Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/99

 WITH OREGON HOP PICKERS 85

some money. Many of the families were from the country, one woman having come a distance of two hundred miles with seven children ranging in age from two to fifteen years. The other class, the unattached men and women, were mainly the city's floating working population.

It was a picturesque gathering, with an air of expectancy about it. There was to be at least a change of occupation. The weary mother from the farm would have the less onerous camp life and an opportunity to make some money in the field; the clerks and factory workers and servant girls were looking for- ward to freedom and a chance to form new social ties. It was a funny looking crowd as to clothes — from the somber, old- fashioned, misshapen garments of the country people to the rather loud trappings of the city girls. With these there was a decided eflfort to be "smart," and gay-colored sweaters, outing hats, and floating veils were much in evidence. And everybody was chewing gum!

After much delay, and picture taking and swearing, we were loaded on the train — eight hundred of us packed into twelve cars — and started for the field eighty-one miles away. The journey was a memorable one, to me at least. It was pandemonium let loose ; men and boys smoked pipes and cigarettes and drank whis- key from bottles they carried with them ; old men passed flasks to young boys, with voices still shrill, and they eagerly quaffed; children laughed and cried in turn according as they got what they wanted or the reverse, while young men and maidens were growing intimate at an astonishingly rapid rate; and adding to the din were the vendors of cracker jack and ham sandwiches. It all had a weird fascination for me as I traveled about from car to car, ostensibly looking for friends.

At every stop, and the stops were many through that farm- ing country with its single track, young men fairly hurled them- selves out of the cars and into the nearby orchards and gathered with a free hand apples and prunes, and this in spite of protests from the owners. These trophies they bore back to the train, bushels of them, and shared with the girls. Such generosity made for good fellowship and by the time we reached Independ-