Hide Article Text (OCR)
CHANGING AMERICA♦ ♦ ♦lt’sO.K.For Barber On The Freights, Who, TheseDays, WorksFast And CheapEven Graduate Of Kansas City Barber College Can't Find Livelihood In Chicago, So He Seeks It On The ‘Road’(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is *nothsr of a series of 24 dailyarticles by Erskine Caldwell, author of “God’s Little Acre,” “Tobacco Road,” and other works, who traveled as a vagabond in order to secure these impressions of the drouth country.)BY ERSKINE CALDWELL (Copyright, 1C34, for The News.)V. THE BARBER OF THE NORTHWESTA NORTHERN PACIFIC freight train rolled in from the prairie, 8» cars long, and ground to a screeching stop on the embankment above the baseball park. The visiting House of David team was beating the locals 7 to 5 in the seventh inning, but Bismarck was up with two men on, one out, and the lead-off man was planting a single in right field. A relief pitcher climbed ♦-out of the House of David dugoutPalmolive building in Chicago. Sure, I save. I’ve got it planted all the way from St. Paul to Spokane.The train was passing at an increasingly rapid rate of speed. The faces of men and boys standing upright in coal gondolas, lying on flats, and sitting with their feet dangling over the sides of the freight cars, were flashing past faster than they could be counted. ’No family to take care of?’’ Iand began warming up on the sidelines. It looked pretty bad for thevisitors.The N. P. shook itself two or three times in quick succession, like a dog remembering its fleas, and a handful of hoboes clamored out of the gondolas and box cars and dropped to the ground. The sixty or seventy men and boys who remained on the train would reach Fargo sometime tha* night.Down in the dell the forty-cent fans were on their feet in grandstand and bleachers. Somebody had driven a long fly to center field for a sacrifice hit. and a runner scored.A man dropped beside me on the edge of the embankment and began opening up a leather satchel.What’s the score? he asked, taking out some things and placing them in a neat row on the ground.I pointed to the scoreboard down in the dell.The fellow glanced up for the first time and squinted down into the playing field.“Whiskers, eh? he said, and spat to one side.The bearded House of David team was making an easy out at first base, and coming In for their turn at bat The score stood 7 to fi In their favor now.♦ ♦The Barber of The N. P.THE fellow closed the saehel and placed it to one side Picking up a whetstone with one hand he selected with the other a pearl-handled razor from his collection of three. He began honing the blade.Barber?” he asked.Who? Me? I saidhe nodded.No, I said.He took a quick close look at my face.I can give you a once-over in a couple of minutes, he offered.I felt my face.I guess I can get by until tomorrow. I told him.”0. K.” he said.said.None for three years, Flynn the barber said. I had to drop my family when I took to the N. P. My wife and kids couldn’t see the N. P.Flynn, the negro, and I watched the caboose rattle past.“The wife and kids couldn’t see the N. P.” Flynn said. “I don’t know that I blame the many. O. K.”Works I p LatherTHE fellow poured a little wa-X ter from a tin bottle into a mug and began working up a lather. When it was ready, he set up a mii»or and began applying It to his faceAre you a barber* I asked him. He stopped what he waj doingand looked at me.“Don’t you know me? he asked in surprise.I shook my head.“Haven’t you ever traveled on the N P.?I told him T never had.O. K. he said, leaning forward to look into the mirror. I'm Har-py Flynn. I’ve been riding the N P for three vears; everybody who rides the N. P. knows me. I’m the |barber.”On the freights?” I asked. •’Sure,’’ Flynn said. “On thefrieghts.”A big negro swung off the refrigerator car behind us andstretched out on the embankment, with his pack under his head, to watch the baseball game in the dell.The barber got up. half-way through shaving, and went over to where the negro lay. They talked for a few minutes, and then he came back. He sat down before the mirror and applied some fresh lather to his left cheek.“Holes in his pockets,” Flynn said.Broke?”“Not even a nickle for a onceover, he said, scraping his chin. “What’s the cost of a haircut? “A dime and up—up when they’ve got it.That’s cheap enough.” I said.* • •Graduate) of K. C. B. C. ••/'HEAP is right for work by a L graduate of the Kansas City Barber college. A guy has to work cheap and fast for a living these days. O. K.The House of David scored two runs on bunched hits off the Bismarck pitcher. The negro sat up.Just look at those ball-playing fools! he shouted. “They're right up in the big-time league!Flynn wiped his razor and felt hi* face.Whiskers, eh? O. K.The locomotive whistle tooted like a fog-horn. Half a dozen mep and boys got up from the embankment grass and stretched. A rumble ran through the string of cars as the engineer took up the slack in the couplings. A moment later the wheels began turning eastward.The half a dozen men and boys swung up the sideB of the cars. The negro and the barber were watching the pitcher fan a Bismarck batter.Going east? I asked as the train began gathering momentum.Family At Home O. K.“East and west, it’s all the same. I can get mine anywhere between the LakeB and the Rockle*.’’Save anything?“Save? Sure! I save more on the N P. than I did working In
Newspaper Details
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas, US
Thu, Oct 11, 1934
Page 5
Full Page
Clipped by
Michael W.
NA, 31 Jul 2023
Other Publications Near Port Arthur, Texas
Port Arthur Community Post
Port Arthur News Community Post
Port Arthur News
Port Arthur Daily News
