Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1908-04-30
LOADING COTTON.
The Work Of Negroes on the
steamships Down South.
Hfeee SKIN Required In the Handling q
the Heavy Bales-The Men Always
Cheerful and Singing Wmle
at Labor.

1t is problem in mechanics to load
. cotton ship-to fill every cubic foot Of
freight room with the awkward rec
tangular bales-and some men are 90
much more skilled than others in this
science that it often makes difference
of 400 or 500 bales in a 2,OOO-ton ship
and that amount of loss in the profit of
the voyage. Therefore, the stevedores
and screwmen receive big wages, per-
haps the largest that are paid &c
negroes anywhere in the world, for
most of the longshoremen in the South
Atlantic are Of that race, says the Chi
cago Record.
In New Orleans they are nearly all
white men Italians, Swedes and Irish.
men-and the riots that we read about
in the papers were due to the introduce
ton OF negro packers and screwmen
from Galveston to take the place Of the
whites.
The screwmen are divided into gangs
OF five, with foreman, and the whole
are under the direction of q chief
stevedore, who is usually white man,
and acts as superintendent Of the dock.
A>oSh 3 HAS OSSuRiCS ~ hdSCnWdy VI VIC
steamer, and five men are all that can
conveniently work in such a narrow
space.
The cotton comes from the planta-
ton on the cars or upon fiatboats. The
bales as they leave the plantation are
loosely packed generally four feet
Highland the first thing when they
reach the dock is to tumble them into
a hydraulic press, which reduces their
bulk by one-half and makes it possible
to pack twice as many in the hold Of .
steamer.
The truckmen pass back and forth
between the pile of bales and the ship
in procession, rapidly and in perfect
time, and it is an awkward and ''wuth-
less Niger" as the foreman said, who
ever touches a bale with his hands.
Some Of them put on jaunty airs,
strike attitudes, and introduce fancy
steps as if they were at cake walk,
particularly when spectators are watch
ing, but that is unprofessional, and the
serious and self-respecting truckman
''totes his bales" without trying to at
tract attention. They sing as they 60,
but for the life of me could not catch
the words, and when in an interval I
asked one to repeat the verses he re-
piled:
"Dey amt none. Dat wuz jes' de
truckers song"
The refrain sounded like "Oh rio rily
oh, oh rio rily OH" and it was evidently
nothing but gibberish. 1t appears that
the several gangs have their own par
ticular songs, and judged from what
the foreman told me that the words
were usually without meaning, or sim
ply a series of rhythmical sounds with
Examinations that rhymed, invented by
some one of their numbe-' and sung to
familiar airs.
The truckman drops the bale at the
of the handles of his truck over the
gunwales Of the vessel; then q man adj
justs the grapplingiron and shouts sig
nal to the engineer at the windlass,
who turns his lever, and, hosting the
bale into the air, lets it swiftly down
into the hold, where the five artists are
waiting to pack it away.
It is hot work below, and the packers
and screwmen are usually barefooted
and naked above the waists, while per-
spiration rolls down their massive
muscles. Each has a hook in his hand,
and they seize and toss the 5OO-pound
bales as Japanese juggler plays with
plates.
Five hooks are in the cotton the in.
slant it touches bottom, and they seem
to work like a slot machine, for one
does not pull one way and another an
other, but by united, simultaneous eff
fort the great package is lifted, and
drops into the very place where the
boss wants it to go.
Then at intervals they get out . big
jackscrew that must weigh 500 pounds
and crowd the bales together until the
hold Of the ship is one solid mass. One
end of the jackscrew is placed against
q bale and the other end against
piece of heavy oak timber four or Eve
inches square, which is notched to keep
the screw from slipping, and can be in
clined against the side of the ship or
one of it's stanchions, SO that q good
purchase may be obtained. The screw
is worked by a double crank, and one
man holds it in position while the other
four turn. That operation is called
''nosing up"
All this is done to a musical accom-
paniment-I suppose a negro always
sings when he works-but the songs Of
the screwmen are different from those
of the truckmen, and the air that goes
with the jackscrew is not the same that
is sung when the screwmen are placing
the bale in position.
These stevedores have work only
about six months in the year, but while
they are at it they receive good pay.
They work by the piece-that is, so
much money for storing away SO many
bales, and the foreman, who gets the
job and selects his own associates, gets
one-half more than they.
During the cotton season, for 10 or II
hours work, he will average $3.50 day
and they IS, il they are skillful and en-
ergetic. The truckers are paid by tho
hour, and make from t1.25 to e1.5O.
Between seasons the screwmen en-
gage in other occupations, cultivatinR
gardens, doing plantation work, or fol-
lowing any trade that they may have
learned; but they are universally re.
garded as superior beings, like bull
fighters in Spain and baseball players
in the United States.
A bale of cotton weighs from $50 to
500 DOunds and Slsi1lfu1 M clxorc oau-