American adventures : a second trip "Abroad at home" . , in clean starched gingham dresses,who went flouncing by him on the street one Saturdayafternoon. Oh, returned one of the women, w^ith the elaboratesuperiority of a member of the class of idle rich, we rejust serenadin round. Serenading, as she used the word, meant a prome-nade about the town. Perhaps the happiness of the negro, here, has to dowith the lazy life of the river. The succulent catfish iseasily obtainable for food, and the wages of the rousta-bout—or rouster, as he is called for short—are good. The rouster, in his red undershi
American adventures : a second trip "Abroad at home" . , in clean starched gingham dresses,who went flouncing by him on the street one Saturdayafternoon. Oh, returned one of the women, w^ith the elaboratesuperiority of a member of the class of idle rich, we rejust serenadin round. Serenading, as she used the word, meant a prome-nade about the town. Perhaps the happiness of the negro, here, has to dowith the lazy life of the river. The succulent catfish iseasily obtainable for food, and the wages of the rousta-bout—or rouster, as he is called for short—are good. The rouster, in his red undershirt, with a bale hookhung in his belt, is a figure to fascinate the eye. Whenhe works—which is to say, when he is out of funds—he works hard. He will swnng a two-hundred-poundsack to his back and do fancy steps as he marches withit up the springy gangplank to the river steamers deck,uttering now and then a strange, barbaric snatch ofsong. He has no home, no family, no ignorant deck hand can earn from forty to one hun- 496. SHREDS AND PATCHES dred dollars a month. Pay him off at the end of thetrip, let him get ashore with his money, and he is deck hands the steamer cannot move. Formany years there has been known to river captains asimple way out of this difficulty. Pay the rousters offa few hours before the end of the trip. Say there aretwenty of them, and that each is given twenty clear a space on deck and begin shooting one interferes. By the time the trip ends most ofthe money has passed into the hands of four or five; therest are broke and therefore remain at despite the ingenuity of those who have the negrolabor problem to contend with, Marse Harris tells methat there have been times when the levee was linedwith steamers, full-loaded, but unable to depart for wantof a crew. Not that there was any lack of roustaboutsin town, but that, money being plentiful, they would notwork. In such times perishable fre
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1917
