What's the holdup?

Waitin' makes me antsy

I likes livin' chancey

Harlem to Delancey

What a fine life

Carrying 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 (Somethin' 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 years old (Maybe it's worth a shot) (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 a headline (I do too)

I smells me a headline (So it must be true)

Papes are gonna sell like we was givin' 'em away (What a switch!)

Bet your dinner it's a doozy (Soon we'll all be rich)

'Bout a pistol-packin' floozy (Don't know a better way to make a newsie's day)

Who knows how to make a newsie's day

You wanna move the next edition

Give us a earthquake or a war

How 'bout a crooked politician?

Yeah, nitwit, that ain't news no more

Uptown to Grand Central Station

Down to City Hall

We improves our circulation

Walkin' till we fall

But we'll be out there (Got a feelin' 'bout the headline)

Carrying the banner man to man (I smells me a headline)

(Papes are gonna sell like we was givin' 'em away)

We're always out there (Betcha dinner it's a doozy)

Soakin' every sucker that we can ('Bout a pistol-packin' floozy)

(Don't know any better way to make a newsie's day)

Here's 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 get 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 have)

Carrying the banner (And play the ponies)

See us out there (We at least deserves a headline)

Carrying the banner (For the hours that they work us)

Always out there (Jeez, I bet if I just stayed)

Carrying the banner (A little longer at the circus...)

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

Ah, ah, ah, go!