Evening star., 1899-09-30
MISSISSIPPI DECK HANDS
The Most Shiftless Glass Of Laborers in
This Country.
One of the Picturesque Features of
Old-Time Western River Steam
boating That Still Remains.

When the writers about the Old-Ime river
tell of tho picturesque features and of the
decline Of the old times they leave out OF
account the negro deck hand.
One who makes a trip up the river and
watches the antics of these negroes and
listens to their weird songs and tales Will
not agree with the iconoclast who says that
all the beauties and the picturesque
features have faded out of the steamboat
mans life. AS the line of negroes goes up
the hill under the glare Of the searchlight,
with their peculiar swinging tread. and
sing the music which seems somehow TO
be an essential part of the action, the sight
Is one which has strange wildneSs about
1t and a fascination, too. The negro is
not the same as he was before the war.
Conditions have changed too much for that.
But he has retained his love for the fam
taStic and most of those barbaric customs
which civilization seems unable to eradicate
from the American mind.
The first mate has undergone marked
metamorphosiS also, and to his change is
due some portions of the new deck hand ;
character. Time was when the first mate
had a vocabulary which would make golf
player green with envy or an ordinary sail
or's parrot die for shame. He had his vo-
cabulary, and the negroes held the same
opinion as the one who answered when ask
ed If he did not object to the mate abuse:
"No. boss; dat's whut he's paid for. He's
gotter make out he's doin' somethin, an
it don't do US no harm" Now the deck
hands actually object to be sworn at when
the OathS become too vigorous.
The negroes of the present deck hand
class are the most shiftless Of an ordinarily
devil-may-care people. They do not look as
far into the future as bat can see in the
daytime, and they do not care even when
they do see clouds on the horizon. Heaven
only knows where they live from one trip
of the boat to the other Many spend the
time, after carousal. on the rock pile.
or 1nr ha Tod fnr hpro Shnrr
ready for another trip and cannot tell
where they spent the time after they left
the boat at the levee.
The deck hand is always a rather young
man. He must have the strength and en-
durance which only youth rule pos
sesses. The work he does saps away this
vIgor rapidly, and the man who lasts more
than a few years as a deck hand Is rare
indeed. Dfssipa ton adds to undermining
effects of the labor itse.f. and the Marine
Hospital usually receives a man after he
has done few years service.
Like all other severe labors 1t is well
paid for. The deck hand who spins yarns
and catches maps between landings and
then gets out to carry ashore the groceries
and bring back the seed and cotton earns
more money than any man who pores all
day and far into the night over a set of
books. The pay of a deck hand is usually
$50 month, even when the business is only
moderately heavy, and last winter during
the big rush crew of negroes refused to
They were offered S9O per month. but want
ed 800 for the trip.
1t Is not in the negro deck hand as a
parsonage only, but in his phases as the
center of the web of odd customs that he
excites interest. The first popularity which
strikes the observer about the deck hand is
his walk. He has climbed up the steep
river bank when there was the mud of buck
shot land all over it, and he has come down
that same slide with a heavy weight upon
his back. He has adopted step which pre-
vents him from slipping, and this gives him
a peculiar shutfiing step unlike any move
ment seen elsewhere. He combines with
this a hosting of the shoulders and a pc
cuiar turn of the head, acquired from turn
ing his face to let a sack rest upon his
shoulders. These three traits are distinct
i've and give the deck hand a strange ap-
pearance upon the levee or anywhere off
boat or away from the river.
AS he works going up the inclines or
along the gangp. ank, precariOusly resting
upon a leyee'S crest, he has rhythmic sort
of chant which fits in with his music. AL
ways the same class of songs are sung.
Usually there are no set words, but some
leader chants and the others voice the
chorus as they bend to their tasks. There
sack songs and barrel songs and music
for the cotton bale and the ordinary pack
age. The music varies with the task as
the movement of the negroes bodies varies
The cotton song, the bale Is lifted for
ward and allowed to drop. has catchy
swing to it. Down go the sharp hooks and
the bale starts up, to fall with a sharp
thud. So does the music. The other airs,
like all the negro music, are harmonies, not
melodies, which time to the labor.
Some of the quaint humor of the negroes
which is heard as they sit around the FORE
castle waiting for the landing Is well worth
preservation. Unfortunately it is hard to
catch. The humor Of the negro is the hui
NOR Of a child. with the experience of the
world. but with the naive directness pos
sessed by one who Is childish in tastes and
In close touch. with nature. 1t Is uncon-
scious. The white man must steal around
behind the bulkheads while the guffaw
hides the noise of his movements and take
his position. If the negroes know they
have white auditors and try to be funny
their humor no more compares with the
unconscious kind than keg beer does to
champagne.
glory only when the deck hand plays it
upon the boat deck. AS soon as the
pay is received the negroes gather
and begin to shoot craps. and the
cries for big Dick and Little Joe" and
Ada ara heard until the boat has landed
When 1t does some few negroes generally
possess the money paid to all. This Is the
unvarying custom, and it has even been
said that the officers of the boat paid off
the men thus SO they could re-engage the
Dor for another trip, as all those upon
whom the 'hoodoo' has looked will be
ready for more service. This is a slander,
as the same crew never unloads the boat
but the losses and the crap games are
re alities.