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Albert Pbrris 9
Q: So describe to me exactly what you did.
A: k delivered material, it 'd be loaded on top during the day. Day
shift muld load all the material, evexybody wuld order their props and
ties ard all their material they needed, then that night re hoistd it
dom below. tk mld take it from the bottm with a mtor . The only
place yau had a mtor was fran the bottm to a certain place inside the
we. You could only go so far and then from there on, e used to have
to take a mule and deliver the mterial with the mle. That vas pretty
rough, especially &en you had rails to deliver. You had a chain there
ard you had to do all that spragging yourself, throwing sprags in the
wheels ad everything. It ms dangerous wxk.
Q: Yes. &at m the danger to it
A: There =re so many mules, they got killed just from these cars getting
away horn the rails. be tim the rail ran thraugh the rmle and killed
him.
Q: So the rail was on the car and it just slid d m the track
A: Well, yes, because the mle didn't get out of the my. They wmt on
through. Didn't get there in time to sprag the car or anything, to put
it on you =re pullhg, yau didn't have anything solid. Just a chain
there, they called the tail chain.
Q: Did many men get killed doing that
A: Oh, yes. There -re a lot of accidents. That s e d lib at that
time they =re mre interested about whether you killed a rmle or not,
became they couldn't replace a mle so wll.
Q: Oh, really1
A: Yes. Anytime there a s an accident some man or somthing , if there
was a mle driver in with them, they m ld always holler first a d say,
"How's the mle" (lau&ter) They =re mre interested in the mle than
they ere the mn. (lau&ter)
Q: How did the rm~ react to that Did they strike at all, have wildcat
strikes aver that time
A: They had wildcat strikes and everything, but I mean they had their
place. I just can't describe it. They had god unions at that time
because I kww my dad ws telling TIE those colored people viere pretty
good union m. He r d r s the president of the local there said when
they wld start the meting, they d d have their old .38. That's the
they mld put down on the desk there. He said, 'Wow the
meeting wi 1 cane to order." (laughter)
9
Q: The union mn said that.
A: Yes. The president of the local, he'd have the .38 there and that
wuld be his gavel, said the meeting wuld come to order. I guess it
m1d too. (laughter)