July 18, 1899

Dear Jack,

This is Crutchie. Today was great! We're actually striking! I still can't believe Pulitzer pulled the rug out from under us and raised the price of papes. A whole ten cents per hundred more!

But we're going to show him, we already are! We're gonna shove those ten cents into his face and by the end of this, we're gonna be paying ten cents less!

It's all 'cause of you, Jack. Everything you've said is right. We can't roll over like a stray begging for food and let Pulitzer kick us.

After we've won the strike and started things right for the rest of the newsies maybe we'll go to Santa Fe like you were saying. We could get train tickets with those extra ten cents and ride all the way there!

Then, like you said, once I get off of these stinking streets in New York I'm going to be able to toss this crutch I got and walk and run and ride Palominos and swim the Rio Grande with you!

I've been thinking about it and you might be right about this. It'll be clean and green and pretty with buildings made out of clay, orange and red and yellow like you always paint. Can you imagine that? The whole city looking like the sunset.

It's going to be amazing.

Anyway, tomorrow is going to be stellar! All of the newsies of New York together striking against Pulitzer. He ain't gonna be able to look past that. I'd bet you by this time tomorrow this strike is going to be over.

There's no way he can say no to all of us, especially with Brooklyn. They're the fifth-largest city in the world like you said! I know you're over there right now getting Spot to agree. He can't not say yes. This strike is just that -- what did Davey say today? -- Auspicious.

Anyway, I got this idea, I found a bit of fabric today and I'm gonna use one of your charcoals to write "STRIKE" on it in big letters and attach it to my crutch!

All the other kids will see it and know what we're doing, then they'll join us! Pulitzer will see it too and there's no way he can ignore what we're doing.

The fellas will love it, you and Davey and Les too even though they're new. I like them. Davey is good for this, he knows a lot of stuff about striking. There's no way we're going to fail.

The end

Your friend,

Crutchie