Gentlemen!
The match is due to commence.
The count to beat is 25 rodents in 3 minutes.
Towser against the vermin!
Are the enumerators satisfied?!
- 50! - Yes!
Let them go!
Where are you going, boyo?
I'm here to pay tribute to Bill.
Are you, now? Give it to me. I'll give it to him.
No, thanks, I'll give it to him myself.
Come on.
What do you want to keep, the money or your teeth, boyo?
John...
Welcome.
For me and me lads, sir.
Mate of yours... where's he from?
Oh, he's not from here, sir.
You!
That's close enough.
Your friend can't look me in the eye.
That's not an admirable characteristic.
No one can look you in the eye, Bill...
not when you're playing cards.
This is whist. This is a gentleman's game.
Make a gentleman's bet.
I'm betting large, Bill.
That ain't large.
Aaaah!
Shh... please, don't make that noise again, Harvey.
I like a man who's willing to burn for his swag.
Aah!
How do you fare on water?
Come closer.
Close, John, I ain't gonna bite. Close.
There's a "Portageezy" ship lying low in the harbor...
quarantined three weeks.
Get there before the Daybreak Boys strip her,
maybe you and me will talk some more.
- Consider it done, sir. - Good boy.
And, you, whatever your name is... what is your name?
Amsterdam, sir.
Amsterdam.
I'm New York.
Don't you never come in here empty-handed again.
You gotta pay for the pleasure of my company.
Take him for a boat ride, John.
Who knows, but he might save your life again.
Daybreak Boys catch us on this river,
they'll slit our throats.
I'll do it myself if you don't keep quiet.
I never liked the harbor after dark.
And now each night,
they brung ashore the bodies of the soldiers.
So many mothers have not even the solace
of knowing where their sons have fallen.
I lost my own eldest at Antietam,
and his mother and I were unable to recover his remains.
It was a mournful sight...
The war can't last forever.
But we had business of our own.
Ooh!
The Daybreak Boys have already been here.
And there's nothing left. Let's go back, eh?
What in the hell...
Jimmy, get down!
Jesus! That'll bring the harbor cops for sure!
Look out!
Let's take a look.
Jesus, they killed everybody.
There's nothing here but a bunch of dead sea-crabs.
Come on, let's go.
Shove off!
No, wait for Amsterdam!
Where's Amsterdam?
- Aah! - Aah!
No, you damn fool, take him!
What in the hell for?!
Look at my glims... I said no less than $15.
Is this fresh?
Four hours, most.
Much obliged, gents.
What's that word?
Uh... it means body snatchers.
I didn't ask the meaning. I asked the word.
Ghoul.
Ghoul?
That's a good word.
"Ghoul Gang Slaughters.
A fresh out... outrage in the Five Points."
That's a notice you can be proud of.
Thank you.
Low thing... to do that to a body. Low.
Why? They could have left that ship with nothing.
Instead, they made the "Police Gazette,"
a periodical of note.
A body's supposed to stay beneath the Earth...
wearing a wooden coat until the resurrection.
These two are just a pair
of bug-eating sons of Irish bitches same as you are.
Don't seem to bother them none.
But then maybe they don't share your religious scruples.
Maybe they're just a couple of Fidlam Bens.
I've been called a lot of things, mister,
but I ain't never been called a...
Fidlam Bens.
Fidlam Bens, right.
Well... if I knew what in the hell that meant,
might be inclined to take offense.
Fidlam Bens is a fellow steals anything, dead or alive,
'cause he's too low to work up a decent lay for himself.
Count that careful, Butcher. Count that careful.
I'm telling you... that's all they give us.
Now, chiseler... if you had said chiseler...
now, there's a word I understand, you know?
Now, is that what you're calling us?
Oh, I could think of a number of things to call you, boyo.
Right, but I asked if you was calling us chiselers.
Supposing I am?
Well, then, we got business.
That we do.
Two bucks on McGloin!
Four bits on the kid!
Five bits on the kid!
I got five on Amsterdam!
Come on, McGloin, he's just a kid!
Four bits to back Amsterdam!
One!
Watch his left, McGloin. Watch his left.
Aaah!
Aah! Aah!
Aah! Aaaaah!
All right, that'll do. That'll do.
Have you got anything to say now?! Huh?!
That'll do, for Christ's sake. Drag him off.
That's enough, kid.
You got him.
Come on, kid. You won. Don't make a fool of yourself.
You can't do it anymore.
You're getting too old for it, McGloin.
McGloin, how would that head look
without the ears and the nose on it?
You had better leave that head alone, Bill.
I think I'm gonna trim the ears and the beak
off of that head.
Make a nice pot of soup of that head.
We could find a tastier head than that, Bill.
I ain't got the stomach for no Irish stew.
The mighty McGloin... almost fishhooked by a sprat.
On the seventh day, the Lord rested.
But before that he did,
he squatted over the side of England,
and what came out of him...
was Ireland.
No offense, son.
None taken, sir. I grew up here.
All I ever knew of Ireland
was in the talk of the others at the orphan asylum.
And which part of that excrementitious isle
were your forebears spawned?
I've been told Kerry,
but I lost proof of it in my language at the asylum.
I was raised in a very similar establishment myself.
Now everything you see belongs to me, to one degree or another.
The beggars and newsboys and quick thieves here in Paradise,
the sailor dives and gin mills
and blind tigers on the waterfront,
the anglers and amusers, the she-hes and the Chinks...
everybody owes, everybody pays,
because that's how you stand up
against the rising of the tide.
Is that right, boys?
Yeah, Bill, that's right.
Enlist! Join up! Serve your country!
Come on in out of the draft, boys!
Volunteer and get your $50 bonus!
We need 30,000 volunteers,
and we're prepared to pay $677 per volunteer.
Please read this. Thank you.
Would you like to take one of these, please, to fill out?
Three square meals a day.
Young man, enlist and serve your country.
Three square meals a day, gentlemen.
If you're interested,
I suggest you read this and consider joining up.
Everywhere you went,
people talked about the draft.
Now, you could buy your way out for $300,
but who had $300?
For us, it might as well have been $3 millions.
The recruiters...
they was too scared of the gangs to come after us.
Besides, we never dreamt the war would ever touch New York.
Good morning, sir.
You!
Don't you run into me.
Fair enough.
Oh! Oh!
I said, "Don't run into me."
Well, sorry.
Everything in place?
It seems so.
Well, then, I leave you in the grace and favor of the Lord.
- That's right. - Thank you.
Oh, the dirty mab!
- Oh, no. - Ah.
- I'm sorry. - Ah, allow me.
Thank you kindly, sir.
Oh, it's my pleasure.
I hope you won't think me rude if I speak.
I wouldn't want to appear forward.
Well, sir, that depends on what you say.
Ahh...
Would you call me reckless
if I said you were the prettiest girl in New York?
Only New York?
This is my stop.
Ho!
Ah! May I walk with you a little, then?
That, sir, would be too bold.
Ho!
For every lay, we had a different name.
An angler put a hook on the end of a stick
to drop behind store windows and doors.
An autumn diver picked your pocket in church.
A badger gets a fellow into bed with a girl,
then robs his pockets while they're on the go.
Jenny was a bludget... a girl pickpocket...
and... a turtledove.
A turtledove goes uptown dressed like a housemaid,
picks out a fine house,
and goes right through the back door...
robs you blind.
It takes a lot of sand to be a turtledove.
I'll have my medal back.
Oh, Jesus!
Unh!
Don't do that again.
Aah! Listen, I said don't do that...
Go back to the Points and leave me to my business,
or I will open your throat, so help me God.
All right.
Go on, then.
I would.
Go on, then.
Now... give me back my medal.
Make it quick!
I don't know which one's yours.
Suppose I help myself to everything?
Huh?
Suppose you do.
May I walk with you a little, then?
What do you suppose a fellow could earn up here in a day?
Maybe we could pal in together.
Oh, I think you're a bit rough for this sort of game.
Besides, I work alone.
Alone?
Well, what do you quarter to the Butcher?
Me... nothing.
Nothing?!
The Butcher and me have a special arrangement.
I don't want to see you again.
Well, I don't blame you.
Pennies in their pockets and hope in their eyes,
they peer to the west,
searching the horizon for a glimpse of land and salvation...
Ah... a glimpse of America.
Seeing all this poverty
must be most unsettling, Miss Schermerhorn.
Some days, of course,
the uptown gangs come down to us.
The Schermerhorns was one of the oldest families
in New York.
They didn't run the city,
but they was listened to quite carefully by them that did.
Commissioner Brunt said you wished to view the Points
in all its splendor and squalor.
"Spare nothing concerning the conditions," said he.
Yeah, nothing except our safety, Constable.
I'm sure we can be in no danger
while we're in the constable's company, my dear.
Quite so, madam. Witness.
Shall we continue on?
What, you dare to leave it there?
Safe as a bank, Mr. Greeley, since all know it's mine.
Is that man drunk?
Oh, dead as Good Friday, miss.
Good day to you, Mulraney.
Boys. - Jack.
Slum sociable?
Fact-finding, reforms-studying.
May I present Mr. And...
The Schermerhorns of 5th Avenue
scarcely require an introduction from you, Jack.
Schermerhorn, indeed, and their daughter.
This gentleman, of course, is...
Mr. Horace Greeley, the famous publisher.
A pleasure and an honor, sir.
...of the "Tribune."
I'm William Cutting.
How do you do, Mr. Cutting?
As of this moment, extremely well, thank you.
How do you do?
Mmm, orange blossom... delicious.
Mr. Cutting is, uh...
What a peach. She could have a fine career on the stage.
...one of Five Points' local...
Pleasure to meet you, sir.
...leaders. - Mr. Greeley...
Pleased to meet you, Mr. Cutting.
Five Points welcomes you.
You are welcome to these streets and will pass in safety.
Oh, I'll see to their safety.
Thank you, Bill.
Here we are.
Good day, lads.
Criminal's braggadocio, you see.
- He knows who I am. - Oh, indeed, sir.
You're well-known in these parts.
I must say that I find that strangely flattering.
I never did like crushers.
Well, draw it mild, son... Happy Jack don't fill his lungs
without I tell him he may do so.
You think my watch would be safe up on that lamppost, Bill?
Why don't you hang it up there and see?
Someday.
Someday is right.
This a new lad?
Just another bastard son of Erin
I folded in the warmth of my embrace.
Hey!
Just want to see your face, son.
No harm intended.
You get to know a lot butchering meat.
We're made up of the same things...
flesh and blood, tissue, organs.
I love to work with pigs.
The nearest thing in nature to the flesh of a man
is the flesh of a pig.
Pig, huh?
That's right.
This is for you, Mother.
Here you go.
- God bless you, Mr. Cutting. - God bless you.
She ain't really my mother.
I knew that, Bill.
This is the liver...
the kidneys...
the heart.
This is a wound.
The stomach will bleed and bleed.
This is a kill.
Main artery...
this is a kill.
You try.
Go ahead.
The lung. Good.
Don't foul the blade on the rib.
Very good... main artery.
Bleed him slow.
Let him think about it for a while... slow death.
Good.
You will each bill the city $5,000 a month
for supplies and services, of which you'll receive 10%.
Bill!
Mr. Killoran will work out the details. Thank you, gentlemen!
That's how we do things around Tammany, gentlemen.
Who's this, then?
Thank you, boys.
Good day, sir.
You got something on your mind?
Bill's taken quite a liking to you.
Now, if you're up to something...
bene.
Only I don't want no part in it.
I was in Hellgate for 16 years.
I'm just trying to make my way, is all...
just like you.
Unless, of course, you got a better notion.
No.
Bill, I can't get a day's work done
for all the good citizens coming in here
to harass me about crime in the Points.
Some even go so far as to accuse Tammany of connivance
in this so-called rampant criminality.
What am I to do?
I can't have this. Something has to be done.
What do you have in mind?
I don't know.
I think maybe we should hang someone.
Who?
No one important, necessarily. Average men will do...
back-alley amusers with no affiliations.
How many?
Three or four.
Which?
Four.
You stand here convicted varyingly
of lewdness, jackrolling, sneak-thievery,
chloral-hydrating, sodomy, strangulation,
and enthusiastic corruption of the public good.
We all go someday.
Chin up.
Handsome bunch of gallows fruit.
There's my old friend. How are you feeling, Arthur?
I'm okay, I'm okay, you know?
Oh, say hello to Amsterdam.
Nearly fishhooked McGloin the other day.
- Nearly. - How do you do?
I see you dressed for the occasion, Arthur.
You know me, Bill... always like to look me best.
That's the spirit.
That's a nice locket. I'll give you a dollar for it.
It's me mother's.
Dollar and a half?
Done.
We'll miss you, Arthur.
See you in the hot country, Seamus.
Hot corn! Ears of early white corn!
Hot corn! Hot corn!
Is my son present here?
Where's my little fella?
Look at your da.
Farewell, dear boy.
I never struck a foul blow, nor turned a card!
May God greet me as a friend!
That night, the reformers held a dance.
That was the Five Points, all right...
hangings of a morning, dancings of an evening.
Ow!
...sure meself, but it's not a matter of words.
I can tell by the way she smiles at me.
Well, she smiles at a lot of people, Johnny.
- Sir... - You don't know her.
A penny of gratitude for a fighting Irishman, young sir.
You're from Kerry?
I am, sir. I am.
Look, it ain't much.
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen,
we are delighted to see so many young faces
in our first annual Mission dance.
This'll be a real ballum rancum, eh?
The Mission welcomes Christians of every stamp,
and we are particularly happy
to greet our Roman-Catholic friends
who join us here tonight.
Ladies, come with me. Come with me.
Sit with us.
We're going to start the dancing in just a moment.
Good evening, Reverend.
Good evening, Your Holiness.
Good evening, Reverend.
Looks as though you should have shaved closer.
Oh.
Good evening, Reverend.
I do beg your pardon.
Miss..?
Uh...
Everdeane.
Miss Everdeane.
Now, gentlemen, over here, if you don't mind.
Thank you.
Open it.
Hold it up.
Into the mirror.
Hmm...
Mmm...
All right.
That one.
Our queen has chosen.
Sir...
your lady.
Right.
Regular services are held at the church at 6:00 and 8:00.
Go to hell.
What do you think you're doing?
I'm dancing.
I said why'd you pick me?
That's none of your business.
Would you mind telling me?
Ohh!
I'm sorry.
God damn it.
- Ow! - Sorry.
I'm not much of a dancer.
Just try to keep calm.
I've never been to a stepping-ken before.
It's best not to look down.
You can hold me tighter if you like.
All right.
So, why didn't you dance with Johnny?
Because...
...I didn't want him.
I'm not wanting this.
Mmm...
Wait.
What?
Wait.
How does this open?
It takes too long to lace back up.
We'll be here all night.
Sure, all right. I'll take it off.
There was a baby. They cut it out.
I'm sorry.
No, it's fine.
Have you got any scars?
One or two.
What's that, then?
That... is a gift from Mr. Cutting.
A gift?
A gift.
Was it your birthday?
No.
What'd you give him, then?
The answer to that has nothing to do with you.
Don't tell me you're angry with me.
No.
I'm through with you.
Well... you're quicker than most fellows.
Generally, they wait till afterwards.
Well, I ain't interested in the Butcher's leavings.
Hey! Bill says keep clear of the pikers.
15 to 1, Bug-Eye Moran.
Amsterdam!
Everyone was working for the Butcher.
We ran his errands, made his money,
took a piece and said, "Thank you, sir."
Gentlemen, it's a raid.
Even Tweed.
The fight's over!
Even me...
...my father's son.
- What the hell is this? - Sorry, Bill.
The city ordinance against boxiana's a blight, I grant...
I'm losing revenue while you speechify.
Get out there and collect those bets!
Sir, how do I collect if no one won the fight?
This counts as a no-decision. You got that covered, right?
Didn't anybody pay off the goddamn police?
We paid the Municipal Police. This is the Metropolitan Police.
You are gonna repay me every cent.
- Mister Tweed... - Who asked for your opinion?!
Let him speak! He don't answer to you!
The law says that there's no boxing in the city.
That's right... in the city.
Well, where's the city end?
The winner in the 75th round...
Allow me to acknowledge the man
whose vision and enterprise made possible
the staging of this noble combat
in these awe-inspiring and entirely legal surroundings,
Mr. William Cutting!
And...
and his young associate!
Good. You done very good.
Well, we done good. We done all right.
And while I have your kind attention...
It was a good show.
...may I remind you of the further wonders
that await you at my museum, located on Broadway...
P.T. Barnum's Gallery of Wonders!
- Watch who you're shoving! - Keep your hands to yourself!
That's my money!
Get your hands out of me pocket!
Stop it! Stop it!
It's a funny feeling
being took under the wing of a dragon.
It's warmer than you think.
That's the building of our country
right there, Mr. Cutting... Americans aborning.
I don't see no Americans.
I see trespassers... Irish harps.
Do a job for a nickel what a nigger does for a dime
and a white man used to get a quarter for.
What have they done? Name one thing they've contributed.
Votes.
Votes, you say?
They vote how the archbishop tells them,
and who tells the archbishop?
Their king in the pointy hat what sits on his throne in Rome.
Bill's got mixed feelings as regards the Irish.
Bill... deliver these good and fervent folk
to the polls on a regular basis,
and there'll be a handsome price
for each vote that goes Tammany's way.
My father gave his life
making this country what it is...
murdered by the British with all of his men
on the 25th of July, anno Domini 1814.
You think I'm gonna help you befoul his legacy
by giving this country over to them
what's had no hand in the fighting for it?
Why? Because they come off a boat,
crawling with lice and begging you for soup?
Tsk, tsk.
You're a great one for the fighting, Bill, I know.
But you can't fight forever.
- I can go down doing it. - And you will.
What did you say?
I said you're turning your back on the future.
Not our future.
That document makes you a citizen.
This one makes you a private in the Union Army.
Now go fight for your country.
Next!