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Roaldus Richmond
ONE ThINO I HAVE
He was dressed in a gray suit, striped ties and white
shoes, for it was the Sunday before Memorial Day. The seasonal
rush in the granite business was over for another year, and
there was no more work until Wednesday. Freeman was young,
in the early thirties, his face fresh and boyish, his head bald
except for fringes of blond hair. It was a good clean Swedish
face, very solemn. he spoke slowly, carefully, with an accent
that was nearly a lisp. There was a certain dignity about him.
lie lived in a pleasant well -furnished rooming house and
took his meals there. It was a good place to live, almost like
home except for the landlady. "She's an old maid, crabby,
always in the way," Freeman said, raising his eyebrows in a
peculiar expression of suffering. "She won't let you alone.
She has to know everything that goes on. It's all the fun she
gets in life." There were only a few other boarders: A gay
and bitter young secretary who called Freeman her boy friend,
mockingly, because Freeman always insisted he felt like a
brother to her; a red-faced gray-haired old man of eighty-four,
childlike in his simplicity, who wanted to die; a large soft
young business man, dissipated and obsessed with the pursuit
of pleasure... strange companions for the hard -muscled young
granite -cutter with the sad face.
"I had my bag all packed to go away," Freeman said, shak-
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ing his bald head and shrugLing his shoulders. II"I didn't go
anywhere... Like my friend Jensen said last winter: 'I bought
ski -boots and ski -pants. I don't go skiing. I get dronk.'
But I didn't get drunk tils time. I stayed up all night though.
t,e4 went to a dance in Groton. Best time I ever had, I think,
and I was sober. I didn't care to drink for once. Two
quarts in the car but I didn't touch it. Let the others get
plastered. Last time I went I was no tight the girls wouldn't
dance with me, But last night I had a wonderful good time,
you know. Oh yes, wonderful. Today I am so sleepy. Vaybe
I'll get drunk today.
"No, 1 don't talk about the girls I go with. I rspect
women. In the poolroom I hear them talking about the girls
they had last night. I don't like that. I like to shoot pool
but I don't like that. A man doesn't talk about those things.
Sometimes I stop in the midlle of the game, hang up my stick
and walk out. I rf,spect woman. I would like to get married
if I find the right one, but it's not so easy today. I don't
want to make a mistake in that.
"I am protd of my race. Sweden is the cleanest country,
you know. The Swedish people are clean, they have high prin-
ciples and standards of living. There are no slums in Sweden.
No slums at all. aqld the lowest percent veneAl disease of
any country. This country is the worst for that, you know.
Yes, and here is the worst in Vermont for that. In Sweden
they cleaned it right out in ten years. The government did it.
It's the only way. You know now they did it? By making it
public, everything out in the open. By teaching people and
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conquering ignorance. It is nct to be hiden and ashamed of.
That's what causes disease like it in this country. Over there
the government instructs the parents, fathers instruct their
sons mothers instruct their daughters. If a case is not re-
ported you can go to jail for two years, you know. Yes, I AM
proud of my race.
"I coma from southern Sweden near Gotebort„. All flat
agriculture land there, flat like out west in this country.
Some industrial towns, some seaports, but the land is all flat
for agriculture. I was twenty when I came with some others.
There was a depression in Sweden and men were leaving. 110 had
jobs before we started. An American agency was getting jobs
for all the men who come over. I never thought I'd cut stone,
but I have for eleven years. 1.hen I saw stones in graveyards
at home, you know, they meant nothing; just stones. 1 didn't
want to be a stonecutter but it's the only thing here. If you
have no education you must have a trade. You got tc, have a
trade. Then you have something they can't take away from you,
see?
"We sailed to halifax, then down to New York. Palifax
was all foggy, just like London. We were three days in the
fog ;Letting into port. There were lots of Swedish men, a few
Swedish girls, mostly Finnish girls on the boat. One of them
said when we got to Halifax: "If I had the money I'd go right
back." Most of them went to Canada. Only a few came down to
this country. Yost of them had no jobs, no money, didn't know
what they would do. Just take a chance with employment agencies.
It took courage, you know. Absolutely it took courage. But we
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had our jobs already.
Nith us it was different. This man met us in New York.
Ee had to sign papers we would be no burden on the United States.
If we had run off or something he wouldn't be fixed so good.
he was responsible for us. In Barre the jobs were waiting for
us. They still needed men after the strike. That was eleven
years ago, you. know 1928. In 1921 they had a biz strike
here. We didn't have any real trouble when we got here, a few
hard looks maybe, some talk against us. But there were only
a few of us. The feeling was against the French-Canadians they
had brought in, hundreds of them. Yes, I am Union, you have
to be in my shed.
"I learned to be a polisher, to finish the stone after
it's sawed and surfaced, before it goes to be carved. Most of
the finishing is done by machine, you've seen the big machines
they use. I run one of those. ometirAls the stone has to be
hand -polished afterwards. Yes, eleven years of it for me now.
"And I never thought I'd be a stonecutter. ".7.;ut after you
get started you don't want to take something with lower pay,
you know. I'm Llad I've 4:ot a trade. It's not so bad in the
sheds now. The vacuums are safe. There's no need of a man
being killed in the sheds now if he's careful. Some of the
old men don't care, they won't try to be careful. Probably
it's in them already and they know it, because when they started
the dust was very bad.
"I learned the trade here in Barre. I worked three years
here, then I went to Concord for three years. I worked for
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Swenser in Concord, the bigi:est shed in the country. They had
vacuums there fifteen years ago, you know. But they never cot
then in Barre until five -six years ago, I think. Old gwenser
was in the shed all the time, always in the shed. One day a
man beside me didn't use his vacuum. Swenser asked him why
not. The man said he didn't have time to turn it on. gwenser
said: *They cost me 41;150,0W to put in here and I want them
used. dive me five minutes and I'll give you time.' Fe went
into the office, came back with the man's check, fired him right
Swenser didn't care so much about the men maybe. E0
was afraid for his own health, being in the shed all the tire
that way.
"I learned Pnglish here in night school. I started as
soon an I got bore. That's another •thing the Swedes do, you
know. If you're going to live in a country you should know
the language. The Italians and Spanish COMA here and it's two
generatione before they're spanking Pnglish, see? But the
Swedes want to learn it right away when they get here.
"I like it here, I have a good time. I have learned more
here than I would in Sweden. No, I don't want to go back to
Sweden to live. I'd like to go back to see my mother, she's
still living over there. I'd like to see her and other people
of mine. But I lL,,a it all right here to live.
"You know Krueger, the Match King. He came over here from
•teeden, too, ho learned the language here just like me. Fe
was in Texas for awhile. he WAS an engineer, built buildings,
and then his big fortune he built on matches. Funny, a little
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thing like a match. how many you throw away every day. I can't
understand a an like him. I don't understand how he did it,
all by himself too. You have to be ruthless, absolutely ruth-
lees. Yeu have to be merciless, heartless. You have to step
on your best friend maybe. Absolutely ruthless... I can't be
that way. I can't even step on people not my friends, you know.
"I met an old friend of mine today
tab a
Varick. Ye used to
be here. We used to drink and Lc> around together. Now he is
an organizer for the CIO. I asl:ed him to have a beer. re said:
/7o, no, I can't do it, rreeman, I just been to church. That
wa all richt. It's all ri ht to co to church. I o myself
sometimes. But then he said: 'AndI have an engagement to play
golf.' That was enouct for me. That was too much. If you
had known Varick before. Fe had changed so ranch. For heaven's
sae, how do people chAnge so much in such a little while? Fe
was like a stranger to me. I didn't know him any more. I don't
want to know him. 'I have duct been to church, and I have an
engalToment to play golf...1 Varick! After all the times we
had together. I couldn't talk any more to him. I left him
rirht there.
"This Krueger, he must ve been a great man. You saw
the movie they made of him? Some people think Trueger is still
alive. Nobody knows for sure. A doctor in Stockholm who knew
him well sweers he saw him alive after the funeral. rreger
had frrests in Northern Sweden. Pis matches came from there.
he had gold mines, too, diamond mines in South Africa, every-
V:ing• he had luck. But he must have had brains too, he must
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have had something up here, you bet.
"Ee came over just like I did, with nothing. Le built a
great fortune for himself. none different from me there.
will never build any fortune. Jut I will live my lire and
pórhap I will enjoy it more than Krueger.
"And one thinE I have. Nobody can take it away from me.
That is my trade,"