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Erik Christian Jensen
Paper 1
STATE MASSACHUSETTS
NAME OF WORKER EMILY B. MOORE
ADDRESS WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
DATE OF INTERVIEW JUNE 12 1939
SUBJECT LIVING LORE
NAME OF INFORMANT ERIK CHRISTIAN JENSEk
ADDRESS WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS
Name: Emil B. Moore
Titles Living Lore
Assignment: Erik Christian Jensen.
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paver I,
*You think I'm Swede, (laughs) Jahl not only you thinks that
everybody does, if he don't know Erik. Denmark was where I was born,
in 1870, and not 'til 1893 do I come to this country. Well, you see,
in Denmark, all the country is flat, very low, and if there was any-
thing to see, you could see it as far away as Boston. I think the
best sight I ever see, it vos the rocks and stones I see coming to
Worcester, why they stick right out of the ground, and they build
houses on rocks, and make buildings on rocks& Jab! When I want me
to build mine house, all around I looks for a place on the rocks or
the hills, and I find me one, and I says to my miscue, 'On this rock
hill, will we build, and here it is; we can see 'out' and down; we
can look down and see water, and look out and see hills.' All my life
in Denmark, never once did I see a hill.
*Not much work in Denmark for young men, and I have a friend who
comes to America and works in wire mill. He writes me letter to come
on, so I come. No, I don't work in mill in Denmark, I teach High
School. Well, when I'm a very young boy, maybe 14 or 15, I work on
a farm and in the fields, and one day we carry logs on our shoulder,
for lumber. I carry the front end and he carries the back, and he
trips and lets his end fall, and it goes on my back, and I breaks
three joints. Well, I have one doctor, and he says I can get no bet-
ter; then I have another doctor, and the same things says he. I think
to myself, 'The Jensen family are well family and good family, and
they should not suffer, but die in their sleep.' My father had two
Names Emily B. Moore
Titles. Living Lore
Assignments Erik Christian Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paper 1
brothers, and they all go to sleep and diet and the same should I do.
*V father was well, eat good supper, and lay down on the bed, and my
sister put shawl over him, and we play cards at the table. 14 go to
bed, and in morning, my father just like we left him, only dead. He
never suffer, just sleep away. Only three doctors we have there, and
two tell ma I should just die. I go see other doctor and he says, 'Why
you came to me when other doctors tell you that yod should die?' I said
to him, 'I don't want to die; why should I die just because three of
my bones is dead; that's not the best part of mei I am goin' to livell
Well, the doctor says, 'With your strong will to live, you can live,
and I'll help yoult Now, five years he doctors me, and all the time,
I read and study, and when I can go about, I am a, teacher. Oh, I teach
Danish talk, arithmetic, and hanciraft, but I don't like that, so I
came to America.
°Like this, it is; I get to Worcester on Sunday night, and on Mon-
day morning, I go to work at the wire mill. (Washburn -Moen). I worked
there two months, then the work went flat. I didn't know what to do,
then, but the rich people here was all riding oicycles, the big high
ones, so I went to all the people and see if I could fix their bi-
cycles, and that's how I got started. I stayed on a farm and worked
for my board, and fixed bicycles at night. No, I couldn't talk English,
but I had a. boy that could talk, go with me. Well, I could talk Swedish,
and most of the men I talked to was Swedes. Well, I learnt it myself.
Mime: Iiiily B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: jgrik Christian Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel l'orker
Paper 1
In Denmark we had a paper called 'The Youth's Companion' and I always
read that, and when I come here the only paper I could ask for was
'Youth's Companion.' I knowed the kind of stories they had, and I'd
learn one work, and then guess the next two. I didn't think it was
so hard, for I didn't have anything much to de and I knowed how to
study. In six months I could talk English, and after that it wasn't
hard.
*I worked at odd jobs far' a year, and then they called me back
to the wire mill. Oh, I worked at first, with pick and shovel, and
it was hard on my back. I used to get wire for the bicycle repairing,
and the bosses got to know me, and I made some good advice about the
wire, and sometimes the owners, mind you4 would come by and stop and
talk to me and ask me things. One day I was 'tin plating' some wire
for my bicycle 'spokes' and they come up and talked to me, and asked
me if I could 'tin plate' all the wire, and I said 'yes', and they
gave me all the wire to 'tin plate.' After that time, I did all the
'tin plate' and I have my own end of the mill. Now, I do all the fine
wire for pianos, guitar strings and all music wires. Nobody knows
about them but Erik Jensen, and they always come now and talk to me,
and when the United States Steel took over the factory, they told me
I would always have my shop, just like when Washburn had the wire
mill.
"Accidents, Jahl Lots of accidents them days, but now they never
Names rails B. Moore
Titles Living Lore
Assignments irik Christian Jensen
Topics Danish Steel Worker
paper 1
happen. One time I saw amen get scattered all over the place. His
legs went one way, and his arm another way, and his brain was throwed
by me feet. He was painter and was up high on a ladder, and he had
a white duck suit on, so we could see him. He got caught in the 'frame'
and was pulled apart in every direction. Now, at the mill, we have
a lot of safety, and we only have small accidents, like maybe a finger
or sometimes, only a foot, but not big accidents. 'Every day a ins-
pector comes around and write on a paper what he sees, and once a
month we all have to go to a. meeting and they tell us how to be care-
ful. Then we have the relief, and if we get hurt, they take care of
us. No, I don't mean the Social Security, that's something different.
I think it's good, for they have that in Denmark for a long time. Over
there they all pay into it and then when you get too old to work, you
get money back. You don't get back just what you put in it, but if
a man puts money into it, and dies, what be puts in, they divide, and
odiTS
everybody gets whlut he put in. Jahl the wire mill's a good place to
work, and if I was starting in again, I'd. work there, but there's
trouble in young fellows stayin' one place too long. Maybe if I'd
gone some other place, I might be a superintendenti but I aidt got
no kick coming, I'm just like my own boss; they never bother me none.
Why, when I built mine house here, they sent someone to tell me to
come to the office; all the big owners was there, and they said to
me, 'Erik, you're a good man, and we like you, and you're building a
Name: Emily B. Moore
Title: Living Lore
Assignment: Erik Christian Jensen
Topic: Danish Steel Worker
Paper 1
house. Now, if you need any money, all you got to do is tell us how
much, and you can have any amount you need. Better to not go in debt,
and we want to do all we can for good men like you.' I said, 'I thanks
you all, but I have money for the land 10 years ago, and now I have
money for the house, and I don't need anything but mebbe to go out
onct or so to see if they do the work right.' Well, now, they said
I could go, and I did go out lotscf times. That was good for me, sos,
you see, I ain't got no kick comin'; they was good to me.
*One thing I don't like too much, and that's the pension. Yana-
erally, people looks forward to it, but I don't. When I was a young
fellow, 1 looked old, and now that I'm old, I look young and I feel
young and want to keep on working. My mudder said when I was 15 I
looked old, maybe 25. Next year I'll be 70 and the new laws say I
have to quit work. They's givin' me half pay, but I don't like that.
I likes to work for what I get. I don't feel no older now than I was
30 years ago.
*Jahl I married my woman from Denmark. I worked/for four years
and then went back and got her. She's &good woman and always stands
by. Mine girl is good girls. Well, a few years ago I thinks the
young people were all wrong; that they was goin' too fast, but now I
think they have straightened themselves out. The young American people
drink too much, but the trouble about that is they don't start till
Names Emily B. Wore
Titles Living Lore
Assignment: Erik Christian Jensen
Topics Danish Steel Worker
Paper 1
about high school days. The Germans and the Danes always drink beer
from the time theys little kids, and then when they grow up) it don't
mean nothin' to them. A few years ago mine .girls belonged to a Dan-
ish Club and we thought they all went crazy, but now, about 15 couples
of them got married and got nice homes, and the rest of them are right now. now. Oh, yes, mine missile and me belong to a Danish club; its
the Danish -American Friendship Society. There's only about three or
four hundred Danish people in Worcester, so we all stick together, but
we do mix it up a bit with the Swedes.
"There wasn't much for a young man to do here, when I come here,
out work, out on Sundays we'd take bicycle rides. I had a bicycle,
a. high one, with a tandum, and I used to take my missus for long rides.
We go with about 20 other couples, and take our lunch, or stop for a
ice cream soda; that was something new for us, for we never had ice
cream mixed with anything in Denmark. About all my good times was
bicycle riding. We had a club of riders, and we used to have what
they called Century Rides', and manys the time I rode 100 miles on
Sundays. They didn't have good roads, and I don't know which was the
worse, for as soon as the good roads got here, the traffic got too
bad. If people only knowed what was good for them, they'd ride a bi-
cycle. Just last summer a woman 65 years old come to me and told me
she has something the matter with her 'innerts' and she was told to
do some high-falutin' exercise with her legs, and it was like bicycle
ridin', so she thought she'd get a bicycle and ride, and get the air
at the same time. Well, she got a bicycle from me, and she come back
Name: Emily Emily B. Moore Assignment: Erik Christian Jensen
Title: Living Lore
Topic: Dihnish Steel Worker
LW -LA
in two months, and she looked like a different person. I think bicycle
ridin' keeps me young, and my missus and me ride whenever we get a
chance."
At this point the shop door bamged and in marched a couple of
towheaded youngsters with a disreputable piece of machinery they re-
ferred to as "the bike." Old Erik forgot me entirely as he began to
work with battered wires and bolts, all the time keeping up a stream
of conversation with his customers.