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THEY NEED ME
James Agee, in his In Praise of Famous Men, tells of an African-American man in Northern Alabama in the 1930’s, who worked at a sawmill. His main job was looking after the mules. In fact, in the 30’s, he was sort of treated like one of the mules. He probably received about the same pay as the mules. It was a tragic story, except for one thing. Four times a day, the man would go over to a wire that hang down from a machine. He would take out of his overall-bib a dollar watch, attached to a greasy shoestring. He would then watch the second hand. When it reached the top of the hour, the black man would pull the wire, and blow the whistle. When he blew the whistle in the morning, people all over that town started the work day. When he blew the whistle at noon, people stopped for a lunch break. When he blew the whistle…