Modesto News-Herald from Modesto, California • Page 22

"illilllllllL'iiiiilimilllililiiHiiiiiHilli'- I TO What Pau! Bunyan is to lumber jacks of the north woods, "John Henry the Steel Driving Man" is to railroad labor gangs of the south, and now the mystery has been removed from the legends of his famous contest to decide which was the stronger-- mem with a sledge or a steam drill By GUY B. JOHNSON of Sociology. University oj Carolina,) vou ask almost any Negro workingmsn who is the greatest hero of his race, the chances are that he will name John Hebry among the first two or three. In fact, rainy Negroes will bs able to tell you all about John Henry who may know nothing of men like Booker T. Washington.

Who was this John Henry, then, who has gained such a witfc reputation? The usual story about John Henry is that he Was a powerful Negro steel driver who pitted his strength against a steam drill in to prove his supremacy, and after winning his fight, dropped dead "with the hammer in his hand." His name has become a by-word among Negroes for strength and endurance. One of work songs could Acmmer John Henry, Lavd, I'd be a man, I'd be a man. A.steel driver is a mt-i who hammers a steel drii! into rock or stone to make a hole in which explosive may be. inserted. Formerly hand drivers did all of this sort of work in tunnelling, raining, etc.

In these days of clsctricity, steam, and compressed air, the steel driver is not what he used to be. There arc literally hundnds of songs and scories.tltat have grown up around this man John Henry. Wherever you find Negro laborers you will find someone who knows abyul John Henry and likes to talk about" him. EVERAL years ago, I became interested in the tradition about John Henry and decided to study it, first, to see how much information about John Henry I could biing together, and second, to satisfy my curiosity as to whether the man was real or was merely a Boylh. I began by talking to Negro workers and wanderers, men who go over the land with rainbows 'round their shoulders and wings on their feet.

They know John Henry best, because he was. a workingman himself. I got dozens of songs from them, but they niide the mystery of John Henry all the darker. One man would say, "Sure, i know all about John Henry." but-he would reel off some talc would be all loo obviously the product of his imagination or his desire to please me. Another would say.

uncle used work with that man John Henry, but uncle is dead now and 1 can't give you the exact story." Another-would say, "My knows John Henry--used to work with him. But 1 left home when 1 was 14, and my father has gone out West somewhere, I don't know where he is." Some men would tell me that John Henry worked and died in West Virginia when the Big Bend Tunnel was being built. Others would say, "Why, everybody knows that old John Henry beat the steam drill and died in Alabama." Still others would give Tennessee or North Carolina or Kentucky as the stale where John Henry's great combat took place. The more I tried to find out something definite about John Henry, the more confusion I found. The Negroes agreed on only one thing: John Henry was a teal man.

"the best steel driver the world ever saw." As to where, when, and how his contest with the steam drill happened, there were so many tales that began to look as if there a dozen different John Henrys. I seemed useless to try to find out whether John Henry was or imaginary, but my curiosity was whetted by all these tales, began to hold John Henry contests in Negro schools in the bouth, giving prizes to those who turned in the best songs or histories of John Henry, i put advcr- lircnKnts in Negro newspapers asking for old ballads or other information. The result stiii more contradictory tlori--s about jolm Kcnjy. But these were often and at one time I thought I had trailed John Henry to his beginning. There came within a few days of each other At a bend cj the River in th? bfautiiui mountains Weil a vicit' Me mouth Big Bend it'here tne legendary jolm said to have challenged the drill.

JOHN HENRY, THE STEEL DRIVING ifesrv isM Jolm Kniry UK 'You mint litlfn cali. rfrill tloU I'll jar moiuThi.u l-iry "I bclific tlific mountains arc Jwlin Henry said lo his tapuun: "On my Lumiifr Imr in llic wind," JcTin Htnrv lo captain: "Your I'loucy is tf ilini; ttinmirr llirotifth Uiis old uiounUiii, Oh ditUiia vou walk itit" Jolu! Htnn-V niilaia t-irnc lo liiin Wiltt i 11 hU luml. Hr bt.l IM Ins ihttiUlrr am! iiiiu "This a sicei nun." It.nrv Ittmimrina on Ihr UK ilou-i dnti 0:1 Oir k-ft. llul dril! nxiM lcjl liim tlowii. lie his foci H-if (kalti.

Tncy cirric-i John Htnrv to lit? Ffum his ihu'ililer hi IUIIIUKT nou'd Six CHIRM in iltv by a litllc blue blaze I bclidc ottf JIT CSUKJ; in. John Henry was Itifts on his beJ. He turned over en his side. Awl tbctc wrre llw billon's John uii! "Bring me a rucl drink of Lcfotc Joitn Hrnry kid a titt'c woman. Her name Pollic Ann.

He huwcd ar.ti jial before he "Poliic, ilo ifce very bcil you can." Js'irt Henry's uoman heard he was oVad, couid nc-l ml on her bed. She cot up at cnuclil tltat No 4 train, "I cm going II? ary fell They carried John Hcnrv thai new burying gtcunj Jl'U wift all tL-cssci! In She bid her hand on John Hcnry'i cold face, "John lit nrv I've been Inie lt vou." Prirt 5 Cents" W. T. BLAXKENSHIP. muscles against iteam and steel.

Tim Paul Krccsen dmaing of John Htnrti's defiance cf ihs machine a'U5 made from descriptions cf the siven to Johnson by en eyewitness. 'i nt stories tell that the giant laborer beat the steam drill then "dreppcd dead his hammer in his hand." Facsimile of an aid printed hal- lad of John Henry it soM originally for frvc cents, but th is noiy the only copjj Ifnoivri. The cast mouth of Big Bend Tunnel. There are legends among the colored laborers that John JieroYs statue in carved in the funnel fonc and that his hammer jnay still be heard n'ngfng on three letters from people who lived far apart, but who Icid very similar stories. The first came from Utah.

An elderly Negro wrote me a 2250-word description of the famous steel-driving It happened in northeastern Alabama, he at Cruzec Tunnel, which was being buill by the G. S. Railway. He gave the date as September 20. 1882, and gave minute details.

The second lellcr was from an aged colored man of Birmingham, Ala. I will quote part of jl. "Thrrc was a ica! man John Henry. He was the champion of the world wiih a hammer. I was driving steel on Red Mountain at the time of the contest.

John Henry was Cvtzey Mountain 'j tinnei. happened about (882." Notice ihat these two very air.iJc.: except for the cf ihe mountain. The third letter came from a woman in Laming, Michigan. (Copyright, Er Evcrj-'iVcck who said. "My Uncle Gus was working with John Henry and saw him when he beat the steam drill and fell dead.

This was in the year 1 887. It was at Oak Mountain Alabama." were three people claiming to "have firsthand knowledge about the real John Henry. Their accounts were alike except in minor details. I thought that I had come to the end of the John Henry trail. I wrote to the roadrnaster of the A.

G. S. Railway to get the exact location of the Ciuzee or Curzey Tunnel. He replied: "There is no tunnel on the A. G.

S. known as Cruzee or Curzey. There is only one tunnel on "this line, and il ij known as Lookout Mountain unnel." I asked newspaper editors, public officials, and others in northeastern Alabama if they knew of any such mountain or. tunnel. They did not.

I could not find one bit of evidence to support the three letters. John Henry seemed, after all) to be only a But the legend still haunted my mind, I tried many clews, but they turned out as the Alabama case did. Finally. 1 decided to try one other. clew.

Several Negroes had me that they had always heard tliftt Big Bend Tunnel on the C. O. road in West Virginia was the place where John Henry met his trngie end. Then, loo. many of the songs about John Henry began like ibis: John Henry was a little boy.

Setltn' on his mama's lines. Said, "The Big Ben Tunnel on the C. 7s gonna be the death o' me, Is gonna be tfic death me." I had written before this to the C. O. Railroad officials iit Richmond, and they had said there was never any steam drill at Big Bcrid.

There I had let the matter rest. But now I received a letter from a white man who had been associated with a contractor on the Big Bend Tunnel. This man assured me that John Henry did work at Big Bend, thai there a steam drill there, and that John Henry beat it drilling. BEND TUNNEL was be un in 1370. finished in 1872.

Steam drills were invented in 1849. I found that the C. O. road had used a steam drill at Lewis Tunnel in 1871. not the same company which placed thr steam drill at Lewis Tunnel have tried to sell one at Big Bend? Al any rale, I considered it worth while lo go lo Big Bend Tunnel.

This tunnel is in a very beautiful part of the Alle- ghcnies in Summers County, Va. It was named for the big bend in the Grcenbiicr River near Talcotl- fn the village of Taicott I found that nearly everybody, both white and colored, had heard lhat John Henry died at Big Bend. Seeing lhal there was a strong local sentiment to this effect, I set cut lo find someone who had actually worked on the tunnel 57 years before. I found several people living near the tunnel who had helped build it, but they were not especially encouraging. It hard for people to remember accurately what happened 57 years ago.

Take Uncle Beverly, for instance, a Negio ncaily 100 years old. Hs was a mature man when he worked on the tunnel. I went to see him at his httle cabin. At the mention of John Henry he brigritcned as if he going to recall something. But the whatever it couldn't quite get across the door of his memory, and I had to go away disappointed.

I found several mtn who ssid thry vert boys 12 or 14 when the tunnel was bcsun and could rc- 0 VFTEN I was told. "See Old Man So-and-So. He surely ought to be able to give you the truth about this." Then I would look up Old Man So-and-So, only to hear him tell that he had heard about the drilling contest, but had not seen it. Then he would name some other Thus I chased clew: around for several dav i never forget the day I spent looking for a roan whom several people had advised me to see. Starling early.

I drove seven miles over rough roads and came to a small house at the end of the road. A young lady came out. I asked if I could g-3t lo Mr. Smith'; house from that point. "You can," she replied, "but you'd better not try it unless you know the way." She gave me directions for another route.

I backed up, retraced my seven miles, drove seven more. I stopped and asked a man if I was on the right road. "Yes," he said. "but turn left at the next crossroad." But he was facing in the opposite direction, and his left was my right. 1 discovered hii error only after six more miles.

Getting on the right track again. I finally came lo a village on the river. I inquired for Mr. Smith. He lived on the other side of the river up near the top oi the mountain.

I was hungry, tired, and hot, but I thought "It's worth it all if I can find this man." Borrowing a boat, I rowed across the river. At last I sighted a house. As I approached, a boy with a shotgun came toward ihc gate. I went nearer, hailed him, and found with great relief that he was looking for hawks. The boy woke his falhei from his afternoon nap.

He yawned and, I told him my business. "Oh." he said, "Is that what you came way up here for? Well, they told you ihc wrong Smith. 1 never worked al Big Bend Tunnel in my life and I don't know a thing about it." FELT like giving up John Henry then and there, but B' I drove up a littje leading off from Greenbrier River near Big Bend i unncl. hoping to see one more man who was supposed to know al! about John Henry. fell quickly as the sun sank behind the mountain, and I saw that I would be unable to find my man that day.

But I noticed a house across the creek from ihc road. A man sat on the porch smoking. I over the. bridcc lo the house. 1 his man, known as Neal Miller, told me in plain words how he hnd come the tunnel with his father at 17, how he carried water and drills for ihe steel drivers, how he saw John Henry every day.

and. finally, all about the contest between John Henry and the steam drill. the agent for the steam drill company brought the drill here," said Mr. Miller. "John Henry wanted to drive against it.

He took a lot of pride in his work and he haleci to see a machine take the work of men like him. they decided lo hold a test to get an idea ol ho'w practical the steam drill was. The lest went on all day and part ol ihc nest day. "John Henry won. He wouldn't rest enough, and he overdid.

He took sick and died soon after thai." Mr. Miller described the steam drill in detail. I made a sketch of it and later when 1 looked up pictures of the early steam drills, I found his description correct. 1 asked peorjle aboul Mr. Miller's rcpulation, and they all said.

"If Ncal Miller said anything happened, it happened." AD I al last come to the end of John Henry's trail? has a right lo interpret the evidence as h- clcsircs, but I am convinced that there was a man named John Henry worked at Big Bend Tunnel, and lhal he competed with a steam drill and came out ahead. Whether he died on the spot or not, I say. Perhaps the legend He sMad; for (he arr-lfng 0 man with mnchir.c. Mjn indy beat the machine temporarily, but in ihc end th" machine wins. There is something almost religious in th: feeling which some Negroes have for this hero.

One man said to me. "Csp'n. 1 hopes sorr.ciirncs 1 CM go Big Bend Tunnel and that statue of John Henry. They lelis me you can see him there carved out o' solid Bis Bend Turinel iv'ncn ijkeJ a Nraro fe had all heard of the drilling bu actually seen it. Uagazlae--Printed la U.

S. Thcv of thrm had.