The herald., 1922-02-02
WORK they enjoy
DdrkeyS in Their Element at
Cane-Cutting Time.
Busy Scenes Are Those on the Sugar
Plantations When the Harvest
Is Being Gathered.

'Wake up, you niggers, and git yOah
brekfus ready! Wake up and git to
work :" rings through the streets Of
the little town still rapt in slum5er,
Helene Robbins writes In the New Or
leans Times-Picayune Four o'clock
and the crier goes slowly on. The
black, foggy night lags In flight as If
wondering when the brilliant sun will
come to brighten 1t away. Loudly and
more mistakenly the old man cries the
alarm, alternating between a sing-sOng
and n more emphatic call, till gradual
ly one seems To know that life bestirs
itself behind the closed doors of the
cabins. Here q woman, opening the
door, stares at the receding back Of
the crier, there a mans dark head pro-
trudes from the white curtains in an
open window and calls TO a friend in
the nelghbOring house. Smoke curls
upward from rows Of chimneys. The
OdOr of coffee fills the air Lights
CLEAN In the curtained doOrways, and
bOisterous chatter prOclaims the work
ers preparing for the field.
Soon they stream from the cabins,
men and women, young and old; huge
sun hats cover the dusky heads. The
women's skirts, lOOped up by the tie
strings about the hips, reach only to
the knees, the upper excess Of cloth /
forming q hustle effect of ample pro-
portions. Pipes In mouths. dinner
buckets in hand and cane-knives slung /
over shoulders, the colOrful procession |
Of workers wends its way, slip-slOp. |
slip-slop, through the streets, into /
dusty rOadways and on to the cane
field destination. Children, too, ac-
company it, to play with the shanty /
children on the plantation grounds. /
Or left to themselves at home they
grasp their chance Of uninterrupted
squabble and play with happy hearts.
Now in the fields, the slashing of the
tall cane stalks forms an accOmpani-
ment for the songs and chatter of the
negroes. The OverSeer as he rides by,
stopping his slow-moving horse for
moment to survey the fields of work
ers. sees Bonded backs. hears the calls
to one another or the now almost
breathless songs, and smiles a bit, for
he enjoys the cane-cutting harvest as
much as they. And truly the negroes
enjoy 1t, that camaraderie especially,
and the opportunity To exchange the
sawmill jobs at 50 and So day for
$3.50 and a full days work in the
field. They cut, as they say. from
kin TO CANT" from the time when they
can see till the time when they can't,
and they enjoy 1t.
But the negroes are not the only
ones who enjoy the cane cutting and
grinding season. The boys of the
are In the element.
When armed with stout knife they
battle against the huge ever-revOlving
carrier that hauls the stalks up into
the mill and out Of their reach. Bet
ter and sweeter still is the cane
chewed on the sly In the solitary midst
Of a waving cane field, or "swiped'
from loaded freight cars in the early
one eye peeled for the
the other, on the lookout {
against wormy cane. How torturing
ire the after-hours spent at school for {
essen failure or for teasing the
girls" when the other fellows are ,
,ut in the cane fields or at the mill ,
md when knives are forfeited for a
,eriod, for cutting desks instead Of ,
'ane, how cruel to them is the punish ,
nent! Sugar cane season Is indeed a .
chool season Of cutting and squirm- ,
ng. ,
One can imagine, for hours at a .
line. the scenes taking place in the :
ields or in the mill. but cares and ,
luties call and the fascinating planta- >
ion view must he left for fall house >
leaning, or gnrden-making, or bust
ess, until the bell calls once again. !
In the meantime, negroes bend to
heir task in the fields, the great mouth =
4 the derrick hauls the cane into the q
arrier, boys and girls chew cane, and
fe on the plantation, a midget world
] itself goes s'-ng in humdrum. every :,
ay fashion.