Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/105

 WITH OREGON HOP PICKERS 9I

that I struck, and so did the girl with me, and we loftily "walked out."

There was much murmuring that day among the pickers be- cause they could not make "good" money ; few, if any, made over two dollars. Clean picking was regarded as a great hardship. Some girls did not make expenses. Our meals and bed cost about sixty-five cents a day. There was much dissatisfaction, too, over the fact that the weighers frequently gave the young and pretty and flirtatious girls ten or twelve pounds extra weight. There were many opportunities in the field for little courtesies of this kind and the young, attractive girl needed much wisdom not to become entangled by them. The chivalrous swain could always make excuses to pick in the admired one's basket while his own was standing empty. The wire-men * and the weighers were the aristocrats of the company. They were paid by the day and went about in leisurely fashion. As they came in con- tact with all the girls in their division they had ample opportun- ity to exercise their wiles.

The field, filled with pickers, was an interesting sight. In one row a man and his wife picked together while small chil- dren crawled around in the dirt at their feet ; over a little was a woman with six offspring picking in her basket ; just beyond was a giddy girl with a forward boy she had met on the train — both picking away and passing cheap compliments; away to the right was a red-cheeked German girl crying already because her clumsy fingers made work slow ; near her were two bright high- school girls eager to earn money for clothes; not far away was a widow of nearly fifty with her aged mother, making small headway with the hops; I taught them what I had learned and then things went better.

It was a weary, discouraged crowd that left the yards that first night. We were all tired and we had not made as much money as we had hoped. So we sat around in the tents and talked in the early evening, and later we gathered in the big tent and had an impromptu concert, which cheered us all.

we called out, "Wire down," and eventually the man would appear.
 * Men who let down the wires holding the vines. When we wanted this done