Document text
Forms to be Filled. out for Each Interview
STATE
NAi OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
New York
Marion Charles Batoh
862 First Avenue
June 1204 1939
Sandhog Stories
1. Date and time of interview
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
During the week.
2. Place of interview
Long Island City Hoghouse4 Queens Mid -town tunnel,
Borden Am* and Front St. L. LC.
3. Name and address of informant
Sandhogs who oontributed these stories are A.J.C., D.G.4
Jimmy Mee, J.L, J.J., kiLamitip Dais, J.K., P.O., Broadway, J.W.4
4. Name and address of -.person, if any, wYlo ut you inWaiter Miles, John Tiplady,
touch with informant. F.J.O.
No one.
5. Name end address c nioon, if any, aceomaning you
No one.
G. a2scription ot r')om, house, surroun
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms,
each bearing the oropor heading and the number to which the material
refers.)
FORM C
TEXT OF II:TERVIT7 (UNEDITED)
STATE Nww York
OF 7:07:KER Marion Charles Hatch
",DDPESS 302 First Avenue
DA= June 12th, 1230
SUBJECT Sandhog Stories
WORTUESS TIMER
—TT
FOLELOEE
IJEW YORK
This fellow they sent hi n out to get an eight foot board.
Sc' :e wont out. Tcs C.)* C 1;r.C1:, !:c needed a ruler. So the miner
gave hi-, s six P-ot rAcr. -c earx lack tt.e rerd tire and
said Vs, ruler wasn't lo-- ooh, It was only six foot.
FT AIR
---F,713-.T.---
Soe fellow was workiriz. dawn the hole. They weren't
air non. So they started purpin. air la the first day. He was
just dowr tl-ere lon emyurh to feel it so le run up the ladder
like 7-11d'an. ;Men he ,.e.ts up to the lock he says, "Let
outi Let no c-Ati I .:ever took it eforel" So Joe says, "Tlrs.
'!urphy !ine to take it the first tire!" So as soon as we :cot
ena,-h air so we orn,ld close the d -,or re let out.
COP FOOLED
Ay JAW.*
This ru..s supposed to happen in New York, Sunday. Out of a hole the
cop on the beat seen these three fellows laying down. So he thought they
had the bends. So he took off his coat and laid it under their heads. He
took them over to the medical lock and found out they were drunk.
TAU IT EASY
By d.
This guy is so lazy he womaidWt even work in convulsions. Next to
Step'n Fetohit he's the laziest.
**so**
They have a mule down there, so if the electricity zoos off, to pull
the ears. So the guy says to him, "Blow your nose, you bastard, blow your
nosol"
lip****4
That guy couldn't fight his way out of a paper bagl
**ow
CR/tell
Hy F.O.
These guys were working down there. One guy gets hit on the shoulder
with a rock. He has to go up on top to see the doctor. So when we're going
down the second half, an the cage, one of the guys staked the fellow that got
hit with the rook, "Did you get hit on the head?" Ilsamy, standing alongside
of him, says, "If he got hit on the head he'd be all righte
GETTING TOM
By
There's a hot bum an this job they call Jack McCabe. He has a habit
of hanging up in all in different saloons. The first day he goes into a
joint he pays up and makes a good impression. So then he runs up a bill.
The next day see him in another place. Until he gets around all the
places. Than nis credit is no good, Finally he comes in late and they ask
him why he is late and he saye,i,fiell, theyiamme all aroun!„,4ere now.
Things are getting so tougN':-I had to go to Broadway to get a drinkt,
4121t****
HOW ID GET A BET1ER JOB
By Jimmy MoGee
Working on the Cornell College job, I used to go in this place every
day and drink. So I got very chummy With one of the guys in there. To wind
up Morgan Bateman and I was drie-ing with this guy and I didn't know who he
was. I got into a sort of an argument with him and insulted him. Be knew me
so then I went out same of the guys said, "Don't you know who he is? He's
your superS" He was may big boos and I insulted him. So he winded up and he
gave me a better job. This is one of those embarrassing moments.
lit*****
GET A Roam
By J.McGee
If you pet a cold you generally get blocked. So when a guy gets blocked
teY generally tell him, "You better quit sleeping in the park' Get a room*"
ilf*I***#
THE HOD CABRIER
By AmL,I0.
He asked the boss what to hell to do with this material. The boss told
him to carry it up the ladder, 75 feet. When he got up to the top he asked
the boss what to do with it and the boss says to carry it back. After that
they always called that guy the hod -carrier.
JOKE ON THE WIFE
This same guy was in the hospital. Be had been hit on the foot with
a rock and his foot wsusbroker So his wife was all excited. She went up
JOKE 07.; THE TIFE Cont Id)
By A.L.L.
to see him in the hospital. So she asked him, *What's the matter/ Hwve you
got a broken foot?" He said, "The foot ain't nothing$ My back is broken tool"
His wife almost fainted. His back was all right.
HOW'S THE r:TRI, BARROW?
By D.W.
A man was working on a building one time. He was wheeling up a load
of brick on a wheelbarrow. So he was running it up on a plank, one story
high. The plank broke. The man and the wheelbarrow fell to the bottom.
The boss asked him if the barrow was broke. Fe didn't give a damn about the
man.
301**301041
MAN BITES
By J.R.
We've got a habit if anybody comes in the lock late we put him on the
board. So this guy was coming in a couple of 1T:intues late. So we got a wedge.
We started to putting this mason on the board. So Dan Gallagher says, "/"11
fix him. You fellows hold him. So while we were holding him, he takes a bite
out of his back side. He had to go to the doctor. The doctor says, "Vim
heard of dog biting man but I never heard of man biting man."
MINER AND HELPER
By A.L.L.
The helper was helping the miner. He did something he didn't like. So
he said, "As a miner you couldn't even mind your own business."
RETRIBUTION
P`r LL.L.
any.
This guy used to get his cocoa every day, He wouldn't give aLybody
Once the fellows got a cake of "Ex -Lax" put it in his cup. So for a
week he was movin hls bowels He htA a bowel riovement four tire s a dey
after that.
41*********
DY L.L.L.
A guy was in there working, shovelling the muok out. The boss said.
*Get that muck out of there or by Jesus you're *owing out.*
tillt*****011141
LETS IDSE1
They shoving so they lad about two inches to go. (Woving the 150
ton shield by 4ydraulio pressure). The gang was coning down the line to ris.
hove thou This Polack had the gang so he says* *Let ts all get together
and push itlw They tell this to greenhorns* wherever they get in the hole.
Lets all cot together and push it.
GREM01511
By Bsway
A Greenhorn vent in to eork at 8 in the morning's On about 37 pounds
pressure you should only work in there about an hour and a half. So he
worked till about no. So than he went up to one of the guys and said, *What
time does that 8 o'clock gang go out to lunch?" But he went Vrough all rilat
without the beads.
ease ****44
FANCY DRILL
lAtT.
14 had a newoomer In the gang. They sent Mn for a five or six block
walk from one end of the tunnel to the other. The Shield -driver sent Mn to
the look to get a diamond studded drill/
BEND'S sTur
By Ja.
There was a fellow down here not so long ago. He worked the first half
and he took a walk dawn the Queen's Flan, where they're making that new drive
and garden. He was taken with the bends in his stomaoh. 110 was layinl on
the sidewalk, there. Nobody paid any attention. They all thought he was
drunk. The mind was one of the safety men, one of our own insurance mer6
seen him there, recognized him as one of the sandhogs, rushed hi L over to
the medical lock. He had the bends so bad they thought he was going to die
from it. He was in the lock for about 36 hours. Be was foreman at that
time, in the heading. He was off for about three weeks before he could go
batik to work and then, when he did go back to work, he couldn't take it any
more. He had to go in the light air, He couldn't go in the high air.
BO LUCK
By Walter Itiles
If you be in the coal mines you see a rat they say its hard luck.
When you see the rats leaving, it is hard luck. They take the Alit° mice
down in the mines to test for gas. Vihen they die then the miners know they
must get to hell out.
We were cutting the 38th Street tunnel, the Lincoln tunnel. A fellow
was running a drill for me and a big rat fell about thirty feet, dawn in the
shaft, and fell on top of Hall's drill and kAled the rat, lie got soared be.
cause he thought it was hardluck and started to run out of the tunnel. We
had to hold him from running out of the tunnel.
CONS TIPA TED
By John tiplady
There's a guy down there working on cement. He had to move so he wiped
himself. They come out of the hole. Three or four days later he was consti-
pated. So he went to the doctor to get a physic. So the doctor gave him a
-7-
a couple of pills. No luck. So he gave him some more pills the next day.
No astion. So he pulled his pants and the doctor said, "What are you a
cement man?" He said, "Yes." The doctor said, Well, the next time you
move dawn in the hole don't wipe yourself with a cement begin
ACCIDENT
(A. man comes up out of the hole with hand bloody). "What's the matter?
You just went down2 "Cut my fingert" (lalIg)iingly) "Cut it half offi"
"Ws probably feeling good. H0111 have some money when he gets out. Com-
pensation. He probably stuck his hand under there.
"Most all the sandhogs, the majority of them have one or 1,wo fingers
missing, a joint missingi"
********1*
PRANKS
13y7=.
This gr, he come down there, like a new man would he was 1)oking around
there. Didn't know what was going on. So there's always a couple of guys in
the gang like to pull a good one on a new man likv that. So they told him to
get the oil can. He got the oil can and a half dozen rags and he creased the
whole cutting edge.
Then they tell a new guy to hold the shield so it won't turn over. The
shield actually weighs about 400 tons. The matting edge is the edge of the
shield facing the muck and the stone, Its all rough and rusty.
FEED THE DONKEYS
By A.L.L.
A new man was watching all the hay going down there and he asked what
it was for and they said it was for the donkeys. When sand is coming in be-
tween the boards they put the hay in the board to stop it. The Irishmen are
the donkeys.
10114130*******30