Free Listening English lessons

Children’s Story: ‘John Henry’

November 13th, 2009 at 03:36pm Under short story

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Now, the Special English program AMERICAN STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Today we tell a traditional American story called a “tall tale.”  A tall tale is a story about a person who is larger than life. The descriptions in the story are exaggerated – much greater than in real life.  Long ago, the people who settled in undeveloped areas of America first told tall tales. After a hard day’s work, people gathered to tell each other stories.

Each group of workers had its own tall tale hero. An African-American man named John Henry was the hero of former slaves and the people who built the railroads.  He was known for his strength.

Railroads began to link the United States together in the nineteenth century.  The railroads made it possible to travel from one side of the country to the other in less than a week. Before then, the same trip might have taken up to six months.

Railroad companies employed thousands of workers to create the smooth, flat pathways required by trains.  John Henry was perhaps the most famous worker.  He was born a slave in the southern United States.   He became a free man as a result of America’s Civil War. Then, he worked for the railroads.

Confirming details of John Henry’s life is not possible. That is because no one knows for sure if he really lived. This is one of the things that makes his story interesting.  However, John Henry is based, in part, on real events.  Many people say he represents the spirit of growth in America during this period.

Now, here is Shep O’Neal with our story.

(MUSIC)

People still talk about the night John Henry was born.  It was dark and cloudy.  Then, lightening lit up the night sky.  John Henry’s birth was a big event.  His parents showed him to everyone they met.  John Henry was the most powerful looking baby people had ever seen.  He had thick arms, wide shoulders and strong muscles.  John Henry started growing when he was one day old.  He continued growing until he was the strongest man who ever lived.

John Henry grew up in a world that did not let children stay children for long. One day, he was sitting on his father’s knee.  The boy picked up a small piece of steel and a workman’s tool, a hammer.  He looked at the two objects, then said, “A hammer will be the death of me.”

Before John Henry was six years old, he was carrying stones for workers building a nearby railroad.  By the age of ten, he worked from early in the morning until night.  Often, he would stop and listen to the sound of a train far away.  He told his family, “I am going to be a steel-driver some day.”

Steel-drivers helped create pathways for the railroad lines.  These laborers had the job of cutting holes in rock.  They did this by hitting thick steel drills, or spikes.

By the time John Henry was a young man, he was one of the best steel-drivers in the country.  He could work for hours without missing a beat.  People said he worked so fast that his hammer moved like lightening.

(MUSIC)

John Henry was almost two meters tall.  He weighed more than ninety kilograms.  He had a beautiful deep voice, and played an instrument called a banjo.  John Henry married another steel-driver, a woman named Polly Ann. They had a son.

John Henry went to work as a steel-driver for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, or C-and-O.  The company asked him to lead workers on a project to extend the railroad into the Allegheny Mountains. The workers made good progress on the project until they started working near Big Bend Mountain in West Virginia.

The company’s owners said the mountain was too big to build a railroad around it.  So the workers were told they had to force their drills through it.  This meant creating a tunnel more than one-and-one half kilometers long.

The project required about one thousand laborers and lasted three years.  Pay was low and the work was difficult.  The workers had to breathe thick black smoke and dust.  Hundreds of men became sick.  Many died.

John Henry was the strongest and fastest man involved in the project.  He used a hammer that weighed more than six kilograms. Some people say he was able to cut a path of three to six meters a day.

(MUSIC)

That July was the hottest month ever in West Virginia. Many workers became tired and weak in the heat.  John Henry was concerned his friends might lose their jobs.  So, he picked up their hammers and began doing their work.

One week, he did his own work and that of several other steel-drivers.  He worked day and night, rarely stopping to eat.  The men thanked John Henry for his help.  He just smiled and said, “A man ain’t nothing but a man. He has just got to do his best.”

The extreme heat continued for weeks.  One day, a salesman came to the work area with a new drilling machine powered by steam.  He said it could drill holes faster than twelve men working together.  The railroad company planned to buy the machine if it worked as well as the salesman said.

The supervisor of the workers dismissed the salesman’s claims. He said, “I have the best steel-driver in the country.  His name is John Henry, and he can beat more than twenty men working together.”  The salesman disputed the statements.  He said the company could have the machine without cost if John Henry was faster.

The supervisor called to John Henry.  He said, “This man does not believe that you can drill faster.  How about a race?’

John Henry looked at the machine and saw images of the future.  He saw machines taking the place of America’s best laborers.  He saw himself and his friends unemployed and standing by a road, asking for food.  He saw men losing their families and their rights as human beings.

John Henry told the supervisor he would never let the machine take his job.  His friends all cheered.  However, John Henry’s wife Polly Ann was not happy.

“Competing against the machine will be the death of you,” she said.  “You have a wife and a child.  If anything happens to you, we will not ever smile again.”

John Henry lifted his son into the air.  He told his wife, “A man ain’t nothing but a man.  But, a man always has to do his best.  Tomorrow, I will take my hammer and drive that steel faster than any machine.”

(MUSIC)

On the day of the big event, many people came to Big Bend Mountain to watch. John Henry and the salesman stood side by side.  Even early in the day, the sun was burning hot.

The competition began.  John Henry kissed his hammer and started working.  At first, the steam-powered drill worked two times faster than he did.  Then, he started working with a hammer in each hand.  He worked faster and faster.  In the mountain, the heat and dust were so thick that most men would have had trouble breathing.  The crowd shouted as clouds of dust came from inside the mountain.

The salesman was afraid when he heard what sounded like the mountain breaking. However, it was only the sound of John Henry at work.

Polly Ann and her son cheered when the machine was pulled from the tunnel.  It had broken down.  Polly Ann urged John Henry to come out.  But he kept working, faster and faster.  He dug deep into the darkness, hitting the steel so hard that his body began to fail him.  He became weak, and his heart burst.

John Henry fell to the ground.  There was a terrible silence. Polly Ann did not move because she knew what happened.  John Henry’s blood spilled over the ground. But he still held one of the hammers.

“I beat them,” he said.  His wife cried out, “Don’t go, John Henry.” “Bring me a cool drink of water,” he said.  Then he took his last breath.

Friends carried his body from the mountain. They buried him near the house where he was born. Crowds went there after they heard about John Henry’s death.

Soon, the steam drill and other machines replaced the steel-drivers.  Many laborers left their families, looking for work. They took the only jobs they could find. As they worked, some sang about John Henry.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER: You have just heard the story of John Henry. It was adapted for Special English by George Grow.  Your storyteller was Shep O’Neal.  Join us again next week for another AMERICAN STORY, in Special English on the Voice of America.  This is Faith Lapidus.

By admin 1 comment

Short Story: ‘Paul’s Case,’ Part Two

November 9th, 2009 at 03:18pm Under short story

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

ANNOUNCER:

Now, the VOA Special English program, American Stories.

(MUSIC)

Today we complete the story “Paul’s Case.” It was written by Willa Cather. Here is Kay Gallant with the story.

(MUSIC)

STORYTELLER:

Paul was a student with a lot of problems. He hated school. He didn’t like living with his family on Cordelia Street in the industrial city of Pittsburgh.

Paul wanted to be surrounded by beautiful things. He loved his part-time job as an usher at the concert hall. He helped people find their seats before the concert. Then he could listen to the music and dream of exciting places.

Paul also spent a lot of time at the local theater. He knew many of the actors who worked there. He used to do little jobs for them. And they would let him see plays for free.

Paul had little time left for his studies. So he was always in trouble with his teachers. Finally, Paul’s teachers complained again to his father. His father took him out of school and made him take a job in a large company. He would not let Paul go near the concert hall or the theater.

Paul did not like his job as a messenger boy. He began to plan his escape.

A few weeks later, Paul’s boss, Mister Denny, gave Paul a large amount of money to take to the bank. He told Paul to hurry because it was Friday afternoon. He said the bank would close soon and would not open again until Monday. At the bank, Paul took the money out of his pocket. It was five thousand dollars. Paul put the money back in his coat pocket. And he walked out of the bank.

He went to the train station and bought a one way ticket for New York City. That afternoon Paul left Pittsburgh forever.

The train traveled slowly through a January snowstorm. The slow movement made Paul fall asleep. The train whistle blew just as the sun was coming up. Paul awoke, feeling dirty and uncomfortable. He quickly touched his coat pocket. The money was still there. It was not a dream. He really was on his way to New York City with five thousand dollars in his pocket.

Finally the train pulled into Central Station. Paul walked quickly out of the station and went immediately to an expensive clothing store for men.

The salesman was very polite when he saw Paul’s money. Paul bought two suits, several white silk shirts, some silk ties of different colors. Then he bought a black tuxedo suit for the theater, a warm winter coat, a red bathrobe, and the finest silk underclothes. He told the salesman he wanted to wear one of the new suits and the coat immediately. The salesman bowed and smiled.

Paul then took a taxi to another shop where he bought several pairs of leather shoes and boots. Next, he went to the famous jewelry store, Tiffany’s, and bought a tie pin and some brushes with silver handles. His last stop was a luggage store where he had all his new clothes put into several expensive suitcases.

It was a little before one o’clock in the afternoon when Paul arrived at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. The doorman opened the hotel’s glass doors for Paul and the boy entered. The thick carpet under his feet had the colors of a thousand jewels. The lights sparkled from crystal chandeliers.

Paul told the hotel clerk he was from Washington, D.C. He said his mother and father were arriving in a few days from Europe. He explained he was going to wait for them at the hotel.

In his dreams Paul had planned this trip to New York a hundred times. He knew all about the Waldorf-Astoria, one of New York’s most expensive hotels. As soon as he entered his rooms, he saw that everything was perfect–except for one thing. He rang the bell and asked for fresh flowers to be sent quickly to his rooms.

When the flowers came, Paul put them in water and then he took a long, hot bath. He came out the bathroom, wearing the red silk bathrobe. Outside his windows, the snow was falling so fast that he could not see across the street. But inside, the air was warm and sweet. He lay down on the sofa in his sitting room.

It had all been so very simple, he thought. When they had shut him out of the theater and the concert hall, Paul knew he had to leave. But he was surprised that he had not been afraid to go. He could not remember a time when he had not been afraid of something. Even when he was a little boy. But now he felt free. He wasn’t afraid anymore. He watched the snow until he fell asleep.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon when Paul woke up. He spent nearly an hour getting dressed. He looked at himself often in the mirror. His dark blue suit fit him so well that he did not seem too thin. The white silk shirt and the blue and lilac tie felt cool and smooth under his fingers. He was exactly the kind of boy he had always wanted to be.

Paul put on his new winter coat and went downstairs. He got into a taxi and told the driver to take him for a ride along Fifth Avenue. Paul stared at the expensive stores.

As the taxi stopped for a red light Paul noticed a flower shop. Through the window, he could see all kinds of flowers. Paul thought the violets, roses, and lilies of the valley looked even more lovely because they were blooming in the middle of winter.

Paul began to feel hungry so he asked the taxi driver to take him back to the hotel. As he entered the dining room, the music of the hotel orchestra floated up to greet him. He sat at a table near a window. The fresh flowers, the white tablecloth, and the colored wine glasses pleased Paul’s eyes. The soft music, the low voices of the people around him and the soft popping of champagne corks whispered into Paul’s ears.

This is what everyone wants, he thought. He could not believed he had ever lived in Pittsburgh on Cordelia Street! That belonged to another time and place. Paul lifted the crystal glass of champagne and drank the cold, precious, bubbling wine. He belonged here.

Later that evening, Paul put on his black tuxedo and went to the opera. He felt perfectly at ease. He had only to look at his tuxedo to know he belonged with all the other beautiful people in the opera house. He didn’t talk to anyone. But his eyes recorded everything.

Paul’s golden days went by without a shadow. He made each one as perfect as he could. On the eighth day after his arrival in New York, he found a report in the newspaper about his crime. It said that his father had paid the company the five thousand dollars that Paul had stolen. It said Paul had been seen in a New York hotel. And it said Paul’s father was in New York. He was looking for Paul to bring him back to Pittsburgh.

Paul’s knees became weak. He sat down in a chair and put his head in his hands. The dream was ended. He had to go back to Cordelia Street. Back to the yellow-papered bedroom, the smell of cooked cabbage, the daily ride to work on the crowded street cars.

Paul poured himself a glass of champagne and drank it quickly. He poured another glass and drank that one, too.

Paul had a taxi take him out of the city and into the country. The taxi left him near some railroad tracks. Paul suddenly remembered all the flowers he had seen in a shop window his first night in New York. He realized that by now every one of those flowers was dead. They had had only one splendid moment to challenge winter.

A train whistle broke into Paul’s thoughts. He watched as the train grew bigger and bigger. As it came closer, Paul’s body shook. His lips wore a frightened smile. Paul looked nervously around as if someone might be watching him.

When the right moment came, Paul jumped. And as he jumped, he realized his great mistake. The blue of the ocean and the yellow of the desert flashed through his brain. He had not seen them yet! There was so much he had not seen!

Paul felt something hit his chest. He felt his body fly through the air far and fast. Then everything turned black and Paul dropped back into the great design of things.

(MUSIC)

ANNOUNCER:

You have just heard the American story “Paul’s Case.” It was written by Willa Cather. Your storyteller was Kay Gallant. Listen again next week at this time for another American story told in Special English on the Voice of America. I’m Steve Ember.

By admin 2 comments