Document text
NAE OF iAOH.FEft
APUIPSS
DATE
SUEJECT
Forms to be Filled out for Each. Interview
EOW4
Circumstances of interview
Ns m York
Ellis Williams
8E2 St. Nioholas Avenue, NYC
January 11. 1939
DOWN II THE WEST INDIES...
1. Date and time c0 intervi,2w
2. Place of interview
3. Name and address of informant
Staftslwritor
4. Name and address of person, if any, wno put in
to with in
5. Name and address of person, if any, occul4panying you
6. Description of room, heuse, surroundins, etc.
FOLKLORE
NEV YOPR
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, fur any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
STATE
NAVE OF wonhER
ADDRESS
DATE
SUBJECT
FORM C
Text of Interviryw (Unedited)
Bow York
Ellis Williams
652 4, Nicholas Ave., NYC
January 11, 1939
DOWN IN TUC V= INDIES...
FOLKLORE
NE' .t YORK
Doren in the West Indies, I am a law aloft and stenographer.
I am largely dependent on my parents for existonot, and beoause of
that I am discontented with iv lot. I am Aquaria, born to travel,
they say. The nomadic urge iongulfs me. I want to leave home and
the dependency of my folk. I hear and read a lot of Amorist. People
say it is a "bed of roses." A fortune is easy to acquire and a pro..
Passion easier still. I want to gol I want to goi
I am only in my teens and my parents try to discourage me.
listen to their good oounsol but cannot be dissuaded. I feel that
I have been a parasite on them too long. I am going even if I suffer,
and there is one thing oortain, if I do, they will never learn it from
NO*
I save my pence the lawyer pays me and book a poison*. Dad
comes to the mous and furnish** me with a good cabin and plates as
in the oars of the captain lbo knows something of the family Nieuwe of
shipments of produoe to America by the same line.
The trip is uneventful. Amriea is beautiful, but I am
anxious to get adjusted and find employment. I am assured it is only
a questica of time and perseverenos. Encouraged, I go into the tall
office buildings on lower Fifth Avenue. I try them all. Not a firm
is missed I walk in and offer my serviees I an bleak,
foreign lodkink; and a °uric. gy name is taken and I will be sent for
in a short tie. "Thank you." "Good day." "Oh don't mention it."
I am smiled out. I never hear frau them again
Eventually I um told that this is net the way it is done in
America. Whet typewriter do I use? Ohl Well go to the firm
that manufactures them. It maintains an employment bureau for the
benefit of users of their wahines. There is no disorimination there,
go and see them. Ere I goo I writs stating my experience, etc., eta.,
eta., etc. in reply I get a flatterin letter asking me to call. I
do so.
The place is crowded. A sea of feminine faces disarms me. But
I am no longer sensitive. I have gotten over that long sinoe. I
grit my tooth and amfidently take my seat with the orowd. At the desks
the clerks are busy with the telephones, filling out cards and applies.
tion blanks. I assure I am not seen. I am just one of the crowd. One
by one the ,iris, and men too, are sent out after jobs. It has been
raining. The air la foul. The girls are sweating in their war paint.
They are of the type that paints their lipe, pencil their brows, rouge
their cheeks and says to themeelvess "Clothes, I am gang downtowns if
you want to follow
is my turn.
hang on." At last they get around to me. It
3
I am in front position. In order to get to me the lady is
oblIzed to do a lot of detouring. At first I thought she vas about
to 0 out, to go pest me. Dot I am mistaken. She takes a seat ri6ht
in front of me, a smile on her wrinkled old-maidish face. I am sure
she is hoed of the department. It is a position that must be handled
with tact and di2lomaoy. She does not send one of her assistants. She
comes herself. She is from the Buckeye state. Sho trios to ask* no
fool at home by aniline; broadly in my face.
"Are you Mr
"Yes, I am."
"That's nice. lose haw much experience you say you have had?"
She is about to write.
"I have stated that in the letter, I think. I have had
I worked ror
"Oh yes, I have it right here. Used to be secretary for a
lawyer And you took honors in your class at school. That is
interesting, isn't it?"
I murmur unintelligibly.
"ell," continues the lady, we haven't anything at present...."
"but I thought you said in your letter you had a position for
me. I have it here with me. I hope I have not loft it at home..."
"That position wouldn't suit you," stammering, "it, to to to to to
it is position that requires banking experience. It is one of the
largest banks in the country. Secretary to the Vioo*President
Aho by the way, come to think oe it.. You knew Mr of Harlem?
You dol I think his nUMI:017 1 ..rsenth Avenue. fore is one
of his oardes tell if I were yclt I wou1(! c;(7 to see hi se 7ood
day.'
Dusk is on the horison. I em one nore on Fifth Avenw.
am not ,:4-1,11 to see the Lentlonan The man she is sendinG me
uy :7v1ther's