The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1899-11-18
MISSISSIPPI DECK HANDS.
The Most Shiftless Clnss OF Laborers
to he Found in This Coun-
try To-Day.

try To-Day.
When the writer's about the old-time
river tell of the picturesque features
and of the decline of the old times they
leave out of account the negro deck
hand.
One who makes 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 steamboatman' life. AS the line
of negroes goes up the hill under the
searchlight, with their peculiar SWING
ing tread, and sing the music which
seems somehow to be an essential part
of the action, the sight is one which
has a strange wildness about it 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 fantastic and most of those bar
barrie customs which civilization seems
unable to eradicate from the Amcri-
can mind.
| The first mate has undergone a
marked metamorphosis also, and to his
change is due some portions of the new
deck hands character. Time was
when the first mate had vocabulary
which would make golf player green
with envy or an ordinary sailors par
rot die for shame. He had his vocabu-
larry, and the negroes held the same
opinion as the one who answered when
asked if he did not object to the mates
abuse: mo, boss; OATS whit he's
paid for. He's gottcr make out he's
doin' somethin', an it don't do us no
HARM" Now the deck hands actually
object to being sworn at when the
oaths become too vigorous.
The negroes of the present deck hand
class are the most shiftlcss of an or
dinarily devil-may-carc people. They
do not look as far into the future as
a bat can see in 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,
and can be accounted for. Others show
up ready for another trip and cannot
tell where they spent the time after
they left the boat at tho levce.
The deck hand is always rather
young man. lie must have the strength
and endurance which only youth as a
rule possesses. The work he does saps
| vi, II
who lasts more than > few years as q
deck hand is rare indeed. Dissipation
adds to undermining elects of the
labor itself, and the Marine hospital
usually receives a man after he has
done few years. service.
Like all other severe labors it is well
paid for. The deck hand who spins
yarns and catches maps between land
ings and then gets Out TO carry ashore
the groceries and bring back the seed
and cotton earns moro money than any
man who pores all dav and far into
the night over q set OF books. The pay
of deck hand is usually SEQ a month
even when the business is only mod.
erately heavy, and last winter during
the big rush crew OF negroes refused
to ship because the wages did not suit
them. They were offered 500 PEI
month, but wanted 500 for the trip.
1t is not in the negro deck hand rs
n parsonage only. but in his phrases
as the center of the web of odd Gus.
toms that he excitcs interest. The first
popularity which strikes the observer
about the deck hand is his walk. He
has climbed up III" steep river bank
when there was tho mud of buckshot
land all over it, and he has come
down that same slide with heavy
weight upon his back. He has adopted
step which prevents him from slip.
ping, and this gives him peculiar
shutting step unlike any movement
seen elsewhere. He combines with this
a hosting of the shoulders and pc.
culiar turn of the head. acquired from
turning his face to let a sack rest upon
his shoulders. These three traits are
distinctive and give the deck hand
a strange appearance upon the 1evee
or anywhere off boat or away from
the river.
AS he works going up the inclines
or along the ganeplank, prccariously
resting upon a lcvcc's crest. he has q
rhythmic sort of chant which fits in
with his music. Always 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 are sack
songs and barrel songs and music 70,
the cotton bale anG The ordinary pack.
age. The music varies with the task as
the movement of the negroes bodies
varies. The cotton song, as the bale
is lifted forward md allowed to drop,
has a catchy swine in it. Down &c
the sharp hooks and the bale starts l1p
TO fall with sharp thud. So does the
music. The other airs, like all the ne.
gro music, are harmonics, not melodies,
which time to the labor.-Mc1nphis
Scimitar.