The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1922-01-26
WORK THEY ENJOY
Darkeys in Their Element at
Cane-Cutting Time.
Busy Scenes Are Those on the Sugar
Plantations When the Harve-t
Is Being Gathered.

Is Being Gathered.
Wake up, you niggers, and git yoah
brekfus ready! Wake mp and git to
work! !" rings through the streets of
the little town still rapt In slumber,
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 fight as If
wondering when the brilliant sun will
come to brighten II away. Loudly and
more inSiStently the old man cries the
alarm, alternating between a sing-song
and a more emphatic call. till gradual
ly n seems to know that life bestirs
itself behind the closed doors of the
cabins. Here u 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 neighboring house. Smoke curls
upward from rows of chimneys. The
odor Of coffee fills the air. Lights
gleam in the curtained d%oorways, and
b~oiSterOus chatter proclaims the work
ers preparing for the field.
SoUn they stream from the cabins,
men and women, young and old huge
sun hats cover the dusky heads. The
wOmen's skirts, loopcd up by the tie
strings about the hips, reach only to
the knees. the upper excess Of cloth
forming n hustle effect Of ample pro-
20. tons. Pipes in mouths, dinner
buckets In hand and ~cane-knives slung
over shoulders, the cGlorful procession
OF workers wends its wav, slip-s'op,
slip-siop, through the streets, into
dusty rOadways and on TO the care
field destination. Children, too. &C
company 1t. to play with the shanty
children on the plantation grounds.
Or left to themselves at home they
grasp their chance Of uninterrupted
squabhIe and play with happy hearts.
Now in the fields, the slushing Of the
tall cane stalks forms an accompanl-
ment for the songs and chatter Of the
negroes. The Overseer as he rides by,
stopping his slow-moving horse for a
mOment to survey the fields Of work
ers. sees Bonded backs, hears the calls
to n another or the now almost
breatIless songs, and smiles a bit, for
he enjoys the cane-cutting harvest as
much as they. And truly the negroes
enjoy II, that camaraderle especially,
and the opportu ity to exchange the
sawmill Jobs at 50 and So a day for
S1.50 and a full days work in the
field. They cut, as they say. 'from
kin to CANT" from the time when they
and they enjoy 1t.
But the negroes are not the only
ores who enjoy the cane cutting and
grinding season. The boys " the
neighbOrhOOd are in the element.
When armed with q stout knife they
battle against the huge ever revolving
carrier that hnuls the stalks up into
the mill and out of their reach. Bet
ter and sweeter still Is he cane
chewed on the sly I'm the solitary midst
of a waving cane field, or "swiped"
from loaded freight cars in the early
HlbTlInS, Ohe eye pteiSh iUi 1He
watchman." the other or the lookout
against wormy cane How %torturing
are the after-hours spent at school for
lesson failure or for teasing the
girls" when the other fellows are
out In the cane fields or at the mill!
And when knives are forfeited for a
period, for cutting desks instead Of
cane, how cruel to them is the punish
ment! Sugar cane season is indeed a
school season of cutting and squirm-
ing.
One can imagine, for hours at a
time, the scenes taking place In the
fields or I'm the mill, but cares and
duties call and the fascinating p'anta-
ton view must he left for fall house
cleaning. or garden-making, or bust
ness, until the bell calls ace again.
In the meantime. negroes bend to
their task In the fields. the great mouth
Of the derrick hauls the cane into the
carrier, boys and girls chew cane and
life on the plantation, q midget world
in itself, goes along in humdrum, every.
day fashion.