The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1876-06-01
ROUsTABOUTS,

The BnElW8 OF teS 9t6NBsVVUs DeECttS-NNttB
Hoc0Jisn,
Probably less than one-third Of the
steyedores and '1ongshoremen employed
in our river traffic, says Cincinnati pa
Der, are white; but the calling now re-
ally belongs by right to the colored men,
who are by far the best roustabouts
and are unrivaled as firemen. The white
stevedores are generally Uramps, willing
to work only through fear Of the work.
house; or, sometimes, laborers unable to
obtain any other employment, and glad
to earn money for the time being at any
employment. On board the boats, the
whites and colored men mess separately
and work under different mates, there
being on an average about twenty-five
roustabouts to every boat. Cotton
boats running on the lower Mississippi
will often carry sixty or seventy deck
hands, who can earn some seasons from
forty-fve dollars to sixty dollars per
month. Roustabout life in the truest
sense is, then, the life of the colored
population of the rows, and, partly, Of
Bucktown-b blacks and mulattoes from
all parts Of the states, but chiefly from
Kentucky and eastern Virginia, where
most of them appear to have toiled on
the plantation before freedom; and
echoes Of the old plantation life still live
in their songs and pastimes. You may
hear old Kentucky slave songs chanted
nightly on the steamboats,, in that wild,
halfmelancholy key peculiar to the ma
tural music Of the African race, and you
may see the old slave dances nightly
performed to the air of some ancient
Virginia reel in the dance houses of
Sausage Row, on in the Bathrooms Of
Bucktown. There is an intense unique
ness about all this pariah existence; its
boundaries are most definitely fixed; its
enjeyments are wholly sensual, and
many of them are marked by peculiari-
ties Of strictly local character. Many
Of their songs, which have never APP
peared in print, treat Of levee life in
Cincinnati, Of all the popular steamboats,
running on the Muddy Water" and of
the roustabout haunts on the river
banks in Bucktown. To collect these
curious songs, or even the most popular
of them, would be a labor of months,
and even then difficult one, for the
colOred roustabouts are in the highest
degree suspicious Of man who APP
prOaches them with note book and
pencil. One Of the most popular rousta-
bout songs now sung on the Ohio is the
following, The air is low and melan-
eholy, and when sung in unison by the
colOred crew Of vessel leaving or APP
preaching port, has strange, sad sweet
ness about it which il very pleasing.
The two-fold character Of poor Molly, at
once good and bad, is somewhat typical
Of the stevedore's sweetheart;
Molly was a good cal an bad gal, too,
Oh, Molly, row, gal.
Molly was Q good gal an 9 bad gal, too,
Oh Molly, row, gal.
III row dis boat am I'll row no mo,
Row, Molly, row, gal.
lll row dis boat an I'll 60 on She,
Row, Molly, row raj.
Captain on the hiler deck a.heavin' Oh dc lead,
Oh, Molly, row, gal,
Calling to de pilot to gib her Turn ahead
Row, Molly, rows gal.
Here is another, to SLOW and sweet
air. The chorus, when we'll sung, is ex-
tremely pretty
shaWneetown Is burnin' down,
Who tole you sol
enawneetOWn Is hurnin' down,
Who tole you sog
Cynthie, my darlin gai,
Who t0le you sol
C5nthie, my darlin' gal,
How 40 you lnoWf
How, my boys, q 'ye speot 10 hold her,
Way down bel0Wg
lNe cot no skin an oitkAp eh0Ulder.