If there are any foreigners the average British roustabout hates it is French gendarmes, and the ruffians were of a mind to "beat them up."

To tell a colored roustabout twenty or thirty years ago to fetch a certain cargo, labeled with the name of a particular boat or consignee, would have been to draw from the individual addressed a genuine old-time plantation grin, with some caustic observation about lack of school facilities in the days when the roustabout ought to have been studying the "three Rs," but was not.

" Peter stared at the grotesque, bullet-headed roustabout.

" After a few moments' deep thought: "Say, ma, then don't you think they'd be lots more surprised if you did take us all?" SWIMMERS Two negro roustabouts at New Orleans were continually bragging about their ability as long distance swimmers and a steamboat man got up a match.