The Ballad of Jane Henry
Story #46, The Urchin and The Steam Drill
The Ballad of Jane Henry
Story #46, The Urchin and The Steam Drill
To hear this story:
West Virginia
The Depression
Gather around, children, and I’ll tell you the story of a little lady we call Jane Henry, although that wasn’t her name. No one knew who her folks were, but around here people thought she must have come from up in the mountains or down by the river. She always wore the same old dress and her skin stayed dirty and sunburnt, but she had raven hair and a big smile that made men wonder what she’d look like cleaned up. If anyone knew, they weren’t saying.
But what made little Jane special was she could swing a sledge hammer better than any man had ever done or seen. When they were bringing the train through, little Jane was better at laying tracks and balling tracks and picking and shoveling and spiking the ties than anyone and she was so small. They said when she nailed a piece of track it only took one swing per spike and that spike would ring like a churchbell.
A day came when they had to build a tunnel though the mountain and everybody got excited because we all thought there’d finally be enough work for everybody. That’s when the foreman let half the railmen go and said they were bringing in a steam drill to do the work and it would be faster and cheaper than a team of hard working West Virginians.
All the men in town got mad and yelled “You can’t do that” or “You shouldn’t oughta” or “Do steam drills get rewarded for their steam?” But little Jane jumped up and said “I can beat it.” The whole town went quiet and the foreman just stood and looked at her. She continued, “You bring that steam drill around and I’ll dig the tunnel faster my own self. If the steam drill’s faster, I’ll work the rest of my life for free. But if I win, you pay everyone in town a fair week’s wages and hire them on.”
The foreman took the bet and the rails reached the mountainside. The steam drill came up the tracks and Janey took up her shovel and pick and flashed a wide smile at the drill. “WWWWHHHHHHOOOOOOOOO!” The drill got a little too hot and let off some steam.
Bang and scoop and woosh and shakalaka, bang and scoop and woosh and shakalaka. Jane started digging into the mountain and the drill started drilling. Some time about a quarter mile in the drill was ahead but Jane winked at the drill operator who ran it off the tracks. It was some kind of mess getting that drill back on the tracks. Bang and scoop and woosh and shakalaka.
I my own self was on the other side of the mountain, to see which would come through first. The girl or the machine. First I heard a rumble and I turned to the mountainside to see the rock erupt and there, at the end of the open tunnel stood Jane, with the steam drill a hundred yards behind her.
Exhausted, the poor girl pitched forward out of the tunnel and fell on her back. A bunch of us rushed to her side to thank or help her but she couldn’t move. Some say she never woke up again and some say she run off to a city, but the last words any of us heard from little Jane Henry, whose real name was Alice, were “What I wouldn’t do for some decent sushi.”
Callous, n. A hardening of the skin caused by softness of the heart or thickness of the head.