John Henry as told by "Billie Harold Jones" as told by Mike Jensen Part 2

John Henry had been born a slave and had been freed following the War. Although the work was ever as hard as it had been on the planation, John Henry now worked for himself; he worked as a free man. At 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, John Henry was a mountain of a man. His size, his determination and his swinging of his 14 pound hammer allowed him to drill 10-12 feet per day; a depth not matched by any other man!

One day a salesman came to the camp. “The day of the hammersmon is over!” He proclaimed. Leaning against his contraption he continued, “This here steam powered drill can out-drill any man, any day.” The crew foreman was interested. The crew was amazed... all except John Henry.

John Henry walked up to the machine, looked it over real good, looked at the salesman (who was now looking very small and very nervous), looked back at the machine and then with a smile beaming brighter by the second, he turned to the crew and said in that deep smooth voice, “Unless dat man 's me!” The crowd exploded in cheers.

“You might be a mighty man, but this here machine is the future. Men, like yourself, are well the past.” The salesman retorted, momentarily recapturing the attention of the crowd and immediately drawing all eyes to see what John Henry would have to say.

“Well, I seen da past an’ I donts know much about da future, but I do’s know bout the now. How ‘bout seeing for real just who’s the best, that machine of yours or me.”

“A contest?” asked the salesman.

“Yessir” responded John Henry as he continued to smile out to the approving crowd.

The salesman was also smiling at this point and exclaimed, “Gentleman we’ve got ourselves a contest!” And the crowd went wild.

The contest was set for the next day. Man vs. machine. After twelve hours, who could drill the deepest?

The next morning, John selected a 20 pound hammer and the best “shaker” he knew and at the sound of the whistle both he and the steam drill, operated by a foreman, went to work.

With both the steam drill and the sound of the twenty pound hammer going full speed, the mountain itself seemed to shutter. Like claps of thunder rolling up and down the Greenbrier River canyon, the sound of drilling filled the entire countryside.

Folks say that John Henry had never worked so hard. He was a man determined to show his stuff. On his shoulders rested the fate of the hammersmons, in his arms swung the hammer of hard work, and at the end of the hammer he drove the drill of determination: a determination to make his mark, a determination to say, “I am here!”