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There are two versions of the following interview
which are substantially different in content and/or
format.
Therefore both versions have been included
in the project.
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FL-33-A February 20, 1939 Mayselle Sweat Green 2552 Lewis Street, Jacksonville, Fla. Cigar Factory Worker Lillian Stedman, writer Evelyn Werner, reviser. MAYSELLE SWEAT GREEN.
She is a small, attractive blonde who has lived a lot in her 22 years.
We sit in the little living room of the home which she and her husband are buying, and while I am listening attentively to her, I am mentally cataloguing the overstuffed furniture upholstered in green mohair, the rugs that harmonize with the expensive drapes; the comfortable newness of the crowded room.
The neat and pretty bedroom is in full view of the living room and the spread and drapes there look as fine as those in the living room. The handwork on the linens is visible from where I sit.
While I am looking at the dining room with its imitation Duncan Phyfe set, and the modern kitchen beyond it, Mayselle is saying;
"In my family there are three boys and I'm the only girl. It made my mama and Daddy mad as hell when I quit school and went to work. I was only 15 years old, and they wanted me to go to school a lot longer, but I wanted to make my own money.
"I worked at Russell McPhail's candy factory for two years and my pay was never more than $7 a week. I was a candy wrapper. I didn't mind the small salary because that was the first job I ever had and I was living at home.
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"But a year or so after I started working, I met Jack Brown and three weeks later I ran away and married him. My Daddy and Mama were mad as the devil at me, and would have had it annulled, but Daddy thought it would cost a lot and he didn't have the money.
"Jack came from a good, and very respected, family. His Daddy's been on the police force for about twenty years and is a captain.-He has an uncle on the force, too.
"He quit school in the ninth grade and just wouldn't do anything to learn how to make a livin. He had had jobs at stores when he was a boy delivering groceries and one time he had a paper route, but he didn't have to work and he didn't take the interest that he should have.
"He didn't have a job when we got married, though he'd told me he had one, so we lived with Mama and Daddy and I went to work at the cigar factory. My Daddy didn't like it but I knew that other girls worked there and made good money so I wanted to try it.
"It looked like Jack couldn't get a thing to do but he finally got a job with WPA. He worked about three weeks, then got his ribs broken, and had to be put in a cast and stay in bed about six weeks. My Daddy was good to him and bought him milk and cigarettes.
"I was working at night and I'll always remember how scared I was of the machines because some of the girls told me to be
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careful or I might get my fingers cut off. They said that one girl did and the company gave her a steady job for compensation. "?"When I first went to work I rolled about 300 cigars a night - - - they pay 80c a 1,000 - - - so my pay for that first week was about $2.. But my speed picked up I made more money. I wasn't so scared and I could work faster.
"They are good people to work for, because they're not fussy if you're late and don't care what you wear to work. A little print wash dress and socks is all right,
"Jack was laid up for some time and when he did get up was as fussy as he could be and got mad at nothing. He was so jealous that he didn't want me out of his sight. One day I went to spend the day with a girl friend; we Just stayed at home and didn't do nothing, but Jack got so mad and acted up so, that my Daddy had to black his eyes and then he told him to get out.
"He went and I was scared to death he wouldn't come back, but he called me one day and we made up. This happened again and again. I knew that he was stepping out on me, too, even if he did deny it.
"I thought he would do better if he only had a good Job. The WPA only paid him about $6 a week every other week, and he only worked a little so that didn't count much. I think it ruins a man, no matter how good a family he comes from, to be down and out for so long. Seems like all that's good in him just dies out.
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"We couldn't get along and we separated several times in one year and finally one day he just left saying he was going to get a job and he didn't come back.
"Six weeks after he left I started going with a boy that I'd known a long time and who had lived near me for years. He wanted me to get a divorce and marry him, but I didn't have the money for a divorce. I was only making $12.00 a week, although my speed had picked up a lot.
"My hours were 12 midnight to 8 o'clock in the morning and I would allow myself only 15c for supper at the factory cafeteria. It sure was hard to do because the food was swell.
'"I got so I didn'd mind the tobacco odor at all, didn't even notice it, but you cert'nly do get dusty. There's more dust there than any place in the world. I've worn a dress with a belt and when I've taken the belt off, the dust would fall out from under it.
"It's not a healthy place to work, because the dust gets into your lungs and that's much worse than smoking, even excessively. Most every one out there smokes, and the company make what is called an Employees Special, a little cigar, twenty of them for twenty cents. There's not many women who smoke the cigars but they all smoke cigarettes. I never learned to smoke, I just didn't ever think it looked feminine and so I wouldn't even try.
"They say that if you've never smoked before that you will learn to there, and cuss, too. If you never heard no cussin before there's your chance to hear some that is very special.
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