(Below is as much as I could read from the Newsies Banner in the 1992 film. Underscores mark the words that I could not make out.)
August 2, 1899
THE NEWSIES BANNER
HOW WE CAN STOP THE CITY
The Newsies’ strike has raised the larger question: is it not an occasion* for disgrace that our greatest city so slaves it’s young and good? When they ask for bread, they are given crumbs; when they seek employment, they find only slavery; and when they beg for shelter, they are shown only the dank prison cell.
HOUSE OF REFUGE; HOUSE OF SHAME!
SCANDAL HIDDEN FROM TEDDY ON VISIT
The shocking disgrace of our juvenile prisons is nowhere more shameful than in the hell hole cynically called the HOUSE OF REFUGE.
So steep in corruption and hypocrisy is this institution, it has successfully managed to disguise its true nature from some of our more progressive politicians. The great hero of the Spanish American War, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt himself, on a pre-election visit to this place of shame, was hoodwinked into believing the charade of humane conditions put forth by the Warden, L.A. Snyder.
But the cruel injustice of the House of Refuge could not exist without the system of political patronage which rules New York. Judges and Courts, as well as Wardens like Snyder, have discovered there is profit to be made in the suffering of the young. Therefore, they line their pockets with gold purchased by the misery of corruption. One of the most notorious of offenders is JUDGE E.A. “MOVE-ALONG” MONAHAN, who in collusion with Warden Snyder sees that the cells of the House of Refuge are never empty. When will right-thinking men correct this injustice? The time is now... if the armies of the disenfranchised and enslaved cut of their chains and arise! As has been said, you have truly nothing _____ _____ but _____ chains and a world to claim!
* my friend insisted this word said “octanufun”, so while I did not write that I figured it deserved a mention.
