Document text
ORIGINAL MSS. OR FIELD NOTES (Check one)
PUB. Living Lore in
Iv Shoe New England
TITLE ftww Lister of Lynn -#6
WRITER Jane K. Leary
DATE 5/31/39 WDS. PP.
7
CHECKER DATE
SOURCES Gmx (”Interview James Hughes_
COMMENTS
Name: Jane K. Leary, 32 Acorn St. 1.
Informant: James Hughes, 51 Johnson St. 5/31/39
Assignment: The Shoe Laster of Lynn (Living Lore)
The Irish Sweepstakes
Mr. Hughes answered my ring and smilingly bid me
enter. Mrs. Hughes greeted me also and pointed to an easy
chair.
"Heve a seat fir yoursel she said genially. Her
face lightened when I admired the fresh lace curtains she
had just hung in the living room.
"I thenk the best wiay ta dry 'em is'on thim new
two rod stretchers," she told me. "Come raight on out hiere
an see how good thiey hang on thet. Tain't laike the old
(ctAnft
stretchers atall. Thiay usta tear holes in the eu s ya
rt14-tin
know. But these don't atall. An' ya only heveta iron the
hems.
"Ain't it a wonder though, how much asier wirk is fir
a woman ta what it usta ba. Ya kin hardly balave how asy it
is ta do curtins this wiay. Thim two rod curtin stretchers
al -re great thengs all raight."
But Mr. Hughes was not interested in such mundane things
as curtain stretchers.
"How ya bein sence?" he asked. "Come raight in the
livinl room an' set down." He was reading an article about
the Irish Sweepstakes and po„inted it out f:o me.
(11),
"Thim sweepstakes" 4' said, "aire great thengs fir
Ireland now. era.1.
2.
4pie4-40reur4MWriamm4WwWit Piart a dbeiwall thet money goes
ta hospitals f.atmlrareqt an what better place could money go
thet was miade on horse races.
"But it don't rally play ta bet on it, fir it's a
million chances against ya thet ya won't get nothinl. A
woman in Lynn got thet bag prize once though. 4hrinrwimpw
.isimmOmer4 An' another tame a fella from Salem got a pratty
good prize.
"But at thet it don't rally pay ya. Flr aven if ya
do get it, the government '11 tiake the half a it awiay from
Yee)
-44-41011.1.4.0grgs
4Nothinl plays much tadiay. Why aven if ya got some
money in the benk 41rawizi ya don't get much antriat Iiimamese44
fir it. iimirhiere's nothin much in dry money tadiay.
But worsen dry money is money thet ya got tied up
in rale (real) estate. Usta ba, yea. get a good income from
thet. But tadiay thiere's nothinl atall in it, fir you're laike
as not get some one in thet don't play thier rint, ant ya
hate laike hell ta put lem out on the strate-I fir
ya know they'd ba good tinents fti- if theiy hed the
money ta play ya.
"First theng ya know ya get behin' with your taxes ant
the benk comes along an' tiakes thet house. Why the benks
41
j4+44, --rni-.1 44 /4 1,44
4- -.4-4e- -ts. do 4.1,1k .4.
got mosta the hottses n Lynn tadiay.4 Thiey'd unload lea if
thiey could, but thleretre ain't nobody ta buy em.
P
"An' all the tame thley're gettint more. The private
fellas thet owned tem oain't fix em up, 'cause it costs too
much ant thiey don't know's thiey'll get a good tinent ta
play tem.
"The beaks now, thiey jest hire a carpenter, an'
electric laight man, ant plumber ta tiake care a all thier
houses an' thet wiay it don't cost 'em sa much. Ant thiey
get all the good payin' tinents 'cause the pltople all know
bafore thiey move inta a bkrik house, thet thiey gotta get
out, if thiey don't play.
"Benks is good ta kape a house fixed up, all raight,
but thiey put ya raight out on the strate (street) if ya
don't play.
7x.
"Bttfore the slap come in 1929 though, rale estate wuz
a good investm6t. I hflowed a fella owned a whole bag block
ant he hed it fixed in apartmints. Thet miade a good income.
He wuz.offered $25,000 fir it but he An't tiake it. Thin
along come thet slap in '29, and thin he wished he had..
We broke tadiay I guess, cause he cun't get his rint,
aril he cunit afford ta kape the place up.. I guess he wishes
4
he hiltd took thet $25,000 after all. Aven if he din't get
sech good antrist fir the dry money in the benle -serme414-n-s---
---te—bet-trerirt—ne444414----
4.
Iii-tieropertifive
RAAAct co..jeA, Pckcfe. ,F? e c-Ifc"1.•
"Do you ever get homesick for Ireland now?" I asked Mr.
Hughes one day.
'Weill no, I guess I don't raley. I bin awiay from
A
thiere too miny yearo. 40, I guess if I wint back tadiay it
would be jest the same as if I niver wuz thiere atall fir
thiere wunIt be none I'd know inymore. But I'd know all the
ollCants 4411mmg4e+ jest the same. skange
"I'd see the same blossoms on the kaiaks:1mi now
ant wuntt it ba a pratty sight. An' the gr4ss tould ba very
green Ahl the winter wheat tould ba acomin' up now. Ant
thiereld ba the potato fields.
'An' the flax! virigrappirre it Id still look rale nice
with the wind ablowint it in waves laike over the fields! Ant
soon the wind tould ba iblowint the wheat fields too. 41ftwilk-
)s
°Chet a pratty sight, whin the wheat is almost ripe ant ready
ta cut?
'Ant all the birds: lemitowiberuiempastipodeadowamibiodionosio
lfhley hed a lotta diffrunt kands whiere I come from. Thiere
wuz the sparrow an' the swallow ant the meadowlark an' a
lotta others. Thiey hed a thrush thet sang nice. An' thiere
wuf the oucoo an' the jenny wren ant the gray linnet an' the
bullfinch.
"They hed a nice robin too but he wuznIt sa bag laike
he is hiere. But prattler thin him was the gold;linch with
the red head. I usta ketch him, fir he wuz sech a nice singer.
An' thin I'd sell thim goldfines thet I cought an' the
canaries I'd raise. Sometimes I'd get as much as fieve dollars
fir a male bird.
'The wiay ta ketch goldfinches is ta lie down near a
white thorn bush an' set a trap fir thim with a branch miade
all sticky with flax oil. Thiey'd get in thet branch ta get
the flax seed an' thin thiey cain't get out. Miny's the one
by a co16+e, -tho
_rki
busk_
I cought while I laid a waitinl fir thilAt
money outa thim. Thin male birds wuz good singers, all ra1ghtT
But the frmales, now thiey wun't sing atall, an' she niver looked
sa nice neither. The male bird wuz the one ta ketch.
"We usta heve a lotta cranes too. Thetis a nice looking
bird with his long legs_
itl`tould ba good ta see Ireland o Ittggets" But
.jest the same, it lould probably look laike a place whiere
I'd niver bin at al] ,sidholiniumalwaremiltiftereve§111415R Maybe it's
better jest ta thenk about it laike it wuz whin I wuz I bioy
thiere alivin with ma mother an' ma uncles. If I wint it
maight tiake awiay foriver the nice picture I heve a it in ma
mind. Ant It I don't niver go back this picture'll stiay
thiere 'till I din, aisolAiimberespiespr
eA lotta folks don't laike Mussolini an' indade I
don't, but ya know jest the same he's done some thengs thet
needed ta ba done fir Italy biad. He claned (cleaned) up
a lotta thengs thet shoulda bin claned up, all right.
"Fir instunce he stiarted a mate (meat) inspection,
ant saw thet thim Italians got the raight kand a mate ta eat.
°Ant Bence he come, ya can't raise the price a food
stuff neither. Ihley heve about the same prices fir food
all over.
*Any he claned out Messina an' the Calalabas Islands.
It wuz somethint awful, the cutthroats thet usta ba thiere
bafore Mussilini claned tem out. Ya cun't go in thiere ant
ba safe atall.
"Why gangs stiarted thiere from bafore the Chrastin
(Christian) Era. It wuz about tame thet someone claned 'em
out. Yea, I think thet in a lotta wiays Mussolin did a lot
fir Italy.
Yes, I've alwiays noticed how consumption runs in
families. I remimber how it usta ba in Ireland whin I
wuz jest a bioy. Thiere I remimber how it got inta a
ciartin family. Thiere wuz a lotta bioys an thiey all got
it sooner ler later.
"One spacial one I remimber, an' how smiart he wuz
in the National Schools. Thiey wuz somethint laike the
High Schools hiere.
"Well, this fella hed a great mind, he did, ant he wuz'
goinl ta study ta ba a priest. An' he looked sa well ant
hed such red chakes (cheek,), but whin he wuz aroun' twinty-
one, he got it, an he daied too.
"Ant I knowed two powerful lookinl brothers in Lynn too.
What powerful min thiey looked ta ba. But first one An' thin
the other one got it an now thiey're both dead. Ya caint
beat it. But one good place ta try ta get rid a thet is
South Africa. Cecil Rhodes from Angland wint thiere an' he
got rich thiere too basiades gettint rid a his consumption.
4WD
"Asthma's another mean disease. But it's claimed thet
if ya go across the gulf stream ya kin get rid a thet. A
course ya gotta stiay across awhile an' meble fir good.
knowed a fella thet hed it so he could hardly breath atall
ant he wint ta California ant stiayed thiere quite a while.
He got rid of a it.