Document text
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview FOLKLORE
NI -D; Y0,111>
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview IS
STATE New York
NA NE OF WORKER Saul Levitt
ADDRESS 2? Hamilton Terrace
DATE March 23, 1939
SUBJECT Folklore Among Seamen °SELFISH 1NMA AnAlrokno
1. Date and tim., of Interview
March 20, 1939
2. Place of interview
National Maritime Union
3. Name and address of informant
Left Rudder (Carmody) 25 South Street O'Halloran?
4. Name and address of person, if any, who put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
STATE
New York
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
NAME OF WORKER Saul Levitt
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
27 Hamilton Terrace, N.Y.C.
March 25, 1939
Folk lore Among Seamen.
set.F1s4 INNA MAXOR/TY
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
(This two man contribution —by Left Rudder and O'Halloran is TRW
stuff --both men are frequently in the TIM Maritime Hall on Broad Street
one block off the East River waterfront. But this interview took place
in the mailing office of the Pilot, the union paper, at the headquarters
of the Union on 11th Avenue)
LEFT RUDDER ---It's --it's --why, d' seamen is dumb about spirichel t'ings.
Yeah, yeah,
d' seamen.
up d' dead
d' spirichel side of t'tings is
D' Rebel, Captain two t'ousand
but the seaman don' undertand a
beyond the comprehension uv
years ago said 'I will raise
simple --aplain --a simple
spirichel statement. When d' Rebel Captain said that he meant he was gonna
raise up the spirichelly dead but them fools dey say what d' y' mean by
that, do yuh mean he's gonna take 'em outta graves and plant 'em back in
their mother's womb? Dey see d' ma terial side of t'ings, it's deir only mettid.
Yuh can't do nothint yid material like that, which can't interpret d' inner
meaning. I -I -L give up I'm tellin ya. ifflat d'yuh go' t'sea with. What.
With What yuh got up deir. That's my univoisity. That's been my univoisity
ftr tfirty years. But you gotta have it up deir in d' first place. Ant d'
-2
seamen by an' large he don't tink d' matter out to d' inner meaning. He's
a spirichel one-of-dem-fellers-that-walks around in -his -sleep fellers
what d'yuh call 'em --why, hell, d' seamen is a spirichel sunambilist.---
0-Halloran --Oh yeah, I know. Left Rudder is talkin an' don't anybody
try t' interrupt flr d' next two hours. So goddam rounabout an' ramblin'
all over d' place. Diseamen sounds skeptical alla time but that don' mean
a thing. He's always at one end and the other guys are at the pork chop
end of things. D'Ye get it? Alla the dam' time. Take these rescues they
have been havinl an the ivin' away of these medals. Just a lill,goddam piece
of brass. A month later when that crew on the Baytown that pulled them
people off of the Cavalier inra middle of the Atlanticill be onna beach
you'll be able to pick up these medals inna pawnshops. Every d'am one
of 'em. But it serves the purposes of alla the dam people that are at
the porkohop end of things. Lemme explain. An American seaman goes to
India an' gets into his shore togs an' he takes a look at these Indians
goin' around without shoes or clb'es more'n a litl piece of cotton. It
makes him thinks he's a helluva sight better off. Nhat've those Indians
that are exploited by d' Parsees got, he says to hisself, --sleepinl on
the ground with a blue sky for a blanket --an what've I got, he says, walkin,
down the street in Calcutta, --why he got a suit on wid that Sidney Hillman
label on y' know onna inside that he got in Noo Yawk on Canal Street. Ha -ha-
ha he says, I feel sorry for the poor Indian. He don' understan that the
whole goadam struggle is tied up. What are ye gonna do when it's human
nacher yer up against? That's the whole goddam difficulty. If ye have
a hunnerd revolutions where's it gonna get ye if d' way this goddam human
nacher operates is selfish? Ain' it true we're selfish inna majority?