The Voyage of Antonio Andreoni to North America
The Voyage of Andreoni Antonio
to North America
1. My dear friends, if you listen to me,
I will tell you a true story,
which, I am sure, will give you as much pleasure
as a lavish banquet,
and I hope you will thank me
for all that I shall narrate.
I pray, however, if you will ever read it,
do not make fun of me.
2. It was springtime when I
decided to go to America again,
hoping, myself as many others did, as you know,
to earn some extra money.
Sad I left, sighing,
to go and reunite with my companions
– and I believe everyone will feel for me.
It was in March, Nineteen Hundred and One.
3. Leaving behind my family in great distress,
a wife and seven children, – ah, what a care! –
I picked up my bundle of clothes
and headed towards the railway station.
There I found my friends,
and we formed a group.(1) Eventually
we boarded the train and departed
from Lucca with infinite sorrow.
4. As soon as we arrived at Genoa
we went to find the shipping agent.
At the office we found the employees
all busy with their work.
We warned them
that the steamer was about to leave,
but we were told that the head officer
who was to take care of us was out of office.
5. “Sit down” they told us “and wait there,
it won’t be long till the chief is back.”
We all sat down, we chatted a bit
among ourselves, then we ate a bite.
The clock had already struck five p.m.
and that asshole we were waiting for
had not yet returned, and we were fuming,
our heartbeat skyrocketing.
6. We were grumbling and livid,
seeing that this fellow had not come back;
in the meantime the steamship had left,
and we were still in that office.
Finally the chief arrived, all cheerful
he asked how things were going…
We told him everything and he replied:
“Wait for me outside, I shall be with you in a minute.”
7. So we waited, he came out
and we headed towards
the station to board the train
that went directly to Turin.
He let us board in second class,(2)
and gave me a little parcel
with the money necessary to take the train
from Turin to Modane and beyond.
8. Our trip thus began with
plenty of worries and troubles and cares.
In Modane, when we got off the train,
my friends and I all together,
found a foot of snow and more,
it was so cold that we trembled and froze.
I could not stay outside, so I went
into a room and warmed up there.
9. There we waited until it was noon,
time to eat, surely.
So I went and walked out,
and decided to go into a tavern.
After lunch I went back
to the station, to wait for
the people who travelled after us
and had stopped in Alessandria.
10. At the station, I heard a cheerful
sound of voices talking together.
Yet I felt miserable,
thinking of my wounded heart, my losses:
my wife who was weeping far away,
and my children, and the good times
spent with friends and relatives,
and my heart sank beneath my sorrows.
11. Let’s not linger on this, I want to go back
to the tale I interrupted for a moment.
Before the rise of the sun’s chariot
we began the trip toward Paris.
We continued our journey until the day after;
around seven o’clock we reached the destination
of that earthly journey, and in a hurry
all of us got off, as swift as an arrow.(3)
12. We headed to the seaside, moving
like a hunting dog that follows its prey
because the boarding time was close:
whoever can walk quickly does not stay behind.
Everyone was led into a small room,
where we had to swallow a bitter pill,
the vaccination needle.(4)
Then each one continued towards his destination.
13. I had never seen as many people
as I saw that day expecting to embark;
everyone moved quick and swiftly,
for fear of being left behind on dry land;
in fact the lazy ones were left behind,
three hundred of them, you could count them.
Eventually I was able to board,
for I was paying very close attention to the calls.
14. Once we boarded in good spirits,
with all my friends as a group,
we hurried towards the dormitory,
for everyone was keen to get a good berth.
We got settled in and finally
I went back to the deck, saddened
at the thought of all those I had left behind,
pain assailing me from all sides.
15. But I want to conclude the story
of my travel by land,
and begin to tell of my sea voyage,
for the time of departure had arrived.
I heard the sound of the morning’s eleventh hour,
and the ship moved in good spirits
leaving the harbour, gliding
over the waves with gay agility.
16. All that day and the day after we sailed
on the crests of those deep waters,
but when the third day came
I saw that the waves were changing colour.
Still that day was spent cheerfully enough,
but when it was the fourth day the sun hid its face,
the wind began to blow
and we heard the thunder rumbling.
17. As I told you, the wind was weak,
but little by little it gained strength;
the ship started to roll
and lightning flashed before the thunder.
Everybody had a worried look,
aware that a storm was coming,
along with a dark and gloomy night
that already frightened everyone of us.(5)
18. We were ordered to go to our berths,
not to impede the work of the sailors.
In the meantime lightning and thunder galore
galloped like wild horses.
At seven o’clock in the morning
I wanted to go up to the deck,
but I found all the doors locked,
so I had to head back, disappointed.
19. All the while we could hear
those tall frightening waves pounding
on the sides of the ship as if, assembled together,
they wanted to send the ship down to its tomb.
At some point I managed to go up to the deck
and saw that dark sky,
that storm tossing against us…
Thinking back on it I could go mad.
20. The waves were so tall
that they lost the shape and appearance of waves;
the ship now seemed to rise up to the stars
as if it reached above the clouds,
then it seemed to sink down, among the infernal souls,
to the depths of the abyss;
the storm had broken a piece of the parapets
the water splashing through like a river.
21. My dear friends, you must imagine
being with me in the middle of the sea
to understand my suffering:
and tell me how grave it was.
And the storm, rather than waning,
kept strengthening all that day,
all that day and the following night.
Eventually we saw the dawn breaking.
22. If I could tell you how I felt that night,
all of you would be seized by terror.
In short, I believed I was going to die
amid those treacherous waters;
but then in a short time the storm passed.
And I, thinking of the love I felt
for my wife and my children,
I wept for joy – I would still weep.
23. Little by little the tempest passed away
and the sea was again calm and levelled.
I went around looking at the damaged
parapets of the ship, I touched them myself;
the stairs were broken as if made of pasta,
two of the captain’s launches had been taken away,
as well as a piece of the other parapet;
the propeller down under was also out of order.
24. I render heartfelt thanks to Heaven
that the storm had ceased.
I believe it was the Creator’s work,
and His immaculate Mother’s,
who had hushed [the waves’] onslaught and fury
and restored tranquillity at sea.
So much so that all of us, with joy and comfort,
reached the harbour of New York.
25. O harbour, you will always be for me a symbol
of rejoicing, comfort and exultation,
for now the desired day has come,
and you gave safe passage to all those at sea.
And when the anchors had secured the ship,
[the crew] began to promptly unload
the luggage, and I went to sleep
and awoke at break of day.
26. Around seven o’clock they let us descend
and we all went through Customs,
where our luggage was to be inspected
as this is done to everyone.
They let us board a steamboat
– was I anxious at that time! –(6)
and by sea we arrived at Castle Garden,
where the screening takes place.
27. That finished, we went to the wicket
where one can buy railroad tickets:
everybody hurried there
because everybody was anxious to leave.(7)
I was saddened by the separation
when my companions left;
but I remained there the whole day
without any food or drink.
28. Around four o’clock there came an employee
who started calling out [names]
and when my name was called
I had to go towards him.(8)
He formed a group
of all the people he had called,
then we went down the stairs
and up again onto the steamboat.
29. He talked to us again and said:
“You shall go to Bertini’s inn:
there you will be well fed
and have a good price.”
We arrived there in a sweat, like oxen,
our faces grim as murderers’.
However, after I had my food and drink,
my face got back its colour.
30. That evening I went to bed,
the day after I got up
around nine o’clock, and with some other people
I went back to the steamboat
and to Castle Garden, to get a ticket:
that ticket I had not been able to get the day before,
for that cursed train
that had to take me to Chicago.
31. When I finally had in my hands the ticket,
the only paper recognised on a train,
I headed towards the steamboat, my belly full
of hunger, which only I could feel,
the clock marking half past one.
My hunger was such
that I could barely stand up,
so I went to eat right away.
32. After I had plenty of food and drink
we reached for the money to paid the bill,
and when all of us had settled the account,
our luggage was already in the wagon.
The wagon left, an employee
let us board an electric carriage.
When we arrived at the riverbank
we got off and evening was closing in.
33. We found the steamboat ready to go,
we all got on board,
and it moved in the direction of the train station,(9)
it was five o’clock when we arrived.
We climbed unto the train and without further ado
– the train engineers are always ready to go –
we left, we travelled and the day after
we arrived at Buffalo, and there the train stopped.
34. In the middle of the city there is a lake,
and whoever wants to go to the other side
must embark on a boat, there is no other way;
so we embarked with the train.
I felt comforted and pleased;
the train continued its course
until I finally arrived at Chicago,
at the station called Grand Trunk.(10)
35. Once I was off the train, I walked out
of the station. Standing there for a while,
collecting my thoughts and looking around, I recognized
the road that led to Franklin [Street].
It was snowing. I walked with ten friends
towards my destination but often
we slipped, for the snow had been turned
into ice by the intense cold.
36. Eventually, having suffered so much cold
and distress that night, we reached
our destination, and had some comfort
when we finally stopped;
but right after we once again remained forlorn
for the doors [of the tenement] were locked.
Quickly we found refuge in a corridor,
spending a miserable time there.(11)
37. About half an hour before dawn,
going around along that street,
I saw a man nearby
walking and looking straight ahead.
He stopped and I greeted him:
“My friend,” I said, “if you don’t mind,
I have been here for three hours
with my companions, and we are freezing to death.”
38. He answered: “If you want to come
into my saloon, which I am going to open,
you will surely warm up
and keep the cold at bay.”
We went there. As Alete did
with pious Buglion, I bowed down and said: (12)
“Bring us some beer, so that we shall drink
while we have a meal here.”
39. We drank, we ate, we warmed up;
by then it was broad daylight
and we parted, saying goodbye,
our hearts full of sadness.
My relatives were waiting for me
and I was looking forward to meeting with them;
after a while I did reunite with them,
they were all in good health, and I hugged them all.
40. Just like a mother, who glimpses a son
after a long time since she’s seen him,
feels her heart pounding and her eyes getting moist
for the joy of that unforeseen encounter,
so did my cousin, when we
shook hands; and then I saw
my brother, on another side,
and embraced him too.
41. Later my cousin’s wife joined us,
with her children, all of them
as fresh as daisies,
and they happily stayed with us.
“I hope my troubles are over now,
and I rejoice to be here with you…”
We all went out for a walk
and at noon he had a good lunch.
42. What a happy meal that was,
I had never experienced such a one;
being there, my life seemed to start all over,
for I had reached the destination I had longed for.
I leave you, my friends, I shall add nothing else
because my journey is finished
and my story has reached its conclusion.
All of you, read it so that it will be remembered.
(1) Migrants usually travelled in groups of at least ten. The State Railroad would grant tickets at a reduced price to such groups.
(2) At the time, the trains had wagons of first, second and third class.
(3) The destination was presumably Le Havre, departure point of many transatlantic lines. The writer travelled aboard the “Aquitania,” a ship of the French Société Générale des Transports.
(4) Vaccination against the smallpox was compulsory for all the migrants.
(5) The phrasing of the storm episode has probably been influenced by other descriptions the writer may have read such as Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (II 30.1-2; XIII, 15.2-8) and perhaps Psalm 107.25-26.
(6) Presumably for fear of not being accepted at the screening mentioned in the following lines. The mention of Castle Garden as the Office of screening is somewhat puzzling. Castle Garden was in fact the Immigrant Station until 1892, when it was replaced by Ellis Island. Following a fire that damaged Ellis Island in 1897, Castle Garden resumed the functions of Immigrant Station but only until 1900, and the writer states that he migrated in 1901. Perhaps the name of Castle Garden had remained in the writer’s memory, since he had entered the United States at least once before, presumably before 1892.
(7) The normal procedure after landing was to be first screened for physical health, then introduced in a large room there the immigrants were grouped according to language and nationality. Their names, countries of origin and destinations were then registered, and the immigrants were directed either to an Information Office or a representative of the transcontinental railroad companies. They would buy the ticked, hand in their luggage and directed to the train station. See Dee A. Brown, Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow (New York, 1977), 241). Our writer was, however, intercepted by the employee that sent him to “Bertini’s” before he could buy the ticket.
(8) It is not clear who this employee was. Perhaps a representative of the Society for Italian Immigrants, which was established in 1887 to prevent the exploitation of Italian immigrants by the innumerable agents who were trying to take advantage of their situation.
(9) The Hoboken Railroad Terminal, according to Michael La Sorte, La Merica. Images of Italian Greenhorn Experience (Philadelphia, 1985), 46.
(10) The writer may have used the Erie Railroad line that went as far as Fort Erie in Canada, taking the ferry to cross the Niagara River. At Fort Erie the railroad joined the Grand Trunk Railroad Line which originated from Montreal. In Chicago the Grand Trunk and Erie lines arrived at the Dearborn Station. There still is in Montreal a street called Grand Trunk, along the route of the railroad.
(11) Presumably the tunnel that gave access to the courtyard inside the tenement. See Amy A. Bernardy, Italia randagia attraverso gli Stati Uniti (Turin, 1898), 209-10.
(12) Reference to an episode in the first canto of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. The writer often borrows or imitates the phrasing of literary works in ottava rima. The most recognizable ones are Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and especially the anonymous Paris e Vienna, a romance ignored by highbrow literature but very popular among the lower classes in Italy.
The Voyage of Andreoni Antonio
to North America
1. My dear friends, if you listen to me,
I will tell you a true story,
which, I am sure, will give you as much pleasure
as a lavish banquet,
and I hope you will thank me
for all that I shall narrate.
I pray, however, if you will ever read it,
do not make fun of me.
2. It was springtime when I
decided to go to America again,
hoping, myself as many others did, as you know,
to earn some extra money.
Sad I left, sighing,
to go and reunite with my companions
– and I believe everyone will feel for me.
It was in March, Nineteen Hundred and One.
3. Leaving behind my family in great distress,
a wife and seven children, – ah, what a care! –
I picked up my bundle of clothes
and headed towards the railway station.
There I found my friends,
and we formed a group.(1) Eventually
we boarded the train and departed
from Lucca with infinite sorrow.
4. As soon as we arrived at Genoa
we went to find the shipping agent.
At the office we found the employees
all busy with their work.
We warned them
that the steamer was about to leave,
but we were told that the head officer
who was to take care of us was out of office.
5. “Sit down” they told us “and wait there,
it won’t be long till the chief is back.”
We all sat down, we chatted a bit
among ourselves, then we ate a bite.
The clock had already struck five p.m.
and that asshole we were waiting for
had not yet returned, and we were fuming,
our heartbeat skyrocketing.
6. We were grumbling and livid,
seeing that this fellow had not come back;
in the meantime the steamship had left,
and we were still in that office.
Finally the chief arrived, all cheerful
he asked how things were going…
We told him everything and he replied:
“Wait for me outside, I shall be with you in a minute.”
7. So we waited, he came out
and we headed towards
the station to board the train
that went directly to Turin.
He let us board in second class,(2)
and gave me a little parcel
with the money necessary to take the train
from Turin to Modane and beyond.
8. Our trip thus began with
plenty of worries and troubles and cares.
In Modane, when we got off the train,
my friends and I all together,
found a foot of snow and more,
it was so cold that we trembled and froze.
I could not stay outside, so I went
into a room and warmed up there.
9. There we waited until it was noon,
time to eat, surely.
So I went and walked out,
and decided to go into a tavern.
After lunch I went back
to the station, to wait for
the people who travelled after us
and had stopped in Alessandria.
10. At the station, I heard a cheerful
sound of voices talking together.
Yet I felt miserable,
thinking of my wounded heart, my losses:
my wife who was weeping far away,
and my children, and the good times
spent with friends and relatives,
and my heart sank beneath my sorrows.
11. Let’s not linger on this, I want to go back
to the tale I interrupted for a moment.
Before the rise of the sun’s chariot
we began the trip toward Paris.
We continued our journey until the day after;
around seven o’clock we reached the destination
of that earthly journey, and in a hurry
all of us got off, as swift as an arrow.(3)
12. We headed to the seaside, moving
like a hunting dog that follows its prey
because the boarding time was close:
whoever can walk quickly does not stay behind.
Everyone was led into a small room,
where we had to swallow a bitter pill,
the vaccination needle.(4)
Then each one continued towards his destination.
13. I had never seen as many people
as I saw that day expecting to embark;
everyone moved quick and swiftly,
for fear of being left behind on dry land;
in fact the lazy ones were left behind,
three hundred of them, you could count them.
Eventually I was able to board,
for I was paying very close attention to the calls.
14. Once we boarded in good spirits,
with all my friends as a group,
we hurried towards the dormitory,
for everyone was keen to get a good berth.
We got settled in and finally
I went back to the deck, saddened
at the thought of all those I had left behind,
pain assailing me from all sides.
15. But I want to conclude the story
of my travel by land,
and begin to tell of my sea voyage,
for the time of departure had arrived.
I heard the sound of the morning’s eleventh hour,
and the ship moved in good spirits
leaving the harbour, gliding
over the waves with gay agility.
16. All that day and the day after we sailed
on the crests of those deep waters,
but when the third day came
I saw that the waves were changing colour.
Still that day was spent cheerfully enough,
but when it was the fourth day the sun hid its face,
the wind began to blow
and we heard the thunder rumbling.
17. As I told you, the wind was weak,
but little by little it gained strength;
the ship started to roll
and lightning flashed before the thunder.
Everybody had a worried look,
aware that a storm was coming,
along with a dark and gloomy night
that already frightened everyone of us.(5)
18. We were ordered to go to our berths,
not to impede the work of the sailors.
In the meantime lightning and thunder galore
galloped like wild horses.
At seven o’clock in the morning
I wanted to go up to the deck,
but I found all the doors locked,
so I had to head back, disappointed.
19. All the while we could hear
those tall frightening waves pounding
on the sides of the ship as if, assembled together,
they wanted to send the ship down to its tomb.
At some point I managed to go up to the deck
and saw that dark sky,
that storm tossing against us…
Thinking back on it I could go mad.
20. The waves were so tall
that they lost the shape and appearance of waves;
the ship now seemed to rise up to the stars
as if it reached above the clouds,
then it seemed to sink down, among the infernal souls,
to the depths of the abyss;
the storm had broken a piece of the parapets
the water splashing through like a river.
21. My dear friends, you must imagine
being with me in the middle of the sea
to understand my suffering:
and tell me how grave it was.
And the storm, rather than waning,
kept strengthening all that day,
all that day and the following night.
Eventually we saw the dawn breaking.
22. If I could tell you how I felt that night,
all of you would be seized by terror.
In short, I believed I was going to die
amid those treacherous waters;
but then in a short time the storm passed.
And I, thinking of the love I felt
for my wife and my children,
I wept for joy – I would still weep.
23. Little by little the tempest passed away
and the sea was again calm and levelled.
I went around looking at the damaged
parapets of the ship, I touched them myself;
the stairs were broken as if made of pasta,
two of the captain’s launches had been taken away,
as well as a piece of the other parapet;
the propeller down under was also out of order.
24. I render heartfelt thanks to Heaven
that the storm had ceased.
I believe it was the Creator’s work,
and His immaculate Mother’s,
who had hushed [the waves’] onslaught and fury
and restored tranquillity at sea.
So much so that all of us, with joy and comfort,
reached the harbour of New York.
25. O harbour, you will always be for me a symbol
of rejoicing, comfort and exultation,
for now the desired day has come,
and you gave safe passage to all those at sea.
And when the anchors had secured the ship,
[the crew] began to promptly unload
the luggage, and I went to sleep
and awoke at break of day.
26. Around seven o’clock they let us descend
and we all went through Customs,
where our luggage was to be inspected
as this is done to everyone.
They let us board a steamboat
– was I anxious at that time! –(6)
and by sea we arrived at Castle Garden,
where the screening takes place.
27. That finished, we went to the wicket
where one can buy railroad tickets:
everybody hurried there
because everybody was anxious to leave.(7)
I was saddened by the separation
when my companions left;
but I remained there the whole day
without any food or drink.
28. Around four o’clock there came an employee
who started calling out [names]
and when my name was called
I had to go towards him.(8)
He formed a group
of all the people he had called,
then we went down the stairs
and up again onto the steamboat.
29. He talked to us again and said:
“You shall go to Bertini’s inn:
there you will be well fed
and have a good price.”
We arrived there in a sweat, like oxen,
our faces grim as murderers’.
However, after I had my food and drink,
my face got back its colour.
30. That evening I went to bed,
the day after I got up
around nine o’clock, and with some other people
I went back to the steamboat
and to Castle Garden, to get a ticket:
that ticket I had not been able to get the day before,
for that cursed train
that had to take me to Chicago.
31. When I finally had in my hands the ticket,
the only paper recognised on a train,
I headed towards the steamboat, my belly full
of hunger, which only I could feel,
the clock marking half past one.
My hunger was such
that I could barely stand up,
so I went to eat right away.
32. After I had plenty of food and drink
we reached for the money to paid the bill,
and when all of us had settled the account,
our luggage was already in the wagon.
The wagon left, an employee
let us board an electric carriage.
When we arrived at the riverbank
we got off and evening was closing in.
33. We found the steamboat ready to go,
we all got on board,
and it moved in the direction of the train station,(9)
it was five o’clock when we arrived.
We climbed unto the train and without further ado
– the train engineers are always ready to go –
we left, we travelled and the day after
we arrived at Buffalo, and there the train stopped.
34. In the middle of the city there is a lake,
and whoever wants to go to the other side
must embark on a boat, there is no other way;
so we embarked with the train.
I felt comforted and pleased;
the train continued its course
until I finally arrived at Chicago,
at the station called Grand Trunk.(10)
35. Once I was off the train, I walked out
of the station. Standing there for a while,
collecting my thoughts and looking around, I recognized
the road that led to Franklin [Street].
It was snowing. I walked with ten friends
towards my destination but often
we slipped, for the snow had been turned
into ice by the intense cold.
36. Eventually, having suffered so much cold
and distress that night, we reached
our destination, and had some comfort
when we finally stopped;
but right after we once again remained forlorn
for the doors [of the tenement] were locked.
Quickly we found refuge in a corridor,
spending a miserable time there.(11)
37. About half an hour before dawn,
going around along that street,
I saw a man nearby
walking and looking straight ahead.
He stopped and I greeted him:
“My friend,” I said, “if you don’t mind,
I have been here for three hours
with my companions, and we are freezing to death.”
38. He answered: “If you want to come
into my saloon, which I am going to open,
you will surely warm up
and keep the cold at bay.”
We went there. As Alete did
with pious Buglion, I bowed down and said: (12)
“Bring us some beer, so that we shall drink
while we have a meal here.”
39. We drank, we ate, we warmed up;
by then it was broad daylight
and we parted, saying goodbye,
our hearts full of sadness.
My relatives were waiting for me
and I was looking forward to meeting with them;
after a while I did reunite with them,
they were all in good health, and I hugged them all.
40. Just like a mother, who glimpses a son
after a long time since she’s seen him,
feels her heart pounding and her eyes getting moist
for the joy of that unforeseen encounter,
so did my cousin, when we
shook hands; and then I saw
my brother, on another side,
and embraced him too.
41. Later my cousin’s wife joined us,
with her children, all of them
as fresh as daisies,
and they happily stayed with us.
“I hope my troubles are over now,
and I rejoice to be here with you…”
We all went out for a walk
and at noon he had a good lunch.
42. What a happy meal that was,
I had never experienced such a one;
being there, my life seemed to start all over,
for I had reached the destination I had longed for.
I leave you, my friends, I shall add nothing else
because my journey is finished
and my story has reached its conclusion.
All of you, read it so that it will be remembered.
(1) Migrants usually travelled in groups of at least ten. The State Railroad would grant tickets at a reduced price to such groups.
(2) At the time, the trains had wagons of first, second and third class.
(3) The destination was presumably Le Havre, departure point of many transatlantic lines. The writer travelled aboard the “Aquitania,” a ship of the French Société Générale des Transports.
(4) Vaccination against the smallpox was compulsory for all the migrants.
(5) The phrasing of the storm episode has probably been influenced by other descriptions the writer may have read such as Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso (II 30.1-2; XIII, 15.2-8) and perhaps Psalm 107.25-26.
(6) Presumably for fear of not being accepted at the screening mentioned in the following lines. The mention of Castle Garden as the Office of screening is somewhat puzzling. Castle Garden was in fact the Immigrant Station until 1892, when it was replaced by Ellis Island. Following a fire that damaged Ellis Island in 1897, Castle Garden resumed the functions of Immigrant Station but only until 1900, and the writer states that he migrated in 1901. Perhaps the name of Castle Garden had remained in the writer’s memory, since he had entered the United States at least once before, presumably before 1892.
(7) The normal procedure after landing was to be first screened for physical health, then introduced in a large room there the immigrants were grouped according to language and nationality. Their names, countries of origin and destinations were then registered, and the immigrants were directed either to an Information Office or a representative of the transcontinental railroad companies. They would buy the ticked, hand in their luggage and directed to the train station. See Dee A. Brown, Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow (New York, 1977), 241). Our writer was, however, intercepted by the employee that sent him to “Bertini’s” before he could buy the ticket.
(8) It is not clear who this employee was. Perhaps a representative of the Society for Italian Immigrants, which was established in 1887 to prevent the exploitation of Italian immigrants by the innumerable agents who were trying to take advantage of their situation.
(9) The Hoboken Railroad Terminal, according to Michael La Sorte, La Merica. Images of Italian Greenhorn Experience (Philadelphia, 1985), 46.
(10) The writer may have used the Erie Railroad line that went as far as Fort Erie in Canada, taking the ferry to cross the Niagara River. At Fort Erie the railroad joined the Grand Trunk Railroad Line which originated from Montreal. In Chicago the Grand Trunk and Erie lines arrived at the Dearborn Station. There still is in Montreal a street called Grand Trunk, along the route of the railroad.
(11) Presumably the tunnel that gave access to the courtyard inside the tenement. See Amy A. Bernardy, Italia randagia attraverso gli Stati Uniti (Turin, 1898), 209-10.
(12) Reference to an episode in the first canto of Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata. The writer often borrows or imitates the phrasing of literary works in ottava rima. The most recognizable ones are Tasso’s Gerusalemme Liberata, Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and especially the anonymous Paris e Vienna, a romance ignored by highbrow literature but very popular among the lower classes in Italy.
The Work Season of Andreoni Antonio
1. If Apollo assists my song
and helps me with my rhyming,
I shall tell you of my life,
how I spent it during my work season.
You already know about my journey, and how many
troubles I had in reaching Chicago.
Now I begin a new tale: pay attention
and you will hear some unexpected things.
2. Gentlemen, I told you in the previous canto
that my tale was concluded,
but now another one came into my mind,
unplanned and beyond my expectations.
Being, as I told you, in the city
called Chicago, I went around
far and wide looking for a job,
but alas, to no avail.
3. One evening I was in a saloon
for a drink along with certain friends,
and two people approached me
whom I had never met.
One of them, speaking very expressively,
asked me if I was disposed to go and work
for a season on a railroad,
“…for I believe that soon it will be time to go.”
4. In fact, I had already been in touch
with someone who was seeking workmen:
my name was in his notebook,
and we were waiting for the order to leave.
The day of departure arrived, which we eagerly awaited,
and the guy left and we were left behind.
Thus I was forced to go back and look for
the two individuals I did not know.
5. So one day I went out,
with some of my close friends,
determined to find out where I could meet
those two fellows who spoke so eloquently.
I found them. One of them remained unknown,
but I found out the name of the other, Lorenzini:
Luigi Lorenzini was the name
of the guy who was looking for workmen.
6. When we met up again, this man
told us: “So, do you want to come
and work with me in Colorado?
One thing however you must know:
whoever wants to be written down in my notebook
must give me five dollars.
So I gave him a duro, with great concern,
because I had almost no money left.
7. After I gave him the deposit
I went back to [my cousin’s] house,
in Franklin Street, and remained there
for seven days.
The eighth day Luigi Lorenzini
came looking for us
and told us all to be prepared to
give him five more dollars.
8. He told us that the destination was
no longer Colorado but [the state of] Washington.
He was waiting for his own employer to send him
a telegram with the order to leave.
On April 2nd he came to let us know
that we would leave the day after:
“Therefore come and pay the balance,
for if you don’t square the accounts you will not leave.”(1)
9. Ah, Italy! See in what state you have reduced
your children, just to be able to eat:
women, boys, people old and young
need to go abroad in order to work!
And you, o America, with your schemes!
I had never heard mentioning
in any nation, modern or old,
that one should pay in order to toil!
10. I keep in mind a proverb that says
that no man knows, before dying,
whether he will be miserable or happy,
and no man knows what may happen to him.
I am well aware of that, poor unfortunate me:
in order to work I paid a total of sixty lire!
But, let’s forget about these proverbs
and continue our pleasant tale.
11. I already told you that we were supposed
to go and work in the state of Washington.
But when we had paid our balance,
Lorenzini changed the destination,
and decided to go to North Dakota instead.
“Tonight, let’s all meet at the Station,
the one called Chicago Grand West.(2)
Everyone, hurry up to get ready!”
12. So we prepared our things and left
on April 3rd, at 10:00 o’clock in the evening.
We travelled towards St. Paul,
as if we were assassins just freed from prison.
In St. Paul we got off the train
and went to eat, staggering down the street,
where an old hag prepared the food in a large pot
she had just used to do her laundry.
13. When I saw her working away
I kept myself on the sidelines.
She put the pot full of water
on the fire to boil.
She put in the pasta, slowly
cooked it, then started to serve
what she had cooked
in two large bowls which she put on the table.
14. Everybody went to eat and I remained
outside; but I had already eaten
because I could not stand to wait for those fellows
or the meal prepared for them.
And I heard, coming from inside, loud swearwords
among themselves, for she had served them wine:
some drank little, some drank much
but then everybody had to pay the same.
15. After lunch each one of us went to buy
what he thought he needed.
It was soon five o’clock
and we all headed to the train station.
They made us travel all night,
and the day after we arrived
– the train and all the people –
at a place called Dickinson.(3)
16. O Dickinson, you will always be remembrance
and beginning of tribulation!
You may say you totally crushed me
and treated me so poorly,
so ‘beautiful’ was the Gloria you had me sing
on the feast of the Resurrection….
Forgive me, my listeners, if I tend
to stray from the right path.
17. I want to continue my story
and tell you how things went for me
in that accursed town,
for me full of troubles and sorrows.
We were assigned certain wagons
and there I brought all my belongings,
for those were to be for all of us
home and bedroom.(4)
18. Everybody strived to occupy the wagon
– yes, the wagon assigned to us –
and everybody tried to settle in
as best as he could;
then three of us went to the town of Dickinson
to buy the things we needed,
I mean the articles for the kitchen,
and that cost me eighty nickels.(5)
19. Once we bought all the kitchenware
we still needed the food to cook,
but in that town there was nothing to be had,
and with nothing you can’t eat…
It was Holy Saturday and the following day,
Easter Day, we were forced to fast
for no bread could be found in that area:
I had no food and it was already midday.
20. Starving to death, I went around
to see if I could find something;
thus walking I ended up at a house,
where I found a housewife.
With great respect I asked her
whether she had milk or something else…
She answered she had nothing,
turned her back and slammed the door shut.
21. I was almost desperate when I went back to the wagon,
still thinking what could I do;
in the meantime, a cousin of mine had found
some eggs and I asked him to give me half of them.
With them I prepared a semi-decent meal
and could at least calm my hunger,
with four eggs. Alas, what a pity!
This is how I celebrated Easter Day in Dickinson!
22. How many pains and difficulties, how much distress
befall those that are forced to travel the world!
Our life is full of sorrows
which never cease;
our joys are few
and soon it’s time to die,
amid pains, difficulties and sorrows,
and only a few hours of pleasure.(6)
23. In Eighteen Hundred and Fifty Nine,
in the month of April I was born, I believe on the 7th,
and I can bear witness to the sufferings
I had to endure, added to the present ones;
and after these new ones will come,
until they form a stormy sea,
storms that are the mark of a world
filled with sadness and grief.
24. Problems and pains increase,
troubles and grief increase,
thinking of those who live a comfortable life
while I am here, my heart mired in distress,
bearing witness to such dire situations,
unable to satisfy basic human needs.
But in this life one must always be patient,
and render thanks to the Divine Providence.
25. Dear friends, I was thirteen when for the first time
I went abroad, and have always travelled around,
but I have never encountered so dire a situation,
not even when I served as soldier in Italy.
I may have suffered sorrows and distress
but I never went hungry,
and now in America I find myself experiencing
what I had never endured before.
26. Anyway, time goes by even if you don’t eat,
so the Monday morning arrived,
the whole group convened and planned
how to organize the kitchen:
we chose the cook, and the baker
agreed to make bread with flour.
The cook’s name was Pietro Dini,
and the baker’s name was Guidi.
27. Later, having got to know the environment,
we found a store in that town
where we could buy our provisions
and could get, without paying,
rice, meat, beans: without offending anyone
our debts were marked on a notebook.
Still we lacked bread, because we had no oven
and we were due to move to another place.(7)
28. Three more days we stayed there.
Finally came the day we were waiting for:
it was exactly April 11th
when we left that unpleasant town,
and settled at Sully Springs.(8)
There our days went by agreeably:
we worked at the trenches (9)
and always went back to the car at mealtime.
29. There we worked all together
spending our time pleasurably.
One day however our boss received a telegram
saying that he should go to the town of Medora.(10)
Apparently there were things at that station
addressed to us; so seven of us went
but, once arrived there, we realized
there had been a mistake.
30. We stayed a few hours in that town
and went into a saloon to get a drink.
We ordered some beer and we asked
what was the price per glass.
“Twelve nickels and a half, no kidding.”(11)
the barman told us.
We settled the account and went back,
quite unhappy, to Sully Springs.
31. We stayed at Sully Springs for twenty-six days.
On May 8th they had us change place
and we went to Fryburg, for the work
required of us was in that area.(12)
Now, I did not know the surroundings.
The first day of work
I went to the trench, nice and easy,
and saw a rattling snake.(13)
32. The snake raised its head and hissed loudly,
all the while rattling with its tail,
and it tried to kill me
fiercely leaping towards me,
but I was able to jump back – what a chance!
Everyone circled around me
and one of them – Rossino by name –
struck it and cut it in two.
33. After a while I saw another one
and with a stroke I killed it;
then I cut its tail off and wrapped it
in a paper bag, and kept it.
Later I went to build the oven,
not far from the camp;
and there, while working at the oven,
I had to kill another fine rattlesnake.
34. More than twenty of those poisonous rattlesnakes
we killed that day alone.
Yet we kept working with good will,
having fun with the wittiest among us,
happy as if we were in heaven
and joyfully spending our days…
but on May 14th – oh dire destiny! –
by a hair’s breadth I escaped meeting my death.
35. I want to tell you how this happened.
There was a train manoeuvring at the station,
and at the time to go to bed
I heard a loud noise from outside
and after the noise I felt
such a big blow that I fell down:
it was that train manoeuvring at the station
that had forcefully struck our wagons.
36. By a great stroke of luck the conductor
had chained the work train,(14)
but the blow was so strong
that it broke the rod to which it was chained,
broke three of the camp wagons into pieces,
and wrecked everything inside;
so much so that the day after
none of us wanted to go to work.
37. Thanks to God, there were no dead;
some were wounded, but lightly.
Had not our conductor been as prudent,
that would have been for us the most tragic night.
I thank God with all my heart
that the accident was not so serious,
because our wagons were ahead of the work train
at a distance of six meters and perhaps more.
38. That very day came the roadmaster,
along with a doctor to check us,
for he had been informed of the disaster.
He saw to it that the site would be repaired
and then he told us: “Whatever has been damaged
shall be refunded.” And then he arranged
for us to go back to Sully Springs,
but we were not happy about it.
39. Now, while we were in that place,
and our days passed reasonably well,
we noticed smoke coming from a mountain,
which lasted for a long time, inducing diverse hypotheses.
I was taken one day by the desire
to go to that place, with some of my friends;
and when we arrived I suddenly realized
that under that mountain there was a blazing furnace.(15)
40. If you were to look at that mountain wide open
you would say: “This is Hell’s mouth!”
and you would think that the fire that emerged from there
surely emanated from the fires of Hell.
No one knew the origin
of those fiery whirlwinds; people only knew
that fire had been alight no less
than twenty-three years, causing great damage.
41. Let’s leave behind the talk of this furnace
and of that place, horrendous and harmful,
and let’s return to my wagon,
for of that place I had seen all there was to see.
Later on, going back to work,
I saw on a hilltop a construction resembling a man
and I wanted to go and investigate,
for nothing is to remain unexplored.
42. As soon as I was on the hilltop
and looked at that colossus,
I noticed that it had an inscription on the chest,
but I was not able to make sense of the writing.
When I was back at the wagon,
I asked someone to interpret that ancient writing
and it seems it meant: “O wicked land,
o treacherous land of the United States!”(16)
43. Now you judge by yourselves in what land
and in what nation had I arrived!
I did know that I was unfortunate,
but I didn’t know I could be so to such a point.
Eventually May 20th arrived,
the coveted payday. It was my first pay,
which I received at the station of Belfield,
and after a few days we moved there.
44. At that town we stayed only a short time,
because one day the boss received a telegram
ordering us to move right away,
and so all of us had to quickly get ready.
We left, running as swift as the wind;
we travelled all night, conversing among us
during the trip. At daylight
we stopped at the town of Grandais.(17)
45. We changed brakeman, conductor,
engine, fireman and engineer.
At the sight of this, I was caught by anxiety,
but not the whole gang was unhappy:
someone in fact had a grudge
against the fireman, who one day had a row
with our interpreter Lorenzini,
on account of some nasty gossip.
46. After two hours we left Grandai
and the train started running again
(“Keep on running, in the end you will have to stop!”)
so that at seven o’clock we arrived
at a town such that I would never have imagined
we would have such a pleasant stay in that place.
The town’s name is Fallon,
and at that station the train stopped.(18)
47. The day we arrived at that station
the weather was dark and drizzly,
and the roadmaster asked whether
we were willing to work that morning.
The answer was, in short, that everybody
wished to have a little rest,
so all that day I rested
and at noon I went to bed.
48. The day after I went back to work
– our usual work –
because I was eager to make some money
(not only myself but all of us yearned for that).
Six days after we encountered there
such a storm that everyone thought
we would die; but the Divine Providence
came to our help, and I suffered no harm.
49. But let’s forget now about our work,
I wish to tell you about the workers,
who often got into brawls
because they were a gang of quarrelsome people.
The first was the cook (and with him some other guys)
who prepared our meals as if for migrants,
because he did not get along with the baker,
each of them looked after his own job and never listened to the other.
50. Now, as you know,
the cook and the baker had to work together
but their work did not go smoothly,
because each one made fun of the other,
and each one was eager to smear the other,
with the intent to have him cast out as a source
of discord. And this did happen to Dini,
on account of his exceeding arrogance.
51. For quite some time some complained
that the meals he fed us were cold.
One day that provisions in the board were lacking,
we could not have our lunch:
at noon, when we were back from work
and expected to find a good meal,
he had prepared for us only
a dish of beans as cold as ice.
52. The curses, swearwords and insults
uttered in that day, I cannot relate them.
Then everyone agreed that Dini
should not be our cook any more;
but then the spirits calmed down and we decided
to wait for a better opportunity to denounce him.
However, one day that he was somehow reprimanded,
he went into a rage and quit.
53. All of us agreed
that Dini should leave,
his wages were calculated to the cent
and the company paid him.
Now somebody else was to become a member of the board
to do the cooking. Another problem was
that the self-appointed aristocracy among us suspected
that Lorenzini embezzled our money.
54. Some people had been saying for quite a while
that Lorenzini was taking advantage of us
and for this reason the board was somewhat dismantled,
and about ten of us resigned.(19)
Those that were left selected
as cook a certain Giuseppino,
Cristianini by surname, born in Galleno,
who appeared to be filled with knowledge and wisdom.
55. In addition, five people
were selected for the task of monitoring
all our accounts, knowledgeable about the needs
of the board, so that nothing should be missing.
Luigi Lorenzini was warned
that he should not buy anything
without informing the whole committee,
lest he be cast out of the board.
56. Having made all of these decisions,
and having the board freely disposed its plan,
Dini got ready to leave,
not before realizing a secret intention of his,
through the few and damaging words
that he wrote out in a little note,
which he left to one of us when he left,
swearing that what he wrote was the truth.
57. I am not about to tell you what the note said,
for the content is too offensive,
therefore I put my pen to rest,
and I will do so until I die;
but quite likely you will learn about it
even if my pen does not write it,
because the note was published
two days after it was handed in.
58. Let’s abandon this kind of subjects,
that shed on us shame and dishonour,
and I will return to our work,
which made us melt from sweating.
Now the time came for us to change places.
One night we left, unwillingly,
without knowing our destination,
and we arrived at the village of Tusler.(20)
59. We shouldn’t call that place a village,
but a muddy swamp:
when we got off the wagon
we always had to trudge through mud,
and staying there was a real suffering.
But on July 3rd we obtained to be moved
to Miles City, at about a mile
from the town, without any complaint.(21)
60. In a few words I shall tell you
the reason for this move;
all of us were happy of the change.
We left when the sun was setting down
and the day after was the feast
that is celebrated with solemnity every year,
July 4th, called “for giulai”,(22)
highly respected throughout America.
61. The morning of the 4th, before dawn,
I went alone to town
for a business of mine; at daylight
I was already on my way back, in good spirits,
but as soon as I was back I realized
that the weather was turning stormy.
The wind was already blowing forcefully
when I entered my wagon.
62. The winds blew stronger and stronger
and rain fell with the wind,
and hail began to pour down,
so that it frightened more than one.
We closed the door: the wind was blowing so much
that it risked to overturn the wagons;
now we were all afraid
we’d be knocked over and die.
63. It did not succeed in overturning the wagons,
this bold, furious and infamous wind;
however, it did take the roof off one of them
so that all those inside had to flee
and go into the other wagons
to take refuge; and a fellow happened to get wounded
in a leg by a nail, a wound which later
tormented him for a long time.
64. After the storm ceased
and the sky was fair again,
the heaps of hail let us understand
that great damage had occurred.
That way we spent half a day;
at noon the order arrived
that all of us were to go
to repair a large stretch of road.
65. So now you know that on the morning
of July 4th came a great storm
and it caused great damage to the road,
for it destroyed many embankments,
it broke several bridges; in sum we cannot
fully describe the damage;
in any case this flooding rain had washed out
a large stretch of the railroad at Tusler.
66. Now an engine sped into the camp
and the boss alerted us that we were to go
to the place where the greatest damage had occurred
in order to quickly restore the railroad,
for pretty soon it would be the time
for the passenger train to go through.
In fact, for three whole days
they were blocked, train and passengers.
67. Once we had opened up the passage,
the train went through with its passengers,
who were all eager to leave
and felt as if an instant lasted an hour.(23)
We looked after our work
and after a while we had to change places again.
But before I tell you of the new place,
I want to tell you something about the baker.
68. Luigi Guidi, our baker,
never agreed to make soup noodles
for he said that his task
was to make bread and nothing else;
in the end he consented, but reluctantly;
and one day per week he had to come
and work with us. Soon he had enough of it,
and didn’t want to be at our service any longer.
69. Suddenly he resigned, and in a very short time
the news was known by all the members of the gang.
A little man then came to the fore,
courageous as if he were tall.
His name was Guerazzi Valentino,
with legs as short as half an arm.
He accepted all the conditions; furthermore, he was planning
to bake bread for other people, and thus make money.
70. But we, who wanted freshly baked bread,
did not grant permission for that project of his.
So he began to bake bread:
the first time it came out all charred;
the second time it could not be eaten;
another time, having just put the bread in the oven,
the oven itself collapsed; so that he became frightened
at the very idea of making bread.
71. He did not know what to do
and, for fear of being mocked,
he spread the voice that he felt exceedingly weak,
but I am not sure that he was really sick.
Now we had to find another man
to bake the bread, and we found him:
this was a certain Valente Malfatti,
who certainly was not one of the brightest.
72. He accepted, and the committee
explained to him what he had to do.
But now I want to go back and conclude
the story that I left.
However, since I decided to change subjects,
let me go back a little,
and I will tell you of one fellow, Orlando by name,
who went into town and bought himself a pair of shoes.
73. He bought his shoes and other things
and then, having had more drinks than he should,
he set off for the camp,
since he didn’t want to stay in town.
Along with some friends he started to walk,
but wound up in muddy paths, so that he fell
several times and once he’d arrived at his wagon
he realized that he was left with one shoe only.
74. Exactly! Of that pair of shoes that he bought
he lost one along the way,
and he’d paid no less than three dollars for them;
surely he could not walk with a single shoe.
The day after he told everyone of his misfortune
and we all had a good laugh.
Now let’s change subjects, my dear friends,
and talk about Tusler, where we had moved.
75. One night, going back from work,
we were caught by an ugly storm:
were it not for our conductor
we would likely have perished.
The wind blew violently like a bull,
the rainfall was indescribable;
we all went into the caboose
and so, by the will of God, we were saved.
76. The same night, while I was asleep,
the conductor came to wake us up,
for all of us had to go to work:
he waited for us while he were getting ready
and we had to leave immediately,
for we had to free the railroad, which was covered
by a landslide that had fallen
and prevented the passage of the train.
77. We worked all night, so that at daylight
the train could go through.
We returned to our wagons
to have our coffee;
and after breakfast, with no delay whatsoever
we went back to work on the work train.
Now after a few days we wanted to know
how much we would be paid
for the night we had worked.
78. You probably know that there is a custom
in this land, which I rather like:
whoever works at night or on holidays
gets a higher pay.
So we wanted to know how much money
that night’s work was to be paid.
The boss answered that the pay was the same
as that of the day after.
79. Immediately a great grumbling began
and very soon it became a protest:
“This is not right, for God’s sake!”
many people said to the boss.
We ceased our work and without delay
we all went back to the camp,
except ten members of the gang, who were Neapolitan,
and another one who was from Tuscany.
80. Half of that day and the entire day after
we did not go to work,
but everyone was exasperated
by an action perpetrated
by the underboss, who early in the morning
decided to go to Miles City
to conduct business to his advantage,
so that all of us lost heart.
81. The day after, like spineless sheep,
almost all of us went back to work.
We unfortunate wretches have no dignity
because we must provide for our children,
therefore we swallow every humiliation,
for nobody listens to the voice of the dego;(24)
furthermore, because we are from a foreign country,
we always do what the Americans want.
82. Then, it’s better to shut up and work
in this land of whores.
But soon after we had to move again
to that town as nice as the month of April:
we were glad at the very hearing
of that name, Fallon, cheerful and kind.
We left, arrived in good spirits
and kept working without impediments.
83. Yet, after two days our cheerfulness
turned into a deep sorrow:
that same evening we left
and returned to Tusler – ah, what bitterness!
We arrived there three days before
payday. Our conductor,
after the three days, informed us
that we were to receive our pay at Miles City.
84. Quick as an arrow
we boarded the train that carried us there.
A soon as I was in town I hurried
to go mail a letter I had written;
I put in it a nice little money order
for 400 lire; and then I hurried
to go and get my new check,
which I decided to cash right away.
85. Then I went back to work,
but the heat was unbearable;
and many had to go back on foot,
because some wanted to stay in town and have fun.
That’s fine for those who can do it,
to have some fun before the end of life,
but such pleasure is not for me,
who has to fill more than one bowl.
86. When one is content with his condition,
whether it is good or bad,
he deems the world beautiful and pleasant
like one who is born in luxury and comfort.
Now, after we had our supper,
sad news arrived, namely that
there had been a wreck of the passenger train
and we all ran to the site.
87. The site were the disaster occurred
was less than two miles from us;
surely the Creator had performed a miracle,
for everyone was left safe and sound.
We could not stop looking
at that sight that was terrifying even from afar,
seeing the engine turned over
on one side and almost everything broken.
88. Besides the engine, five cars
were there all fallen apart;
but in less than an hour our bosses
had gathered there more than one hundred men;
some worked with a lamp and some groped in the darkness
but more than half were lying down
either to sleep or to rest.
Eventually the dawn returned.
89. As soon as daylight broke
all of us worked with renewed energy,
and the day had not ended yet
when the passage was made free.
Everything was removed from there,
except the engine that remained as a witness to
that catastrophe: it looked as if
it was weeping for what it had done.
90. The day after it too was removed
and sent off to be repaired.
Now, I really want to tell you
what had caused that accident.
It was a landslide that fell
from above the trench,
it obstructed a stretch of the road
and caused the derailment of the oncoming train.
91. The engine went off the rails
heavily hitting its nose on one side,
than on the other – like a dromedary –
than back to the other side, took a big hit,
eventually it broke, and at that point
the engineer had finished his task; then skilfully
a telegraph office was set up
that could communicate far and wide.
92. All this lasted one single day,
as I told you, then it was all finished.
And we, who had gone back
to our usual work,
were happy that the oven
gave us delicious bread every day, freshly baked,
and we teased each other heartily
about eating too much bread.
93. Everyday new issues arose,
but we laughed about them, understand me,
because the gang was composed
of people coming from all regions [of Italy];
and listen to what a workmate of ours
did one day: having received
sixty nickels as a bet, he threw himself
down into a muddy mire, and got all dirty.
94. Another [comic thing] he did,
but first I want to tell you the name of this guy:
it is Daniele Lencioni. He slept
in the same berth as a cousin of his;
one day they had a row, and he started collecting all his stuff
and wanted to leave, except for the quilt:
he did not know how to divide it,
so both of them began to pull on it.
95. Each of them pulling on his side, eventually
the quilt ripped apart and both fell down;
they got up, each one grabbed the scraps
and they made such a mess.
In the end, they shook hands, but you can imagine
how well the cousins got along.
In fact, one night, he decided
to separate the berth with a wooden plank.
96. These fellows always found new tricks.
Listen to this, which is really something:
one time a great discord arose between them,
the other one saying: “The candle’s flame is too strong.”
and Daniel answered saying
that the flame was very dim,
and insisting on it he bet
that he could switch off that flame with a fart.
97. Immediately all whistled
and shouted: “Liar!”
A candle was prepared,
he dropped his pants,
took the right position – oh dear listeners,
hear what they did:
he took the right position but soon he got up,
for he felt his butt severely toasted.
98. Another one I shall tell you and then it will be enough,
for if I had to tell you all the shenanigans they did,
I would have to use a pack of paper,
if I wanted to record everything.
This Lencioni one day found a cardboard box,
he shat in it,
then he closed the box and said:
“Now I am no longer afraid, for I have found judgment!”
99. Having closed the box, and rightly so,
as he didn’t want to show it to anybody,
a guy from Ponte, called Big Tub,
got very eager to know
what that box contained; the silly goose
took the box, and dropped it
immediately, for he got his hands covered in shit,
and we all burst into a loud and long laugh.
100. These pranks I’ve mentioned were all by one guy;
I can’t write the other ones, I don’t have enough paper,
but I could tell them one by one,
all the shenanigans that gang pulled off.
But I want to change subjects right away,
my pen is tired of these jokes;
I want to go back to the main path
of my story, and will tell you the truth.
101. One day that we were at work
– the regular work we were to do –
we saw an engine that arrived
speeding on, then it carried us away.
We were asked to load railroad ties
and rails, then it quickly took us along,
not knowing where we were going, and it carried us
to the camp and there it stopped.
102. We took with us some bread, then we boarded
the engine again, which was ready to leave;
while travelling I asked around and, in spite
of reticent answers, we surmised [what had happened]:
someone told me, in an excited tone of voice,
that a freight train… and didn’t want to say no more,
but he meant that it had been wrecked.
In the meantime we arrived at the site.
103. We all climbed down from the cars, I wanted
to go look at the wreck and noticed
not far, near one of the wagons,
a number of people rummaging around.
I went near too, and artfully grabbed
such a quantity of cigars that I had enough to smoke
three whole months, as many as I wanted.
Then it was time for me to go to work.
104. Many people were there already,
who had arrived before us.
The bosses shouted at us to get to work,
but many went into hiding:
each man was trying to find a stash
for the objects he had stolen,
for each grabbed all he could,
so great was the abundance of loot from the wreck.
105. Six wagons had broken apart,
full of objects of every kind:
shoes, socks, trousers were inside the boxes
that we were to carry
and pile up in a place where the bosses
had put some watchmen
with the order to guard
the goods and let nobody come close.
106. Other people were at work,
some on their own, some from the company,
but everyone looted a few things:
coffee, cigars, other things, and they took them
to their hiding place,
then they went back to the railroad
to work a little, and then quickly
returned to grab something if they could…
107. Some took revolvers, some winter coats,
one grabbed a woman’s skirt,
another drills or rolls, one grabbed vests
and another a woollen sweater,
all acting like the Huguenots did
when they entered don Abbondio’s home.(25)
Every one stole there, the big and the small,
the rich, the commoner and the poor.
108. All of us took something, and those who did not
it is because they could not do it in any way.
The abundance of goods found in that wreck
I could not describe in a thousand pages;
but many had a bad surprise,
for, when it was time to go home,
they went for the stuff they had stashed away
and found that somebody else had already taken it.
109. The work was over,
so we boarded the train and left;
but the roadmaster had ordered
that ten men should remain to complete the job.
We arrived at the camp and after supper
Lorenzini had to select those ten,
but almost all of us wanted to go back,
then he had to invent an excuse.
110. It was Saturday night, and the following day
whoever was willing to work was allowed to do so,
so Lorenzini decided on the spot:
“Whoever goes tonight, tomorrow shall not be allowed to work.”
Then almost all of them
pulled back, for the sake of getting
a dollar forty increase,
so that everyone lost heart.(26)
111. Still, a group of ten was formed,
we left at midnight on the dot
and went back to the wreck site,
in less than an hour we were there.
We all followed the roadmaster’s steps;
in the end he sat near a big fire
and soon fell asleep,
and we tried to get some more loot.
112. We did find something but not much
because there were fires to watch,
and they never went out,
so that night I could not sleep at all.
I was really pleased
to put something in my pocket
from the stuff that had gone
down the drain, half broken.
113. In the meantime the dawn
emerged, amid a dense white fog,
and right after came full daylight
but the weather was dark and drizzly;
and we left as the unicorn does,
when it flees back into the woods, after
a hunt, with the prey in its mouth
and woe upon whoever tries to stop it.
114. When we arrived at the camp,
the rest of the gang had just finished their coffee
and were ready to go
and work on the railroad.
We were all wet but [the boss] told us:
“Quick, go change and then,
if you still want, you surely may
go and work with us.”
115. A great grumbling then arose,
all of them swearing at Lorenzini:
“You liar, imposter, false and unjust man!”
said almost all the Florentines;
but he kept answering: “I’m the boss here!
Shut up, you good for nothings,
for if I want, you will remain at the camp
for three days without work.”
116. He added that he was not afraid
of anyone in that camp,
that we were a bunch of ignorant people
and he was the only one who knew what he was doing.
At that one of them stepped forward,
a certain Ghimenti, who said:
“You say you are afraid of no one
but, if you’re white, I shall turn you black!”
117. At that Lorenzini shut up,
and the other went on: “I’ll teach you how to speak;
for before I’m as boorish as you are,
I’ll have to study another thousand years.”
The row died down and each one went to work
grumbling in a bad mood,
but Lorenzini had to retreat,
it was a really bad day for him.
118. Three days after that wreck,
and it was a rainy day,
not yet satisfied,
I went to the wreck site
with three other fellows, hoping for luck,
speeding out with a bogie;
but when we arrived there, everything
had been burnt, and we were disappointed.
119. The fellows that came with me were Paolo Giometti,
from Massa Macinaia, a friend of mine,
Angelo Lazzaretti from Galleno,
and the third was a cousin of mine,
a certain Andrea Del Carlo. Since our plan
had failed, in terms of the booty we had hoped for,
we decided to go to Miles City
to cash our checks.
120. We boarded the bogie,
pushing it as fast as we could,
we got off at the station
and then hurried towards the bank.
Yet, it was all for nothing
because the bank had already closed;
so, having done nothing of what we wanted,
we left when the sun was already down.
121. As a dog that runs after a prey
at length, and does not succeed in grabbing it,
pulls back tired and panting,
getting no fruit of his chase,
we did the same. You can believe me,
this is the naked truth;
and when we entered our car,
we were all wet of rain and sweat.
122. Let’s forget this, and continue our story.
We had supper, went to bed
and the day after we went back, as immigrants do,
to our regular work.
After I don’t know how many days
again we changed places,
we were taken to Shirley, not far away,
just a ten-mile journey.(27)
123. We remained at Shirley for almost a month
with no incidents to record,
except that one day the cook quit
in a cavalier way, without informing anyone,
saying that “should I find myself in need
of leaving, someone told me
that I would not be granted a free pass,
not having worked for a long time.”
124. So he began to come and work with us,
and this happened on a Monday morning.
Still, someone else had to remain at the camp
to do the cooking:
“If nobody stays, we will have no supper
tonight”, we said to each other.
Eventually someone accepted to stay, one day only:
this was a certain Moschini, called “Tirapiani” [Pullslowly].
125. That very evening he quit, so somebody else
joined [the board] to prepare the meals and the supper,
but he quit after nine days,
because of some unkind words.
So he quit, and another one
took over the task of preparing our portions.
The one that quit was called Seghino,
and the one that replaced him was named Valentino.
126. This is the same one, if you recall,
who had the oven collapse on him while he was baking bread.
But, as far as cooking is concerned, have no doubt
that he could win a prize everywhere:
he was skilled, courageous as a friar,
he is like a paladin from Livorno.
So, we’ll let him do his job,
and say a few words about the baker.
127. The baker, Valentino Malfatti,
had quit the job of baking bread,
because he did not like getting up so early;
he left the board and went his way.
We then begged Luigino Guidi,
the previous baker, and he accepted
on the same conditions as the other,
for he did not want to appear lesser than the others.
128. Without too many words we reached an agreement,
and the board functioned marvellously well.
But I need to proceed quickly,
for the end of the work season is near.
Now I want to go back a few months,
and you will help me, O Divine Mother
of the Right Counsel and the Seven Sorrows,
to content my listeners.
129. Do you remember that famous day
on the past July 24th,
when almost all of us got drunk
and Lorenzini threw up even his breath?
I had gone back to my work
after having mailed a letter,
so a remained a whole month waiting
for an answer that would comfort me.
130. A full thirty days I waited for an answer,
but even after this much time it had not come yet.
I felt as if destiny was determined
to crush me and let me suffer until death.
Often I went to the post office,
expecting news at any moment,
but more than sixty one days passed
and the answer did not arrive.
131. I take up pen and inkwell, and then
a sheet of paper and I weep while I write,
saying: “O my wife, why
don’t we write any more and give no news to each other?
You are the source of my sorrow,
you who remained in beautiful Italy,
I don’t know whether in a good or a bad situation;
just thinking of the latter fills my heart with distress.”
132. Once I had finished and sealed
my letter, I decided to go to Tusler
to mail it, and I was accompanied
by three fellows eager to look around.
It was precisely the feast day devoted
to St. Michael, which I was used to celebrating back home,(28)
when I embarked on that sad promenade
and discovered a new mine.
133. One of my friends was a Piedmontese,
Pietro Perini by name;
with us was also that famous character
called Luigi Lorenzini.
Now, when returning from town
together with Massimo Giometti,
that Piedmontese insisted that we all
go and explore a new mine.
134. This mine was at the foot of a mountain
so steep that it was frightening,
the front sticking out of the foot,
so that it looked like a tomb.
We, with the courage of a Rodomonte
who made a pile of dead bodies near the walls
of fair Sion, against the Christians,
to try and free his pagans,(29)
135. we did not do the same but little less.
With our picks we began to dig,
but with the speed of lightning
we heard above us a loud uproar:
it was a big heap of earth
falling down in a fury.
This is the second time that the Infinite Goodness
has surely saved my life.
136. For, had God not been present then,
at least three of us would have been buried there
– the other one had moved a short distance away,
I believe to answer nature’s call.
I thank God, who has always helped me,
that we were able to flee so speedily.
We even wanted to try our luck again for a while,
but soon we stopped and left the place.
137. We left that place, and thinking back
at the events I have gone through in this world,
and that I could have lost my life,
amid cruel torments and pains…
but since it was time to eat,
we had lunch – we had nothing to drink –
and when I had finished my meal,
I realized I was not hungry anymore.
138. After lunch, having regained my spirits,
we went away, me and my friends,
because the mine that promised silver
had turned into a heap of dirt.
But we went to face another danger,
to break a big rock with dynamite;
and having smashed it we returned home,
and it was night when we arrived.
139. We stayed at Shirley several days,
and then returned to Tusler.
They made us wander like goats;
we could not find an hour’s rest,
and then – listen to this! – four days after
we had to move again:
they took us back to Shirley
We had become worse than gypsies.
140. We stayed at Shirley fifteen days,
then the gypsies moved again;
we went to a nearby town
which was called Terry.(30)
There we found a few more comforts
than at Shirley, and we felt good there.
And one night, when I was back from work,
I was handed an envelope.
141. I was glad to receive the letter
and at the same time I was anxious
and felt my heart beat fast,
thinking of what that letter might say.
I tore the envelope open, and set my eyes on it
and my worries immediately turned into joy,
when I read at the beginning: “My dear husband,
we are all in good health.” Oh, what a fierce destiny!
142. This is, O my listeners, a day of glee,
this is, O my listeners, a day of solace,
this is, O my listeners, the greatest joy
a man can experience before his death.(31)
I was filled with cheer and comfort,
I felt as if I had turned back from death to life.
Then I was happy, I am telling you,
just one time in a lifetime would be enough.
143. The day of my contentment was the sixth
of November of the first year
of the Twentieth century. I am almost certain
that was the date, if I am not mistaken;
but I can also tell you that the tenth of the same month
a companion of mine had an accident,
because while he was getting some coal
a piece of it fell and squashed one of his feet.
144. That very day a train full of coal
had arrived at the station.
As soon as it stopped
Pietro Perini went up in the car,
took a piece of it and, seeing
that at that point no one was around,
dropped the piece of coal and, while it was falling,
Ghimenti happened to position his foot right there.
145. The piece of coal dropping from above
fell squarely on his foot;
had he be been just a little ahead – ah cruel fate! –
it would have caused a much worse accident:
I am sure he would have died.
But our merciful God came to his help;
still, his wound was serious,
so I advised him to go to the hospital.
146. The poor man left two days after
and reluctantly went to the hospital.
Luigi Lorenzini followed him,
because he could not use his foot.
He accompanied him for a while, then he disappeared;
when the patient he realized that,
he was left dismayed and unhappy,
for he did not expect such a betrayal.
147. What followed I do not want to narrate,
for it would be too long,
and if I remain silent, I will surely not get it mixed up
for the story is too unpleasant;
so I will leave my page mute,
and I am eager to talk of something else.
The only thing we learned was that he went to St. Paul,
and from there went back to Chicago.
148. Let’s get back to our story, and leave aside
things I’d rather not talk about.
As I told you before, we were working
near the town of Terry,
but soon we changed places
and went back to that pleasant place
which I have already mentioned more than once, Fallon,
and this was done quickly, as in a hot-air balloon.
149. We worked at Fallon fifteen days,
then we were ordered to move again;
during the day we worked without an hour’s rest,
at night we were carried somewhere else.
We went back to stay at Shirley,
always working on the railroad.
Now listen to what happened one night
when we were going back and it was already dark.
150. When we were returning from work
with the bogies on the rails,
at one o’clock at night we encountered a train
coming toward us like a bull.
We took the bogie out of its way,
then we got up again to continue our trip
but after a short stretch
an engine appeared close by.
151. In a flash we got off
and removed the bogie right away,
but three fellows that were behind us were hit
and were almost made up into pieces.
These are horrendous and dreadful things…
Those fellows quickly jumped out of the bogie
and all were safe, God willing,
because they were swift, I am telling you.
152. As I said, they were all safe
except one, who sprained one of his legs
jumping down – ah, what a bad accident!
If I think of what it could have happened…
It would be better to be in the middle of sea waves
than to be working near the trains.
And hear what happened a little later
to four Sicilian acquaintances of ours.
153. They belonged to a gang
that had been dismantled a few days before,
but these fellows had decided to stay
and spend the winter in the same place.
They shipped out their belongings
to a certain destination for storage
but when they went there to recover
their things they did not find them.
154. They then took up a bogie
to go and look for their belongings,
and they were travelling on the railway nice and easy,
who knows, maybe chatting among themselves;
but a train that was running swift and brisk
bumped into them at a turn of the way.
Suddenly these four unfortunates
jumped out of the bogie.
155. But only three of them were lucky
who were quite agile in jumping down,
the other one instead met his death,
for the train passed over him:
it rolled, it wrung, it squeezed him,
his blood spurted far away
and all his limbs were broken apart…
Just think what kind of death that was.
156. I leave this here because my heart
is sobbing from such great pain
and I want to get back to my story,
which is the main purpose of this endeavour.
We were working near a creek,
digging a trench intended to hold water,
but the cold weather, to tell you the truth,
marked thirty seven below zero.
157. So eventually we were forced
to abandon our work
because the cold had so frozen our feet
that we could not stand any more;
so, when we were back at the car,
we vigorously rubbed our feet
so that the blood began to run again,
and they weren’t frozen any more.
158. At one o’clock sharp the boss called us again
to go to work, for that was his task,
but everyone said: “I can’t come,
I want to enjoy the fire’s heat the whole day.”
The boss then addressed me, as if begging
he said: “Come with me, please,
I must go and see a friend of mine
for a certain business, I want to speak with him.”
159. So we left, we went where he had to go
and returned that evening;
to make a long story short
we suffered a great deal from the bitter cold that day.
We expected to leave – but we didn’t –
to go and settle near Glendive,
but we had to stay there three more days,
without working, just eating and drinking.
160. Three days after we left
for that town we liked so much,
and there they paid us in turn
according to the amount of work each of us had done;
and the morning after, my dear listeners,
I was left with four companions only,
for all the others departed
each one to his desired destination.
161. This is it, dear listeners, I’ve told you of my work season,
and I shall begin another one,
and you will excuse my odd state of mind
if I accidently made some mistakes.
I told you everything and didn’t hide anything,
but now I need to rest a little,
and when I’ve had my rest,
I shall tell you how I spent the winter.
(1) This is a well-known custom among the immigrants looking for a job. The 1885 Foran Act prevented immigrants to get a work contract before landing in the United States, which rendered the search for a job more difficult, given the immigrants’ ignorance of the language and customs of the new country. This facilitated the emergence of the so called “padrone system”: a fellow countryman already at ease with the language and able to contact employers in the United States gathered groups of immigrants and distributed them according to the needs of various employers. His intermediary role was outside any legal provision and gave room to every sort of abuse, among which the bossatura, the fee exacted for the very fact of obtaining a job. A bossatura of $10.00 was common for a work season of five-six months. A regular employment agency would have required, for the same job, either $2.00, or 10% of the first monthly salary. See Ercole Sori, L’emigrazione italiana dall’Unità alla seconda guerra mondiale (Bologna, 1987); Humbert S. Nelli, “The Italian Padrone System,” Labor History, 5. 2 (1964), 153-168; Frank J. Sheridan, “Italian, Slavic, and Hungarian,” Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, 72 (1907), 414-415.
(2) Probably the Chicago Great Western, the railroad that connected Chicago to Saint Paul and left from Grand Central Station (Wells and Harrison Streets). As it appears from the continuation of the story, Antonio Andreoni was hired as a labourer for the Northern Pacific Railway, a line that connected Lake Superior to Puget Sound (Washington), on the Pacific Coast, and had been completed in 1883.
(3) Founded in 1882 near the Heart River and established as a town in 1899, Dickinson was the main supply channel for the mines of the Black Hills. Like most American railways, the Northern Pacific Railway did not connect existing towns, but created them along its line, giving them the names of contemporary prominent personalities. W. S. Dickinson was a senator of the state of New York.
(4) Railway companies often lodged maintenance gangs in camp cars, which could easily be attached to a locomotive and carried where work was needed. One of the cars would be used as a kitchen, another as a dining room, and so on. The men slept on berths in “bunk cars”. The gang then had to get organized to provide for the men’s everyday needs.
(5) In Italian ottanta soldi: a soldo represented five cents, the total was therefore four ‘liras’.
(6) These lines echo perhaps some biblical texts, such as Psalm 90 (89). 10 and Ecclesiastes, 40.1-2.
(7) Italian immigrants could not bring themselves to eat the soft white American bread, and traditionally every gang built an oven to cook bread Italian style.
(8) Not a town but a mere stopping point in Billings County.
(9) “A number of railroads carried out ditching programs in which the drainage ditches along the roadbed were deepened,” Britannica Macropedia, vol. 28, 794.
(10) Located near the Little Missouri River, this town was thus named by the Marquis De Mores in honour of his wife. A rich cattle farmer from France, Marquis De More tried to make a fortune in America ranching cattle in that region for a few years. Today his house and part of his meat plant have become museums.
(11) An obviously outrageous price.
(12) The town, created in function of the railway, was thus named in honour of James Barnet Fry (1827-1894), a military figure prominent during the civil war and later in national politics.
(13) Prairie rattlers are common in the central region of the United States west of the Missouri River.
(14) The flatcar used to carry the material and tools needed for the workmen’s work.
(15) Quite likely a “burning coal vein”: brown coal, occasionally set on fire by lightning, which continues to burn for a long time. Such burning veins are still indicated as tourist attractions in what was later designated as the Roosevelt National Park (South Unit), covering the stretch of the NPR area where the writer worked.
(16) I have not been able to identify this monument. Perhaps a stone cairn such as those the Amerindians erected to leave messages? The inscription remains a mystery.
(17) Glendive, the town that marked the border between the railroad divisions of Missouri and Yellowstone: this explains the turnover of engine and staff. The writer links the unfamiliar name to the Italian word grande.
(18) At the confluence of the O’ Fallon Creek and the Yellowstone River. “The town was founded and settled by Texas cowhands and was the central chipping point for the local cattle industry.” (Donna M. Lucey, Photographing Montana, p. 7). The name comes from Benjamin O’Fallon, an Indian agent for the upper Missouri region from 1823 to 1827.
(19) The phrasing lets us surmise that the writer was himself a member of the Board charged to organize the affairs of the gang.
(20) Originally named Dixon, the site later took the name of one of the first cattle ranchers of the region, Henry Tusler. The station, situated at the time between Miles City and Shirley, is no longer in existence. A photograph of Henry Tusler and his family, taken by Evelyn Cameron in 1898, can be seen in Donna M. Lucey, Photographing Montana1894-1928. The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), p. 22.
(21) The town of Miles City grew out of a military fortress, Fort Keogh. Founded in 1887, it took the name of a general who had contributed to defeat the Indians of that region. “In the 1880s, when the Northern Pacific Railroad reached Miles City, it became an important and colourful shipping post for livestock – a renowned ‘wide open’ town that catered to the whims of the cowboy intent on blowing his pay and raising hell… The Montana Stockgrowers Association had been formed in Miles City in 1885.” (Donna M. Lucey, Photographing Montana, p. 203, 206). The city boasted a bank, a hotel, a court of law, and innumerable saloons.
(22) The Italian original attempts to render the pronunciation of the English expression.
(23) The event was also signalled on the first page of the Daily Yellowstone Journal of Miles City dated July 5: “The train from the west was delayed at Dewey and other places by dirt and gravel from the high banks being washed over the track. The train from the east was delayed till noon by a washout near Tusler and there are 17 washouts reported east of Miles City and the city became the temporary terminus of the road with the result that several train loads of unexpected visitors were dumped off for the celebration.”
(24) Dego is a pejorative term that indicated at first the Hispanic, and then also the Italian immigrants.
(25) Allusion to an episode of Alessandro Manzoni, I promessi Sposi, ch. 30.
(26) For the sake of working on Sunday, when the pay was higher.
(27) A stopping point no longer existing, between Miles City and Terry.
(28) S. Michael was the saint patron of the village, celebrated on September 29.
(29) The simile here seems to merge the characters of Rodomonte from Orlando Furioso (cantos XVI-XVIII).
(30) The town is probably named after General Alfred H. Terry, who was at the head of the Department of Dakota (which also included East Montana) since 1873 and helped in freeing the Yellowstone Valley from the Indian threat. Here is a description of the town at the turn of the century based on Evelyn Cameron’s diaries and letters: “The town was located just south of the Yellowstone River midway between the larger towns of Miles City and Glendive, Montana. Seen from a distance in 1893, it looked like a mirage on the dusty treeless plain. Sagebrush and cactus were its only vegetation […]. What was not apparent to the eye was the resource that gave Terry its life: its ample underground water supply. In an area where water was scarce and often almost undrinkable due to alkali salts, this was no small matter. The town was spawned by the arrival of the work crews of the Northern Pacific Railroad, who were laying track through eastern Montana, roughly following the contour of the Yellowstone River. With its supply of water for men and steam engines, Terry became a shipping point for the livestock raised on the cattle and sheep ranches scattered throughout the area.” Donna M. Lucey, Photographing Montana 1894-1928. The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), p. 17.
(31) The phrasing imitates a similar episode in the popular novel Paris e Vienna, VI 29-30.
The Winter
1. O muse, you whose brow is crowned
by a wreath of laurel, in Helicon,
and who alone amid the blessed choirs
wear a crown of immortal stars,
inspire delightful passions within me,
enlighten my song, and forgive me(1)
if the song I am about to begin
will not be as skilful as you wish.
2. You heard, my friends, in the past canto
about the work season of the Summer.
Now I start the winter work
and you will listen to this one too,
so you will know what befell me
if you pay due attention.
I shall tell you all of it as I can,
and with the help of God Eternal.
3. It was December 18th, my friends
had departed and I stayed on
– the date on the calendar was
Nineteen Hundred and One.
Having gathered everything necessary,
that night we left Glendive
and, while the train was running fast and furious,
a fellow of mine stirred the polenta.
4. Once the polenta was prepared, and also
a tasty stew, which everybody likes,
we ate joyfully, even if we were shaken
on every side because the train was running fast.
When we had finished our meal
everyone wanted to go to bed
to rest, but we could not rest at all
because of the shaking of the train.
5. Running so fast,
we arrived at Tusler as dawn was breaking,
and a little later the boss asked us
politely whether we felt like going to work.
The answer was courteously
that we did. So we quickly readied
what was necessary for a meal
and then went out to work.
6. Once there, very soon they ordered us
to load certain cars with gravel,
but it was frozen so hard
that we could barely dig it.
The gravel that we loaded
was needed to build a bridge
not far from the railroad,
where the water had washed away the riverbank.(2)
7. And, working in good spirits,
we arrived on that memorable day
when the Son of God leaves the doors
of Heaven and is born as a lovely baby.
Deep thoughts assailed me
and broke my heart into pieces,
especially when I had lunch
and remembered all of my family.
8. O my readers, think how greatly
that remembrance saddened me,
for I was so far from them,
at a distance of seven thousand miles and more,
in the wilderness, near a river,
my heart full of sorrow and resentment,
thinking that I could have been that day
at lunch together with my family.
9. But poverty has forced me
to travel far from my homeland
and from my family, poor me;
yet, I want to do what is God’s will.
Albeit unpleasantly, time will pass,
and if it will be God’s and the Virgin Mary’s pleasure
that day will come when I shall return
to hug all of my family.
10. Let’s not linger on this, which saddens
my heart, and let me talk of something else.
We worked there two more days,
the day after we were taken somewhere else.
We left late at night
and in the morning we arrived
where all of us were paid,
and I was abandoned by my friends.
11. We stayed at Glendive four days
to load cinder at the depot;
but we worked there only two days,
the other two we had rest.
On January 3rd we left that town
and went to settle at Wibaux.(3)
We left in the morning
and arrived at night, exhausted.
12. Having arranged the camp cars and prepared
a meal as best as we could, we had a frugal supper,
and a little after supper
we all went to bed.
In the morning, as soon as I got up,
we were all taken to work
at the town of Beach, about eleven miles
farther from the camp.
13. Every morning we went to work
and at night we went back to the camp;
but because it was so cold,
the boss heated up one of the cars
when we finished work,
as well as in the morning on the way to work;
cheerfully we boarded that car,
sat down and didn’t feel the cold.
14. How unfortunate I am in this world!
And yet God assists and helps me,
for I am not yet at the end of my life:
death does not want me, even rejects me.
This I can say very clearly
because of a grace Heaven granted me.
If you listen patiently,
I shall tell you how this happened.
15. The night of January 11th,
while we were coming back from work,
the engine travelled ahead
and behind it two cars with the people aboard.
Our car was in the middle and behind it
the conductor’s car;
the train travelled as fast as the wind,
so much that it frightened us.
16. At the Wibaux station there was
a fright train ready to leave.
Our train, that was running so fast,
I cannot say whether it saw the other,
for right there was a great curve;
the engineer, when he saw that train
appear so close ahead of him,
applied the brakes with full force to stop the motion.
17. He also turned the valve (4)
but then, seeing that this was of no avail,
sounded the alarm as if saying
“Every man for himself!”
and immediately he jumped off the train.
But we who were inside, not seeing the danger,
we felt such a hit
that I was almost thunderstruck.
18. And, not knowing what had happened,
we rushed outside to see what it was:
the engine in motion had hit
the train that was there ready to leave.
That was a wonderful and undeserved miracle:
all of us should have died [in such an accident];
yet, God willing, we were all saved,
having sustained only negligible damage.
19. My readers, if you had been with me
near that heap of debris,
your eyes would have filled with tears,
looking closely at that event:
five cars entirely broken apart
and our engine (o Highest Heaven!)
also broken and all smashed up,
and derailed from the tracks.
20. It was a grace from God, who gave good counsel
to the engineer, that particular evening,
to position the engine ahead of the cars,
an occurrence which rarely happened.
Should our car have been positioned, for our misfortune,
ahead of the engine, oh, what an unhappy evening
that would have been for us, poor wretches,
who would have been all smashed up!
21. Poor wife and sons of mine,
poor daughters, too, what a situation
and how many sorrows and laments
my misfortune would have caused you,
I am sure of that: no bread, no counsel…
But I thank God who freed me,
and I can say this was the third time:
“Thanks once again, Jesus and Mary.”
22. Had not the Lord watched over me,
that would have been the end of my days,
my body would have stayed in Wibaux,
my life would have been cut short,
my soul would have gone to its destiny.
But that was not the appointed hour,
and I am still in this world
to suffer pains until I die.
23. I will always thank my Creator
and His Mother and all the Saints,
and I also pray you with all my heart
to thank Him with me.
Now I shall stop talking about this, because
even thinking about it is too painful, and I ’ll continue
my story, full of misfortunes,
which I interrupted a moment ago.
24. Now I shall tell you what we did
and what we were ordered to do after the accident:
we had to quickly clean up the road
for another train had to get through.
Behind us a passenger train was running fast
but they stopped it
via a telegram sent to the nearest station,
which warned of the great catastrophe.(5)
25. A cable was also sent to Glendive asking
to send all that was necessary
to remove the engine from its position,
for people with bare hands couldn’t do anything for that.
Following the cable every sort of equipment was sent,
which was there in less than an hour,
where urgent need required it
and all the devices were called into action.
26. Some people worked to remove the engine,
some worked near the wagons,
which were broken apart. I shall also tell you
that all of those cars were set on fire,
and I assure you than in less than an hour
ashes and iron were all that was left;
the engine too was removed,
and we went to bed late in the night.
27. The day after we did not go to work,
for it was the Lord’s Day;
yet, I could not rest at all
for I had to bake the bread.
On Monday they let us go
to end our work near the little town
of Beach, then in the evening we left
and were moved to Glendive.
28. There we stayed one night only,
in the morning we left again
and went to the town of Hoyt
to load rails, from early morning.
We stayed there two days only
because there was nowhere to set up camp.
We left and went back to Tusler,
and there we stayed one day.
29. That day we completed a trench
which we had left unfinished a few days earlier,
but the soil was so terribly frozen
that we could barely complete it.
That evening the boss told us
that he would take us to Miles City.
Everybody entered his car
and we arrived there in less than an hour.
30. We had supper, we slept, and in the morning
we went back to load rails;
and any piece of iron, whether big or small,
we were to pick it all up.
Then we went back slowly,
stopping wherever we found iron,
picking it all up. At night
we arrived at Terry that it was already dark.
31. There we spent the night. The day after
we went to do the same kind of work,
but the cold was so aggressive
that it made us groan like bulls.(6)
We loaded the iron as quickly as we could,
then we ran into the heated car.
Working thus in great haste
we arrived at Glendive at quite a late hour.
32. There we stayed for a while,
because we had to prepare bundles of wood:
we went into a wood and worked there,
some cutting the wood and some tying it.
When it was lunchtime
they let us go back to the camp
for, if we had taken our food out there,
it would freeze so that we could not eat it.
33. When we had finished cutting the wood
and made the bundles,
these had to be taken to the railroad
as they were to be loaded onto the train.
Then they took us to Medora,
and we had to unload the bundles there, near a river,
for we had to build a dam with these,
where the water was wearing the railroad away.
34. We stayed at Medora
until the big dam was finished,
and then again we were on the move,
and left in the dark of the night,
and went back to make bundles
in the same place as our previous excursion,
I mean Glendive, where we had been before,
and remained there some time.
35. It was precisely February 8th
when we arrived at Glendive cheerfully,
but on the eighteen of that month
we received some rather bad news:
that twenty people of our gang
were to be immediately laid off.
However I was not laid off
for I was luckier than the others.
36. You must know, dear listeners,
that when the people of our gang left,
five of us remained, such close friends
that one could not do without the other;
but Destiny hit me, who has great power
and has it in for poor devils:
two of them left me on January 16th,
the other two on February 18th.
37. My readers, you do not know the strange case
that caused the departure of the first two:
in the same car with us there was a Neapolitan
who was deaf and greatly arrogant.
My two friends, who were from Masserano,
a town situated in Piedmont,
wanted to flee from that deaf bastard,
and so, although with great sorrow, they told us goodbye.
38. As to the other two, you already know the reason
why they abandoned me and left.
In this way a wish
I already nurtured was granted,
to become the lone member in a gang
of strangers;(7) come what may,
I am now the only Tuscan
in a gang of Neapolitans.
39. Now you will ask me why I wished that,
and I shall tell you if you listen:
because when I was in the other gang,
I couldn’t hear anything but swearing,
and this is why I always prayed to God
to let me take my distances from them.(8)
I received that grace so that I was satisfied,
and I thank God for this as well as for the other graces you already know.
40. I let God do His will, always settling
things well, according to His pleasure,
and I bear my problems with patience,
for this is certainly my duty.
Let us now get back to our sketches,
for I want to reveal everything to everybody.
In the meantime, we arrived at March 13th,
the time that was supposed to be Spring.
41. But in the evening, a wind began to blow,
so strong that it could carry anything away
and made all of us tremble,
for it was coming from the North.
After a while it started snowing:
we could see the snow whirling in the air
pushed by the wind, and it never stopped
the whole night, the day after, and the night that followed.
42. The snowstorm lasted sixty-two hours,
and this is absolutely true.
Then on March 15th, when the night was dark,
I heard a loud knock while I was sleeping.
It was the boss, who told us all excited:
“Get up quickly, a cable has just arrived
that we must go and dig out
a train from under the snow.”
43. Right away we left, and carried
our camp cars with us;
we arrived at the appointed destination
after twenty-nine miles.
Believe me if you can, o my reader:
I was afraid I would lose my life
for the temperature, while we worked,
marked thirty-three degrees below zero.
44. The snow combined with the blowing wind
left us often short of breath;
we worked three hours in agony,
so the train could get through pulled by three engines;
we then resumed our way
and went back to Glendive.(9)
The day after, at precisely noon
we received another cable:
45. that we should leave for Mandan (10)
quickly as the snow was more
than five metres deep, and they could not find enough people,
for surely a lot of people were needed.
They had us leave immediately
because we had to travel a great distance:
we were two hundred and sixteen miles away,
so that the train left swiftly and ran at full gallop.
46. A whole day and a whole night
we travelled and the day after,
four hours after dawn,
we arrived at Mandan.
We quickly got down from the cars
and got to work, worse than oxen,
in such deep snow, and for three days
in a row we kept toiling away.
47. O my reader, if you don’t see it you won’t believe it,
and the very thought is frightening:
there was a huge device to plough the snow
pushed by four steam engines;
and behind that we could see coming
another colossus designed to throw the snow
onto either side and clear the road
so that the train could get through.
48. As I said, after three days
of such strenuous work
we left Mandan, and I was hoping
to spend the following days more restfully.
But we went in the area near Sweet Briar
for even more arduous work:
we had to load stones
and for three days I had to sweat.
49. It was Holy Tuesday and also
the feast of the Annunciation,
when we departed from
Sweet Briar and went on our way.
We arrived at Dickinson
one hour before sunset,
that awful, cruel and unfair town
where the year before I went hungry.
50. But after a short time we departed again
and went back twelve miles,
because our careless conductor
had made a mistake about the site of the camp;
and we set up our camp at Gladstone.
That very night the sky unleashed
a severe storm with wind and snow
that was something frightful.
51. The wind and the snow continued
the whole night and the day after,
so that we could not stay outside for an hour
for fear of freezing.
And the following day, early in the morning,
we went to load sand,
and stayed there until
the Saturday that we call Holy.
52. After the Saturday, Easter comes,
and that I spent in a fairly good mood:
we ate and drank all together,
and my heart was pounding in my chest.
But at three o’clock we received a telegram
that we had to leave immediately
to go and load rails and then after that
we were to head to Mandan.
53. So we left, we arrived at Hebron (11)
around five o’clock in the afternoon;
we quickly went and loaded rails
until nine o’clock, then we went back
to our cars and had supper.
The day after we left before dawn
and stopped at Mandan, for about half an hour,
waiting for new orders.
54. The order came and it was the following:
the we had to leave three cars there;
we had to get out of our cars in a hurry
because time was running short
but we had to leave our belongings on site
– a warning that was sinister for me -,
inside the cars, because on the third day
each one was to go back to his car.
55. So we got out of the cars and only took
enough food for three days,
with just the clothing we were wearing, of course.
We left and went to work
in a place where water had created a great lake,
which extended for about two miles
where the railroad was low,
and we had to build a new stretch of it.
56. This place was at a distance
of twenty two miles from that rotten Mandan.
When we arrived there
we did find a great number of people
working on every side,
to get it built quickly;
but after four days the water level had fallen enough
that the train, slightly swimming, could get through.(12)
57. It was April 4th, in the evening,
when we finished our work and went back
to the place where, four days before,
I had left all my belongings.
Arriving around ten o’clock, I jumped down
and look for my car, and quickly I got
more and more short of breath, for I did not find it.
Then I asked an employee.
58. He answered that the cars had left
three days before, they had been carried away
“and I could not tell you for sure where they went,
but I suppose they went to Glendive.”
O terrible news! O United States,
you tell me what you are doing,
that you have left me deprived of everything
except for the clothing on my back!
59. I went back to the car deeply saddened,
lamenting my misfortune;
along with me, other people had the same bad luck,
but their belongings didn’t amount to much.
The sad night went by and the day after
we sent a telegram, asking that our possessions
be kept there and in good order:
“We pray you heartily and respectfully.”
60. The cable was sent to the superintendent,
but we received no answer.
In a gloomy mood I spent that day
and the following night; the day after
at nine o’clock suddenly
a telegram arrived that I could not believe:
instead of taking us back to Glendive,
we were sent [elsewhere] to load more stones.
61. Wretched me, miserable and sad,
look at how unfortunate I am!
I have always been ill-fated in this world,
but I had never fallen so low.
In the meantime we travelled to our destination,
and arrived around three o’clock at the appointed place
but there we found a new order,
to set up our camp at Hebron.
62. We arrived at Hebron around five o’clock
and as soon as the train stopped
we were ordered to go and load some rails,
which were needed as soon as possible.
But my mind was elsewhere;
then I saw a freight train stationed there,
and the urge assailed me
to board that train to go and look for my belongings.
63. A determined mind does not listen to advice,
but the train was already in motion,
and I leapt aboard to face any danger,
just as an outlaw would do.
I tried to find a hiding place
within those cars, but I did not succeed,
the conductor saw me and quickly came to ask
where was it that I wanted to go.
64. “To Dickinson, Sir.” I answered,
“On account of a misfortune that happened to me
I want to go and ask the road master
to please give me a pass to go to Glendive.”
So I told him the entire story and begged him
to please let me stay on the train.
As God willed, he accepted,
and he let me go to the caboose.(13)
65. With God’s will, I eventually arrived
at Dickinson, at ten o’clock in the evening,
but it so happened that at that time
the road master had gone to bed.
So to spend the night I sat
in a room and there I slept on the floor;
then I waited for the time that the road master
would get up so he could give me the pass.
66. Now, waiting for the right time,
I was wandering about the station
and I heard voices speaking Italian
from within a car, and I approached.
The first person I met, I asked him
what kind of people they were:
the answer was that they were all from Tuscany
save three that were Neapolitan.
67. Thus conversing I learned
that an acquaintance of mine was there,
one of those that were unhappily laid off
on February 18th, and had to leave.
Meeting him again with great glee,
he informed me that, coming from Glendive,
he had seen my car there
and the belongings I was keeping in it.
68. What a pleasurable announcement that was,
it halved the anxiety I was feeling
for, after having been so miserable,
I could expect to recover my belongings.
I left my friend and approached
the man who could give me the pass to board the train;
fortunately I got what I needed
and at one o’clock I left almost consoled.
69. Now, while I was going to Glendive,
my gang had been moved and led back
to the place where the flood had occurred,
for the railroad had to be completed.
In the meantime I was arriving at Glendive,
around seven o’clock, bursting with joy
because, as soon as I got down from the train,
I went to look for what I wanted and I located it.
70. Having put everything in order, I went
to the roadmaster and asked him
to please let me have the car
to haul my belongings. He answered that
the day after he would see what he could do,
but the day arrived and he told me that he could not
give me the car. I asked then to have a pass
to go back to my camp.
71. He said that he would give me the pass
to Mandan, for quite likely that night
the gang would finish the work
and the people would be let off there.
After getting the pass I was waiting for the train,
which was supposed to be there at four o’clock,
but it was delayed nine hours, and I had to wait
until one o’clock at night, and leave at that time.
72. So I left at one o’clock, as I said,
having recovered all my belongings;
I had a case and a bag with me,
the rest I had mailed and insured.
I arrived at Mandan at eight o’clock but – ah, poor me! –
I didn’t find my gang there.
I asked someone where they were,
he answered that they were still at the flood.
73. I then bought a ticket for the train and left
(I had to pay no less than a dollar),
but when I arrived there, I looked around and thought
I would go crazy, for I could not see them.
So I kept travelling and then suddenly
I saw my gang, and I wanted to jump down,
but the train was running fast
and there was no way for me to get down.
74. A little later the train slowed
the fast pace it had kept up until then,
and I took my bags and threw them outside
onto the ground one by one, while the train was in motion,
and then jumped down myself,
for I did not want to go any farther.
With God’s help I was left unscathed,
then I started walking back to find my gang.
75. Now the stuff that I had mailed
was left at the station of Mandan,
because that’s where I expected to find my gang,
but things had turned out differently.
Three days after I left the place,
for the railroad was finished.
Once arrived at Mandan, I went to the station
to look for my stuff but I found the baggage deposit closed.
76. It was closed because it was late at night,
so I could not recover my belongings;
the day after early in the morning,
I went back there, and I found the deposit
still closed, and from the outside, through a window,
I could see my baggage there;
seeing it and being unable to recover it
truly made for a very unpleasant feeling.
77. In the meantime an engine arrived
and took our cars and hauled them
near the station; the engine was ready
to leave, and the baggage door was still closed.
What suffering, which was splitting my heart,
to have to leave and to leave there behind
all the stuff that I had shipped…
From grief, I was on the point of weeping.
78. In the midst of my suffering
I saw an employee enter the station
and, after begging and praying him,
he came to open and handed over
my belongings, which I carried swiftly
to the closest car I could find;
and as I was hauling my belongings
the train began to move, and was already going away.
79. As fast as I could I ran behind it,
I threw my bags on it and then
jumped up on it, and luckily
I was able to board the train, with God’s assistance.
O my reader, death would be a better destiny
than having to suffer what I went through
in this world full of sorrows…
but so be it if it is the Lord’s will.
80. It was seven o’clock when I was engrossed
in that torment, that we had to depart
and left that sorry place,
and we had to go to Sedalia.(14)
But by now it is time for me to take a rest,
and I hope that you will agree:
after so much anguish and trouble
I hope nobody will object to my resting.
(1) This introduction imitates the first verse of Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, somewhat misunderstanding the meaning of the first two lines.
(2) In his History of the Northern Pacific Railroad, historian Eugene V. Smalley underlined the difficulty of conveniently channeling the water’s flow in the stretch where the railroad ran parallel to the Yellowstone River (New York, 1883, 388-400).
(3) In the Division of North Dakota. Wibaux is the name given to the small town formerly called Mingusville, in 1895, from the name of the largest cattle owner of the region, the Frenchman Pierre Wibaux.
(4) The valve sent the steam into the cylinders in the direction opposite to that of the train, thus increasing the effect of the brakes.
(5) American railroad companies were in fact among the first to extensively use telegraph and telephone as means of instant communication. The reasons are evident from the accident narrated herein.
(6) Here as elsewhere the similitudes are inspired by literary texts.
(7) The unification of Italy was declared in 1865. Thirty-something years later the regional differences were still clearly perceived, to the point of calling southern Italians ‘strangers’.
(8) A that time the fight against blasphemy was a hot topic in Catholic preaching. Preachers and religious literature recommended avoiding the company of blasphemers; Tuscans on the other hand were known for their habit of swearing.
(9) The incident is reported also by the Daily Yellowstone Journal of March 15: “Train n. 4 is reported as being up against the end of a snow drift in Dakota, between Sentenel Butle [sic] and Medora and will [have] either to eat the snow or wait till the rotary can get to it.”
(10) The name was taken from that of the Indigenous people that populated the region.
(11) A town founded in 1885 by the German Evangelical Society of America.
(12) West of Mandan, the railroad runs along the Sweet Briar River. In 1883 a historical source describes this area in the following terms: “The Little Sweetbrier, winding from side to side of its narrow valley, required numerous short pile bridges. Lately the expedient of making cut-offs for this stream has been resorted to, and several of the bridges have been replaced by embankments.” (Eugene V. Smalley, History of the northern Pacific Railroad, 396). In 1964 the river flow was regulated by building the Sweet Briar Dam.
(13) A car designated for the use of the train crew, usually attached to the rear.
(14) A station no longer in existence, between New Salem and Judson. The name was inspired by the better-known town of Sedalia, Missouri.
The [Second] Work Season
1. Having taken my rest, dear readers,
I will continue my tale.(1)
I remember that I left my song
to the time when I went, gladly, to Sedalia.
Now that the winter is over
and the warm season slowly advances,
in this canto I shall narrate
what I’ve been through, if you keep listening.
2. As I said, I went to Sedalia,
as happy as a donkey in April
that sees the grass flowering.
By now the hard season is over,
and also my troubles have ended,
since I recovered my belongings; the weather
too is mild, for the winter is over,
and we are no longer tormented by the cold.
3. When we arrived at Sedalia
we had to load stones,
and we spent several days there;
but on April 25th they moved us
and we went back to Sweet Briar.
There we worked one day only,
then the work was completed,
so we rested two days and then received our pay.
4. Then we departed to go back
to the town named Glendive,
and when we arrived at Dickinson we stopped,
and also spent the night there.
We left again the day after,
around noon, and with no stop
we arrived at Glendive in good spirits,
around seven o’clock, without any hitches.
5. In the morning they had us go
to load all those wood bundles
we had prepared before we left,
and this task made us sweat for two days,
for there were eighty thousand of those bundles,
I’m not lying. And then they had us set off
towards Tusler, one Sunday night
which was precisely May 4th.
6. Besides our cars, they hooked up
all the wagons we had loaded
and also a lot of stones, which we had to use
for the tasks we were ordered to do.
In the night we travelled
and when we arrived at Tusler
they gave us time for a quick meal,
then we went to the worksite.
7. Once there, we started
unloading the stones and the bundles,
and then with these we made cribbing,
which we sank into the water;
then [we sank] more bundles, and if they were moving
[we threw] more stones atop them, so that at the end
with all those bundles and stones
we built a strong enough river dam.(2)
8. This way, the water that ran
along that side could not arrive any more,
and while before it brushed against the railroad
now it ran against that dam.
There we worked gleefully
for twenty-two days, then they moved us
and let us go to Blatchford,
to straighten out a big abrupt curve.
9. We stayed there happily,
and I often went hunting:
the place was full of game,
so that I never returned home empty handed.(3)
We hunted hares and rabbits,
woodcocks, mallards,
and sometimes turkeys or pigeons:
we would shoot all sorts of game amid those valleys.
10. I can say that by means of my hunting
I always had at my disposal
hares, rabbits, sometimes a few woodcocks,
such that I had enough for my needs.
A single day, Sunday, would provide me
the meat I needed for the whole week
before the new holiday came;
then I went back into the woods.
11. What I can say, my dear listeners,
is that hunting is a very pleasant pastime,
when the game comes out
in flocks. Even if you are a beginner
it’s a real amusement to hear those loud
rifle shots, and then to quickly stride
to pick up the prey you have killed,
and then go back to pursue another prey.
12. But if, on the contrary, you leave home
intent on gathering abundant game,
and then instead you don’t find any, and you get lost
amid those wilderness valleys,
then, I assure you, you will curse the hunt,
curse the singing birds,
and curse even yourself who have always had
too much of a passion for hunting.
13. Cursed is the hunt, cursed is
the hunter when he is too passionate,
for he spends his life poorly,
and often goes home tired and panting,
his heart quickly pounding,
filled with hunger and sweat;
and there is even a proverb that says:
“Let him go hunting who wants to make his children poor.”(4)
14. Let’s leave behind these proverbs and get back
to the story I intended to narrate.
We stayed at Blatchford for a long time,
and I’ll tell you what I did
during the time we worked there.
I had to send money home,
so one day I went to Miles City,
but the Post Office had run out of money orders.
15. I had to stay two nights and a day
in that dreadful town,
and then go back to Blatchford
without any results.
Little sleep and little food,
much thirst and many expenses: that is all
I obtained from that town
which was anything but courteous to me.
16. A few days after I asked the boss
the permission to go
to the town called Glendive,
for I had to mail some money.
He said: “If it is all right with you,
you could go on Saturday evening on the working train.”
I answered that it was okay with me,
so the time of my trip finally arrived.
17. At the right time I boarded
the conductor’s car, and we started going;
but along the trip our car
caught fire – ah, cruel destiny!(5)
The train sped up as much as possible,
because there was a water tank not too far away: (6)
had it been farther,
our car would have been completely burned.
18. As soon as we arrived under that great vat
full of water, it began to pour
the liquid on the train, so that in a short time
the fire was extinguished.
There we stopped for a few minutes,
then we started moving again,
the train as swift as the wind,
so that in a flash we arrived at Glendive.
19. It was already late at night.
I spent the night under the stars
and in the morning I went
straight away to the Post Office.
First thing, I checked carefully
whether I had received any letters, then I asked
the employee to make a money order
for me, and he answered that he couldn’t.
20. “It is a holiday, my friend,” he said,
“therefore I cannot make a money order.
Come back tomorrow morning, then it will be possible
to send the money as you wish.”
So I had to stay there the whole day
and the following night with bitter feelings;
the day after, having completed my business,
I went back to my gang.
21. The fourteenth of July was the night
that I returned to my gang.
The weather then was springlike
and we stayed for a long time in the area
of Blatchford, and every evening we would go
hunting; but eventually the time came
that we had to be moved again,
and they took us close to Medora.
22. On August 2nd we departed.
They let us stop at Glendive
and we stayed there for a day,
then at night they had us travel;
in the morning we arrived
at the place where we had to work:
we had to build a long switch,
so we installed ties and rails.
23. The work was almost completed
and we expected the order to change places,
when we saw an engine coming towards us
at a fast pace and whistling loudly,
passing close to us like a wounded
panther in the forest, and after a while it went back
hauling smashed wagons,
which it had picked up a short distance away.
24. We immediately figured out
that there had been a train wreck:
from the east we could see
smoke clouds raising up and expanding in the air.
Then all of us thought of going
to look at it, and we ran
to the place; but when I arrived there
I found out that a large bridge had burned.
25. A train had gone by a little earlier,
and was heading east;
as soon as it arrived at the bridge
it plummeted to the bottom of the valley.
The bridge was not entirely burned,
so that the running engine passed over,
but the cars that were following
plummeted into the burning flames.
26. What a sight were those gigantic flames,
those shattered cars burning,
which were full of pressed wood boards
and many other items!
It took one day to put out the fire;
and above the red-hot iron rods
we poured a lot of water,
which happened to be located nearby.
27 The engineer was very lucky
that the engine overtook the bridge,
otherwise he would have burned
with no hope of rescue.
The fireman had jumped down
before arriving at the broken bridge,
but the brakeman who was aboard the cars
had both arms fractured.
28. In fact, the extreme impact sustained by the wagons
sent the brakeman flying in the air,
and the subsequent fall to the ground
broke both his arms.
It was already night when we saw
the supervisors arriving on the spot,
bringing with them all that was needed
and accompanied by many people.
29. Immediately all those people,
along with us, started working,
and because everyone worked keenly,
our work advanced a great deal.
It is so true, if the cat is present,
the mouse can’t do as it wishes:
because our superiors were there
all of us were working like bulls.
30. The new day had not dawned yet
when we had already completed our work:
we built a temporary bridge
so that the train, going slowly, could go through.
Then everyone went to bed
to rest a little;
and the day after early in the morning
we left to go and work at Medora.
31. We didn’t stay too long in Medora,
where we had to clean up a switch;
and, yes, everyone was happy to go there,
for one thing because we could not refuse.
There we found amusement
on account of the abundant game,
for if someone went hunting for an hour
he wouldn’t bag fewer than six rabbits.
32. We stayed fifteen days at Medora,
and the time spent there was pleasant and gleeful;
then we moved and went to a place nearby
which is called Sentinel Butte.
There I expected to have a better time,
but instead we didn’t find any game,
and everyone wished to change places,
for no one liked that location.
33. Albeit unwillingly,
we stayed seven days in that place,
and although the days seemed too long
we finished the work we were doing there.
But we always looked forward for the order
to move, and waited there for it.
We waited so long that finally the order arrived
that we were to depart that same night.
34. It was September 6th
and we expected to leave in the evening,
but the engine was not yet ready,
so we had to sleep there that night.
In the morning very early
we saw a freight train coming
and, when it arrived where we were staying,
it stopped and hooked up all of our cars.
35. As soon as it had attached our cars
the train left, taking us along;
more than once it had to stop
for one impediment or the other;
eventually it arrived at Glendive
when the clock was sounding noon.
It stopped there, and there we stayed
the whole day and also the following night.
36. Around two after midnight
(when all of us were sound asleep)
we heard two or three bangs against the cars,
that was the signal that we were leaving.
The train travelled running fast
so that at dawn we finally arrived
at that place we liked so much,
which bears the name of Fallon.
37. In all the places where we stayed,
whether in North Dakota or in Montana,
I have never found a similar town.
It’s strange how well we live there:
although it has a very small population,
there are all sorts of facilities:
whatever a man might wish to buy,
he need not go anywhere else.
38 In addition, there are hares,
wild hens, and even a few deer,
so that you never come home empty-handed
if you only walk around for an hour with a rifle.
On September 21st I went hunting
and right at the dawning of day
I entered a valley
and there I saw a deer coming out.
39. Right after another deer showed up
and they started trotting down the valley.
I then alerted my friends
to cut off their path:
each one quickly moved in that direction
with no noise and no words;
but the deer ran away in a flash,
so I turned around disappointed.
40. Then we decided to go back
to the camp, it was already time
because noon was approaching
and we had enough of hunting.
Still on the way back we hunted
among those high mountains and I killed two hares,
and when I arrived at the camp I had to prepare my meal,
I was so famished I could faint.
41. After the meal I was not hungry any more,
but I had plenty of chores to attend to:
when I had finished eating
I washed my dirty clothing,
then the boss invited me
so I went hunting again with him.
The kill was not too much:
two hares, three rabbits and a woodcock.
42. As soon as I was back from hunting
I prepared supper and went to bed,
and in the morning, well rested,
I got up as gleeful as a nightingale.
I stayed there four more days,
and then I left pleasant Fallon,
we went to work near Terry,
changing rotten ties.
43. There we lived comfortably,
and I never heard brawls,
because my gang was made up of people
that needed to earn money.
I certainly do not know them well
but, judging from what they talked about,
all of them seemed to have debts in arrears
and were very keen to send money [home].(7)
44. Now let’s not talk about this further,
for I feel it’s not proper to divulge other people’s business;
whoever wants to be upright in this world
must heed his own conscience.
We stayed there for a while,
then we departed again
and went back to Blatchford,
and stayed there fifteen days.
45. Time flies, it passes quickly
like smoke that vanishes into thin air;
at the appointed day we left Blatchford
and went to work again at Hoyt,
raising the road where is was too low.
But one day I felt that my body weakened
and my strength defaulted,
so that I had to go back to my car.
46. Once I reached the car I went to bed,
and my temperature started rising,
and a pain arose in my chest
so strong that I could barely breathe.
The day after I went, all alone,
to see a doctor;
he examined me and I went back
to my car by train and went to bed.
47. Four whole days I stayed in bed,
getting up only to prepare my meals.
Now think what kind of sad thoughts
assailed and unsettled my mind!
I would have willingly embraced death,
since in any case we do have to leave this world one day;
but what increased my torment
was that my children were far from me.(8)
48. Still, my last hour had not come yet,
and the compassionate God
consoled and helped me
against that illness that was so stubborn.
Little by little I felt that I was
getting stronger, and in a short time I felt relieved
and my illness went retreating
and I returned to good health.
49. So I was sound again, although I did feel
pain from time to time,
and I always prayed the Creator
to heal me completely.
I went back to work, and this must not surprise you
for I still needed to earn money,
thinking that at home I had
a wife and a band of children.
50. As God willed, little by little
my pain kept diminishing
and I recovered my health (it sounds like a joke)
sweating from labour.
Eventually a time came when
we had to leave that place and kept travelling:
for we had to go wherever
our work was needed.
51. So we departed and cheerfully
we arrived at the station of Conlin.(9)
There the train stopped but that very evening,
while we were asleep, a notice arrived
advising that was not the place where we should stay.
Yet in the morning, at the dawning of day,
a new order arrived, that we should stay
where we were and not move.
52. So we stayed at Conlin, and worked there
every day from sunrise to sunset
and never wasted not even an hour,
(provided one got up in good health).
Only on Sundays did the work stop,
when we went in search of game,
and killed our prey
which we ate with our bread.
53. I shall not talk of hunting any more, and move to something else.
I shall tell you that the eighth of December
was the sad day when I got separated
from my best friends; without words
we shook hands, our hearts full of sorrow.
They left immediately
because they wanted to go back to Italy
and see their families again.
54. How joyous is the day
when one departs and goes back home!
Especially for a poor man
who has filled his pockets with money,
if no one waits for him to quarrel,
and his wife has not betrayed him.
But most of my dear friends went home
to more betrayal than enrichment.
55. When they had gone, leaving us behind,
we kept doing our work in good spirits,
and other fellows newly arrived
took the place of the ones that had left.
However some time later these were laid off
and went away unhappy,
only the ones that were there from the beginning were left,
without knowing why it was so.
56. Dear readers, to make a long story short
I shall say that we stayed in that pleasant place
twenty more days, with enjoyable conversations,
and we had no mishaps.
One night before bedtime
an order arrived that we had to move
and, travelling with some anxiety,
we arrived at Glendive in darkest night.
57. We arrived in Glendive cheerfully,
but it was so cold that we trembled;
but we loaded the stoves so much
that the cold disappeared.
It is true that the cold disappeared,
but from the outside we could hear the wind
whistling; and early in the morning
we went out to work.
[here a page is missing – four verses]
62. And if you don’t want to believe me,
you can ask many other people:
reading here we will find witnesses
all of whom could confirm my story,
especially one fellow, if you know him,
a cousin of mine, a certain Andrea Del Carlo;
but the one who can best attest to this
is the guy called Massimo Giometti.(10)
63. So, my friends, I say goodbye and you will excuse me
if I do not complete my narration;
one time will come when you will find me again
and I shall tell you all about my journey
– of course if I’m in good health.
Let’s pray to God, whose graces I admire.
God is full of graces, but now I regret
to have to leave you. O my readers, remain in peace.
(1) The first two lines imitate a passage in the popular novel Paris e Vienna, V 1, 1-2.
(2) E. V. Smalley’s description of how dams were built along the Yellowstone River helps clarify Andreoni’s account: “These constructions are composed of willow fascines, twelve fee long, laid in a double tier, at an angle of 33 degrees with the course of the dike, each layer crossing the one below. The large ends of the fascines are placed down stream so as to give a slop to the top of the dam. Over each course stakes are driven down five feet, and the tops bound together with half-inch rope. Then 18 inches of gravel is put on and worked down into the brush to make a solid wall, before the second course of fascines is added. When the dike is of sufficient height it is covered with heavy rocks. The silt from the river fills up the interstices in the fascines and a growth of willow soon covers the dike.” (History of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 399).
(3) The abundance of game in Montana is noted as one of its main attractions. An American encyclopedia refers: “The major game animal population is much larger than the human population and includes large numbers of deer, prairie dogs, gophers, chipmunks, and ground squirrels,” Encyclopedia International, 1978, vol. 12, 240. A group of railroad workers on a handcar, two of them carrying hunting rifles, appear in a photograph taken by Evelyn Cameron. See Donna M. Lucey, Photographing Montana 1894-1928. The Life and Work of Evelyn Cameron (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991), p. 161.
(4) The contradictory statements about hunting are perhaps explained by the fact that when Andreoni was back in Italy his passion for hunting was a source of arguments within his family.
(5) The caboose was normally equipped with a stove, so that the crew could prepare their meals.
(6) The danger of fires was ever present when the steam engines were fuelled by coal; numerous water tanks were therefore installed along the line.
(7) For many peasants monetary debts were often a major reason to seek work abroad. See Ercole Sori, L’emigrazione italiana dall’Unità alla seconda Guerra mondiale (Bologna, 1987), 82-84.
(8) In 1903 the writer called his fourteen-year old son Eugenio to work with him in America, as documented by the log where Antonio Andreoni registered his own and his son’s earnings and expenses. After his father’s return to Italy, Eugenio stayed behind and became eventually a permanent resident of the United States.
(9) Named Ferris as it was first established in 1887, the station took the name of Conlin, an engineer of the Northern Pacific Railway, in 1890.
(10) The profession of veracity is a common feature in the memoirs of unsophisticated writers.