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Forms to be Filled out for Each Interview
STATE
NOE OF WORKER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
utr4
4*.
FOLKLORE
FORM A NEW YORK
Circumstances of Interview
New York
Saul Levitt
557 117. 144th Street
June 1, 1939
MARITIME PAYOFF
1. Date and time of interview jume.1, 1939
2. Place of interview
Herman Partnaw
557 Mr. 144th Street
Tavern on 11th Avenue and 21st Street.
3, Name and address of informant Anonymous group of sailors.
4. Name and address of person, if any, who 2ut you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and adOress of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of rum, house, surroundins, eto.
(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.)
FORM C
TEXT OF INTERVIEW (UNEDITED)
STATE New York
NAME OF WORKER Saul Levitt Herman Partnaw
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
557 West 144th Street
June 1, 1939
MARITIME PAYORF
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
557 West 144th Street
We got a crew bar but I'm goin' up to Budwieser. I'm goin up
to Ruppert because there ain't any American beer on the ships. Jus
this Heinie beer. Why don the govt do something about it? Onna
Roosevelt we're carryin copper, zinc, and stuff for the Heinies. We
bring back gold, that's right, that's bein stored away. We ain't got
a shippin' industry, we're fourth or fifth. Nov, the majority in the
union says to hell with key positions, to hell with the gold braid
and the officer's uniform we're interested in the rank and file. Thgy're
not doing any thing about the cadets. I would say I've been at sea for
twelve continuous years. When I go ashore I want to hose 'em an' get
drunk. My grandfather and my father went to sea and my father don't
want me to cone back without the officer's gold braid. My father was
chief engineer of the Northern Way. Do you want to hear about a strike.
My roommate pulled a one man strike in the Gear and Transmission Depart-
ment of Chevrolet. No, I'll tell you why I don't believe in the CIO.
Listen. A mass strike or a mass picket line ain't the right thing to
do, it ain't American. I can see you're an American. Public senti-
ment always win, an if it's the truth it wins.
-2-
EARATIARKRIMEAHLHAH Two Polish girls were talking. The bellboy
came along. 'Say, why is the captain such ayyoung man.' Such a
young manl She thought the bellboy was the captain. Because of the
braid and uniform he is so dressed* But this is really so' Hal
Do you think the Czechs are defeated, do you think there is no Czech-
oslovakia? Oh -ho -ho. We have fish one two three days. One girl.
I think she was Hungarian. She have seen the line that is over the
side. She asked me why do we have so much fish. I point to the line
and I said to her the sailors they fish over the side all the time.
(All the girls like him.) Even when they have the monthly, they come
over for advice and--surel By gosh I dol
Here's another thing. It's a complete shakedown. The whole
merohant marine is in violation of all the lam. The fellers thats
examining you don't know anything. If you want your certificate.
Asking you questions that they don't know the answers to. Thut's
not protection to American ships an sailors an passengers. The
American passenger service we have't any ships. We haven't no ship-
yards like Swansea or Liverpool. German girls are nice. You can buy
'em. They hate it over there. Listen. You go over there and they're
walkin the streets. Some of the prettiest girls you ever saw. For
a couple of dollars they'll crawl on the floor all the way over to
this country. They'll sleep with you. They'll follow you around
like a dog. They'll marry you and come over to this country'
Havana. Yessir. Or South America. Rio de Jameior is got the
biggest whorehouse district in the world. The girl I liked the most
my motherl Yessir. I had my taxicabs a me awn. (S.A.Capetown,
Durban).
#41*******#
-3
When we made fifty dollars a day. Hey! When we made fifty
dollars a day look, son when people were go3m from here to
the other country.
I was married in different ports from an infant to a nigger.
Muscatel it costs the same. I'm a Cherokee. Well... But still
I gat to have a nickel to go in the subway. Montana. Six months old.
Someone asked me why do they call you Cherokee I said someone broke
a chair over my head. You wanna hear a cattle rustlin yar. A day be-
fore he gets nine old houn dogs an he starves am before he's stealin
his cow. Well, after he bulldogs her an used the knife. He lets those
houn dogs go after her ears an chew em off an then he drags the oaroass
off. Oh my buddy shorel
Honolulu ideal weather ideal women live on a fishhook
Tripics get in your blood. I'd be content to live there. There's not
one that's dirty or dishonest. Tropical weather. Nenstr. three times
a month. WHite, courteous, corageous. That's my paradise. Dy'see
Charles Laughton in The Beachcomber (Amer. Indican ahhah beachcombin
that's what he mints) That was really life. My old man. Bookcase.
Robert Louis Stevenson. I remember climbin up to geta book. Boston.
Now gettin filled up with Portugee.
They call me Smily. Once wanted to dee-port me. Hello& You
see him. The Mad Plumber of the Uruguay. Ns and my buddy, ain't
been doin anything for a year. We come out in a morning. We get a
guy like you to buy us coffee.
Don't do a thing. A Mexican is a
loafer like him and me. I got left by a ship in Tampico, Mexico.
I bummed across the country in six weeks. In that country if they
know you're an American the prices go up. They can steal your socks
without takin your shoes off. I was as high as a balloon in Juarez.
Ya can ()all it a crimp joint. Originally there was just two birds.
Dunn the night I was high and she put the tree onl In the morning
she put the fruit onna tree. A one -eyed Georgia nigger dons that
tattoo work. My wife wanted somethin else an she got me high and
then she had it put on there, MY TUre Love.
White Shirt That's the way it is. Some guy has a canoe on4 his
chest an before ye knew it ye got the Levithan.
I've been in the lousiest jails.