It had been a busy night, the smaller urchins had, during the day, collected all the flyers that had been dropped, nailed to doors or otherwise distributed by the various factions and piled them neatly at the Sneaky Vole. It seemed the sensible thing to do, they would need lots of paper for any licenses and chits they needed for people, and unlike the newspapers, these were printed on only one side…..
Tepic had been a bit worried there would not be enough of them, especially with all the new developments with the Marines and all, but that evening hoards of youngsters turned up. Seemed the word had gone out on the telegraph, and they were coming in from the surrounding countryside, asking as they entered the City Gates where City Hall was with the nice man who was going to feed and pay them…..
Each small group was given a sheaf of paper, instructions on how to keep everyone safe, and sent out into the night. Tepic and some of the more experienced urchins headed down to the Port and Docks, to make sure the new workers were looked after, and the Marines had the nessesary papers for their guns. The urchins wern’t too sure of this, as the Marines were all sort of official, like they were, but better safe than sorry! It was fortunate that in the roving squads of busy Marines there were always one or two who had come from the streets of the City, and they seemed more than happy with the issued licenses for their guns, and to be accompanied on their duties by an urchin marching proudly at their head and bringing up the rear!
The foreign workers were much easier. Most were amused by the careful attentions of their small escorts, and it had the advantage that they, newcomers to the City, were able to be skillfully directed to the type of establishment of relaxation of their choice. So, more ended up at the Blue Sparrow than some other places, the Madam there was offering the best tip for any new client!
It all seemed to be going well, nobody had been horribly murdered while in nthe company of urchins, and or some reason there were less fights than usual, with faint whispers of “not in front of the youngsters” from rough and tough men. They had been giving out carefully worded passes to those citizens who prefered their business to be less…. visible. Though sometimes the wording was difficult to read, badly spelt, or even sometimes carefully drawn out in crude pictures, the passes all said something along the lines of “if I gets gruesomely done in cus I didn’t want the urchins of the Babbage Urchin Militia to keep me safe, it ain’t their fault or the Citys so I woun’t go complaining to nobody”. Sad to say, some of the hand drawn pictures of gruesome deaths were later to be found changing hands in select circles for considerable sums of money, so inventivly graphic they were.
As the night wore on, and there were less and less people out and about, the urchins gathered in their hidden places to sleep, content in a job well done. Tepic stayed up until the dawning of a new day, happy with the nights work, and thinking to himself how pleased Mr Underby and the Clockwinder would be with the City’s industrious and helpful urchins. He did wonder how Mr Underby was getting on though – the purse of money had run out long ago, and since then new urchins had been sent up to the City Hall with a chit, to ask for dinner and their advance. He had also had to track down the factory that made the armbands, and ask for several hundred more to be made up, just to satisfy current demand – there was no way they could send out lads and lasses not properly in uniform, and he was certain Mr Underby would commend him for his diligence!
Finally the lazy urchins are making an effort for the city and upholds a job!
And i hope they’ll keep my mechanical workers safe and sound so they can perform thier duties.
blimey, that all ye can eat fing at the City ‘All co-misery is a farce! I scrummied all the sammiches an’ taters they ‘as an’ they said they ran out an’ I could eated a bunch more I could! still, rather tasty tho…