said, 'Where you from?' I said, 'I'm from Georgia, but I came on this
boat from Little Hock.' He put his arm around my shoulder and said,
'Come on upstairs.' We had two or three drinks upstairs, and he said,
'You and your pardner are the only two men I have that is worth a damn.'
Then he said, 'But you are right; you have a name, and you have a right
to be called by it.' And from then on, he quit callin' us out of our
names.

"But I only stayed on the boat six months. It wasn't because of the
captain. Them niggers was bad. They gambled all the time, and I gambled
with them. But they wouldn't stop at that. They would argue and fight
and cut and shoot. A man would shoot a man down, and then kick him off
into the river. Then when there was roll call, nobody would know what
became of him. I didn't like that. I knew that I was goin' to kill
somebody if I stayed on that boat 'cause I didn't intend for nobody to
kill me. So I stopped.

"After that, I went back to the man that I worked for the month for and
stayed with him till I married. I took care of the stock. I was only
married once. My wife died the fourteenth of October. We had three
children, and I have one daughter living.

"I have voted often. I never had no trouble. I am a colored man and I
ain't got nothin' but my character, but I take care of that. I let them
know I am in Arkansas. I ain't been out of Arkansas but to Memphis and
Vicksburg, and I took them trips on the boat I was working on. I was a
good man then.

"I can't say nothing about these wild-headed young people. They ain't
got no sense. Take God to handle them.

"Some parts of politics are all right and some are all wrong. It is like
Grant. He was straddled the fence part of the time. I believe Roosevelt
wants eight more years. Of course, he did a great deal for the people
but the working man isn't getting enough money. Prices are so high and
wages so low that a man keeps up to the grindstone and never gets ahead.
They don't mean for a colored man to prosper by money. Senator Robinson
said a nigger wasn't worth but fifty cents a day. But the nigger is
coming anyhow. He is stinching hisself and doing without. The young
folks ain't doing it though. These young folks doing every devilishment
on earth they can. Look at that boy they caught the other day who had
robbed twenty houses. This young race ain't goin' to stan' what I stood
for. They goin' to school every day but they ain't learning nothin'.
Wh