Document text
API COPY 111311 TIN WOOD1101111CM,
Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
FORM A
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Saul Levitt
ADDRESS .557 West 144 Street
DATE May 3, 1939 t'
SUBJECT .MAtitime
1. Date and Uric, of intervievr
May 2
2. Place of interview
In the mailroom of the Union.
3. Name and address of informant
(Group of speakers.)
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.
FOLKLORE
NIf YORK
The mailroom; like any shipping office, this one with a bulletin board on mail
received so that seamen just off ships come in and scan it all day long. The
Pilot, Union publiCation, is filed here in bins. The mailroom is used as a
gathering place by some of the men.
(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.)
FOLKLORE
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York
NAVE OF WORKER Saul Levitt
ADDRESS 557 West 144 Street
DATE May 3, 1939
SUBJECT Maritime
NEW YORK
SAILOR NEWS FRUK
Seville, Malaga, all of the ports under the Rebel regime,
we'd pull in empty and came out with olives, anchovies —sherry wine from
Malaga. tayiat into port at Seveille we were goint up this river what-
_
the -hell -do -you -call -it the Godikiver--the Guadalquiver that's right.
An' on the shore we seen the people sittint outside the huts ant nacherally
why goddamit the sun out ant it's a new port. We line up along the rail
wavint at them people ant not a soul waved back. Then Jack Cordo gives
'em the loyalist salute ant they disappear like a lot of antelope. One
old man saluted back and bejeezus his old lady lays into tin and drives
tiem into the house. It was too quiet ant peaceful for your nerves.
I RUN INTO MCINTYRE THAT WAS ON THE WISCONSIN WHICH RAN THE BLOCK*
ADE INTO BARCELONA. HE'S GOT THE JITTERS FROM LOOKINt OUT FOR
PLANES. JUST SAW ONE OF 'ER THAT DIDN'T FIRE BUT HE'S GOT THE
JITTERS SINCE THEN JUST AS IF HE WAS IN THE WAR.
We seen one Italian destroyer comint into port. They ran dawn the
Italian flag at the pier in Seville ant up went the Rebel flag. The port
officials come down as soon we're in ant start to put on the charges bejeesus.
For the port entry, says one of 'ems rubbing his hands, that be four
hundred dollars. Ant for the carabineros for protection that'll be Another
four hundred dollars. An' for the -let's see -that'll be another four'hundred
dollars. Bejeezus the company paid.
We couldn't go ashore all the time we was in port. You could see
them tin soldiers marohinl back an' forth all day. Them Moors was dressed
like all the other Rebel soldiers. Jack Cordo painted the gangplank one
night loampo de concentracion numero uno' and boy' did that get them.
DID YOU EVER SEE A PRETTIER TOWN THAN SEVILLE.
There ls Rebel flags all over the place an' Jaok got ashore one
day. I always thought sack was a 'queer' ylknovrvith his high voice but not
now I didn't. He was standint on the street just off the pier when them
soldiers passed by. Everybody gives 'em that salute but Jack don't do
nothinl. The lootenant gives Jack a godalmighty thwack on the south side
with the butt end of the gun and Jack swung at fim from the sidewalk an' ran
like hell up the gangplank into contracion camp numero mo.
There was hell to pay. The officials come on board ant the captain
calls Jack down. What's the idea of assualtinl a soldier of the govertment, he
says,. Well, says Jack, I'm not goin' to give a furrin salute whioh I don't
know haw to do right. I mighta saluted an' got my brains blawed out. What's
his idea givin, me a whack in the arse?
THAT SETrum IS THE PRETTIEST TOWN I EVER SAW.
They patched that one up allright but %lack was mad bejeezus. He
sneaked ashore one day and got hold of a rebel flag ant did his dooty in it.
But they got him ant they near killed Zim for the little trick.
HE DIDN'T HAVE TO GIVE NO GODDAM SALUTE IN THE FIRST PLACE. WHAT'S
OUR CONSULS DON' IN THEM MEDITERRANEAN PORTS? YOU/RE AN AMERICAN CITIZEN AN'
IF YOU GET IN A JAM THEY LET YOU GET SHOVED INA FURRIN CLINK TO ROT AN' DIE.
FELLER GOES SANDHAWG WILD FER A LITTLE WHILE AFTER A LONG TRIP AN' THE SHIP IS
GONE AN' HE CAN'T GET NO ADVICE FOR NOTHINI FROM THE CONSUL.
In Malaga five of those oarabineros worked it swell with Jack an'
the radio operator. One of the boys kept watch an' the carabineros came on
board into the radio cabin. They wonted to hear the shortwave radio from
Valencia and drid.
THAT SEVILLE IS THE PRETTIEST TIWN.
I met a girl in Malaga that says her father's captain of this
ship now that's lyin' off of Staten Island an' she says to me 'give him a
message but I'll be damned I says, I'll be damned-
I'VE SEEN SOME OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT SHIPS THAT wak, HEIN'
HELD FOR THE END OF THE WAR LYIN1 IN THE ROAD OUT OF THE HARBOR AT BUENOS
AYRES. THERE'S NO SIGHT LIKE SHIPS WAITIN' AN' WAITIN1 LIKE THAT.
ant I'll be darned I says again if I'll take a message back to
that ship, do you know senorita haw many boys in this union went over to this
war on the right side of it, and do you know many ain't never comint back
again? I says.
THAT SEVILLE MUST BE ONE OF THE PRETTIEST TOWNS IN THE WORLD.