So, we’ve been talking a lot about Jack and Race, and their relationship, and their roles as leaders. And in light of that, I also wanted to talk about some of the other newsies and the roles they play to the rest of the boys. I don’t mean to talk about them as if they’re next in line to be in charge after Race, but some of them just seem to have specific skills the others rely on (or could based on the skills implied) or they have a certain role in the dynamic of the Duane St newsies. First up is Specs.
Specs is the go-to man of the Duane St newsies. If you need something done, something outside the realm of newspapers, you go to Specs. In part, we headcanon Specs as the kind of person everyone likes and recognizes wherever he is in New York. That comes from Specs carrying the news of the strike to Queens and running letters from Crutchie in the Refuge, two things we will get into in a bit. Specs is, sadly, generally in the background of this show, but when he is mentioned or comes to the forefront, it is almost always in a capacity of being useful to Jack or the rest of the group. He appears to have led the other group of boys to the Journal on the day prices are raised, and is the one to carry the news of their price change to Jack and the others. He’s the one keeping a lookout for any backup when the strike starts. During the first fight of the strike, he is one of the first to rush forward to pick Jack up off the ground and then in the first group of boys to block Oscar’s way. In the second fight I think he might have been fighting Morris up on the platform, and losing, until someone else comes and chases him off, which is where Katherine finds him clearly in pain when the cop shows up. In addition to this, Specs seems (dangerously) fearless. He’s always climbing high structures and jumping off them, doing some of the more dangerous acrobatics, and he’s willing to cross Brooklyn to get to Queens and then cross back through Brooklyn on his way home.
This one is interesting, because most of the other boys volunteer to take certain areas. The boys who do volunteer (Mush, Jojo, Buttons, and Race) all volunteer for places either in Manhattan, or that can be reached without venturing into any non-Manhattan newsies’ territory. Jojo volunteers to go the furthest with the Bronx, but aside from distance there wasn’t much to worry about here, he didn’t necessarily have to pass near the Refuge and for the newsies the Bronx was generally regarded as a cushy spot (see: the Bronx cheer the Bronx newsies are greeted with at the rally). We do have some theories about Race and Midtown, but they hinge on some headcanons, some OCs, and some world-building, and even then, he’s not volunteering to do anything particularly daunting by going to Midtown. Now, when Jack does start assigning places to the newsies, he’s not only trying to get boys to go to the more daunting places, he sends Tommy Boy to the East Side, which at this time was a decent neighborhood, and was also still in Manhattan. But Jack assigns Queens, arguably the second most daunting place to go after Brooklyn, first. And Specs doesn’t even hesitate to accept. In fact, he accepts with a smile.
Now, at this time there wasn’t a bridge between Manhattan and Queens. So Specs would have had to cross the Brooklyn Bridge and then walk through Brooklyn to Queens in order to talk to the newsies in Woodside and Flushing. So not only is he unafraid to walk through Brooklyn (twice!), he’s willing to go to two different groups of newsies in Queens, shouldering a larger responsibility than anyone else except Jack and Davey. No one else talks to multiple factions of newsies, even though Midtown, the East Side, and the Bowery butt up against each other, and it would be just as much work for Race, Tommy Boy, or Buttons to take responsibility for two or all of these areas. But they don’t. Specs is the only one with the responsibilty for convincing two groups of newsies to join the strike. And I’m partially pointing this out so insistently because Queens doesn’t show up at the rally as “Queens”. They show up as Woodside and Flushing. The Bronx newsies show up under the Bronx, and the Staten Island newsies show up as Richmond, but all the Manhattan newsies, who the rest of the Duane St boys (excluding Jojo, Jack, and Davey) spent their time talking to, show up under the Manhattan banner. Yes, this probably has something to do with the composition of the song, something I know next to nothing about, but narratively speaking this indicates to me that Specs took the time to see these two different groups of newsies, that he couldn’t go to just one and get confirmation for all of Queens.
It would be one thing if Specs volunteered for Queens (and going by his reaction to his assignment, he might have done so given the opportunity), but he doesn’t. Jack decides, consciously, to send Specs to Queens, and he also consciously decides not to send anyone else. Again, some of the areas in Manhattan could easily have been covered by one newsie, much more easily than Queens. Granted, there’s less risk (if there even is any actual risk) in sending only one Manhattan newsie through Brooklyn. But that also puts a disproportionate amount of responsibility on Specs’ shoulders. That Jack trusts him to do this, and that he’s neither surprised nor intimidated by this responsibility indicates it’s not a one time thing. And Specs succeeds, as much as any of them do. He arrives to Newsie Square the next day with the joyfully delivered news that “Queens will be right here backing us up…just as soon as we get the nod from Brooklyn.”
Also in terms of Jack trusting Specs, Specs knows about Jack’s drawings of the Refuge he keeps hidden away on the roof. You know, the drawings Jack doesn’t even show Crutchie. Specs has to know that those are extremely personal, but he shows them to Katherine after Jack turns on them at the strike. I sincerely doubt this is some kind of act of revenge for what he perceives as Jack betraying them for money. Because if Specs has seen those drawings, he knows how Jack remembers the Refuge. Maybe Specs has his own memories of the Refuge to go with them, but especially during the events of the strike, the threat of the Refuge must have been in the forefront of many of their minds. And having Crutchie end up there can’t help. So I would bet Specs, having ran a letter from Crutchie to Jack, came to the conclusion easier than some of the others that Jack didn’t betray them because he was greedy or because he didn’t care, he did it because he was afraid. And so he shows Katherine, to help her understand just what Jack’s afraid of. Because he, like Jack eventually does, recognizes that Katherine can take them to the finish line, and even if Jack doesn’t like it, Specs is determined to see this through, because it’s in his best interest, and in Jack’s, and especially in Crutchie’s. And it works.
I’m hoping to go into Crutchie’s role in the next one of these. Originally they were one post, but Specs ended up being more complex than I was counting on and it got too long. So Crutchie next! And if you see any of the other boys playing a particular role, let me know, I’d love to write more about the dynamics in this group (it helps my writing, too)
