Filer, The

DESCRIPTION: Recitation. On a spree, Jim McCloud tells his foreman to cut off his leg, as it's loose. The foreman offers to cut Jim's head (his "weakest part") off instead. Jim answers that a foreman doesn't need to use his head, but a filer does, so he'll keep it
AUTHOR: Probably Marion Ellsworth
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks)
LONG DESCRIPTION: Recitation; Jim McCloud is a filer of saws in a lumber-camp; a drinker, he's sometime gone for a week at a time. After one of these sprees, he tells his foreman to cut off his leg, as it's loose. The foreman says that's too hard a job for him, and offers to cut Jim's head off instead, "as that is your weakest part." Jim replies that while a foreman doesn't need to use his head, a filer does, so he'll keep it.
KEYWORDS: lumbering work drink humorous recitation
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Beck-SongsOfTheMichiganLumberjacks 99, "The Filer" (1 text)
Roud #8878
NOTES [18 words]: This, like the other pieces probably written by Ellsworth, does not seem to have entered oral tradition. - PJS
File: Be099

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