Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1893-01-12
ROUSTA BOUTS ON THE mISSIS
SIPPI
''Nigger' Life as it is Found on the Lower
River


River
The roUStaboutS looked all of one
hue from their shoes to the tops of
their heads Their coffee-colored neckS
/ and faces matched their reddish-brown
clothes, that had been grimed with
the dust of everything known to man;
which dust also covered their shoes
and bare feet, and made both appear
the same. When a huddle went off the
boat empty-handtd they looked like so
many big rats, says Julian Ralph in
Harpers Magazine. They loaded the
Providence's lower deck inside and out:
they loaded her upper deck where the
chairs for the passengers had seemed
to be supreme: and they loaded the
roof over that deck and the side spaces
until her sides were sunk low down
near the rivers surface, and she bris-
tied at every point with boxes, bales,
agricultural implements, broOms, car
riages, bags, and, as the captain re-
marked, Heaven only knows what she
amt got aboard her" The mates
rOared. the negroes talked all the time,
or sung to rest their mouths. the boat
kept settling in the water. and the
mountains of freight swelled at every
point. 1t was well said that twenty
ordinary freight trains on a railroad
would not carry as much freight as
was slowed aboard of her, and I did
not doubt the man who remarked to
me that when such a boat, so laden,
discharged her cargo loosely at one
place, it often made a pile bigger than
the boat itself.
These roustabOuts are nothing like
rs forward as the lowest of their race
that we see in the North. Presumably
they are about what the field hands
of slavery times were. They are dull
eyed. stumbling men, dressed like per-
ambulating rag-bags; with rags at the
sleeves. up and down the trousers, at
the hens of their coats, and the rims
of their caps and hats. A man who
makes six changes of his working at
tire every year by contract with tailor
would be SUI prised at how long these
men keep their clothes. Some wear
coats and vests and no shirts; some
wear overcoats and shirts and no vests;
some have only shirts and trousers;
shirts that have lost their buttons, per-
haps. and fare wide open to the trous-
erS band, showing a black trunk like
oiled ebony. They earn a dollar day,
but have not learned to save it. They
are very dissipated. and are given to
carrying knives. which the mates take
away from the most unruly ones. The
scars on many of their bodies show to
what use these knives are too often
put "WhO's dat talking bout cutting
out some ones hearth" I heard one
say as he Slouched along in the roust-
about line. EFF dar's goin' to be any
cuttin' I wont to do some" Though
they chant at their work, ] seldom saw
them laugh or heard them sing a song,
or knew one of them to dance during
, the voyage. The work is hard, and
they are kept at it, urged constantly
by the mates on shore and abOrad, as
I the Southern folks say that negroes
and mules always need to be. But the
roustabouts' faults are excessively hu-
of a sturdy belief that they need sharp
er treatment than the rest of us leads
to their being urged to do more work
than a white man. There were nights
on the Providence when the landings
ran close together, and the poor
wretches got little or no sleep. They
''tote" all the freight aboard and back
to land again on their heads or should
ers. and it is crushing work. When
! ever tie old barbaric instinct to loaf,
or to move by threes at one mans
work. would prompt them, one Of the
mates was sure to spy the weakness
and roar at the culprits.
The mates showed no actual unl1ind-
ness or severity while I was on that
boat. But they alien all the boats
have fearsome voices, sue. as we credit
to pirate chiefs on Glow, ralkIsh, black
boats in yellow-clad novels. Any one
Of them would break up an opera
troupe. They rasp at the darldes in
their business voices, with a run up
the plank, niger; now, then, niger,
get woodland then they turn and
speak the passengers in their Sunday
shoreleave voices, as gently as any
men can talk.
Mr. Halloran, an up-river pilot OF
celebrity who was studying the lower
river. told me that he remembered
when it was the custom for the mates
| to hit lazy negroes on the head with a
billet of wood, land knock them stiff. y
, The other negroes used to laugh (pre-
sumably as the sad-faced man laughed
when the photographer clapped a pistol
to his head, and said, "Smile,-you,
or I'll shoot you. When the felled
negro came to, the others would say,
'Lep up quick an git to work. Niger;
de mates a-coming' They do not
urge the help with cord-wood now-so
the mate Of the Providence told me
because the negroes get out warrants
and delay the boat.
| have said that the blacks all call
! themselves ''niggers." The rule has its
exceptions. I went ashore at a planta-
! ton called "Sunnyside,' and saw a
| CHEEKY old 'aunty" standing near a
! cabin doorway from out of which pick
! aninnies were tumbling like ants out
| of an ant-hill.
''How many children have you got
! aunty?" [ inquired.
Il amt got none yere," she said;
! mines all out in de fieP. Desc yere
| two is my gran chiYTen; de oders I'm
takin car of fer some oder ladies'"
! There was fine barber-shop and