1897

We are often taking a backward look at events, incidents and accomplishments which have given us satisfaction. I wish all of us would write down some of these memories in definite form, like the winning of a law suit; the printing of a book; the preaching of a sermon; the healing of a patient; an engineering accomplishment; a satisfactory hobby; the building or the purchase of a home.

Our hobbies may be a little more personal than our jobs, but I am sure that hobbies are often important as well as interesting. Here are a few examples:

Rowe has spent a major portion of his active years in the job of making books. The details of this art would be most interesting to us all. Just how is a book made?

J.D. Brown has had a lot to do with using maps that show historical pictures of the events of worth of areas in New York State. These maps are a great help to schools in the study of history. Wish we could have more details.

Bolser and Gibson have developed gardens of character. We would like to have pictures and details of these gardens. Noyes had had a lot of interest in civic club activities, one of the influences on culture in Boston in an interesting period. Details of these activities would be most interesting. This kind of leadership stamps the thinking of a period more than we know.

Temple as mayor of a city and judge of a court must have many interesting memories which we would like to have him share with us in detail.

Batch has been on many frontiers. Wish we could have detailed information about his letter from William Jennings Bryan, also one from General Pershing about his war activities.

John Henderson with his nose to the grindstone, as a student, as a rancher, as an orange grower, has had many character-building experiences. We all would like to know more about these. Holt has many hobbies, color photographs of exotic flowers and plants, study of colonial homes, and the shivering feeling of winter sea bathing as a member of the Polar Bear Club; also a collection of Japanese prints. Pictures of some of these, especially swimming among the ice cakes, would be of special interest.

Watson has come closer to the inside influence of the Yankee home life than any of us. He probably knows a lot about the characteristics of the true Yankee today. Wish he would unfold some of the retained characteristics of the New England people of our generation.

Erdix has studied the fine points of game fishing and he has told us where, in map-like detail. Now I want him to tell us how the fly is used. A picture of a dozen of his successful flies would interest quite a lot of college professors who tie flies. The art of fly-casting is old. Among Sir Isaac's pupils, Erdix is one who knows and practices this art in our time and he has no right to keep it a secret. Erdix has very strong wrists, important in fly casting. I have often watched him in action, casting for salmon and squaretail.

Frank Drew knows more about titles than any of us, except perhaps Noyes. Wish the intricate details of how the lawyer handles the sometimes indefinite surveys to make the title clear could be explained.

When I was surveying the Massachusetts, Rhode Island State Boundary Lines, we found one old farmer had moved the state boundary marker about 500 feet so he could pay his taxes in Massachusetts instead of Rhode Island.

One of the most interesting engineering jobs for which I was responsible, was the design of the foundation and super-structure of the New Orleans Courthouse. This heavy, strong, marble building with reinforced concrete structural members is located about 1000 feet from the Mississippi River. The depth test borings showed no hard material until 90 feet down.

Ralph Libby, graduate of Thayer School, spent about a year supervising the construction work. He worked with me on the design of the building. We used 60-foot piles with measured hammer-blow penetration, being sure to use plenty of piles for the factor of safety. All piles were tested with hammer-blow penetration.

A report from the State Engineering Department of this structure made 25 years after showed no subsidence, no cracks, and it also reported a new addition to the building, which was built by others long after, had settled badly and showed serious cracks. A heavy building in Boston, with similar foundation, settled 5 inches because of the new sewer lowered the water level and the piles had rotted.

Foundations give an engineer many problems and some worries. An interesting job of laying sewer pipes in quicksand, using a small hand-driven pile under each pipe to hold it at grade, solved one part of the difficulty, but back-filling with quicksand floated the pipes in the heavy fluid. We used a group of happy, singing negros, standing one on each three-foot pipe as a weight, then we filled the trench until these jolly songsters in a row were half buried, then we pulled them out and moved them forward. All the while the pick and shovel gang and our "live weight" gang were all singing, "I been ahammerin' in this mountain all day long, I been ahammerin' in this mountain all day long, Hard rocky mountain I hab found it, Hard rocky mountain I hab found it," etc., etc., ten hours a day.

The Monday morning song was "Annie Belle, Annie Belle, don't tell me no lie, who laid in your baid last night — wont nobody, wont nobody laid in my baid last night - If [ caught him, kill him daid; Annie Belle, Annie Belle don't tell me no lie." From morning till night there were these work songs, especially the pick-and-shovel song, "I been ahammerin' in this mountain all the day long," often with a switch motion of the hips by the chain-gang laborers to make the chains clank in rhythm with the song. Often a fine tenor with a flutelike overtone along with an organlike base note nearby would carry the emphasis of the song like ripples up and down the line of ditch diggers, much like an orchestra leader brings out different tone values from different instruments. Some of these work songs have been recorded for their value as primitives.

The cutting of turpentine boxes has a tally song often heard as a series of solos all over the woods to record piece work. The nailing of railroad boxcar siding has a rollicking fasttempo song, timing the hammer blows. The memories of these primitive work songs by South Georgia Negros, all sons or grandsons of slaves, has stamped on my memory the power of music at work.

A statement to me by a student on conditions in the South about 1900 was, "The banjo saved the Delta Country from Communism." With the introduction of the two-wheeled concrete buggy, about 1900, the Italians began to sing as they rolled the mud. I had never heard any work song with the old one-wheeled mankiller wheelbarrow.

Memories bring back these little incidents of life. Wish "you all" would send me some of your memories. I think we all feel these. I wish we could have a lot of them recorded.

SecretaryChairman, WILLIAM H. HAM 114 State St., Bridgeport 3, Conn.

Class Agent, 862 Park Square Building Boston 16, Mass.