DEVIL MAKE A THIRD Commentary

 CHAPTER 2

Page 20: "pioneered with his shoulder blades"
 

Buck was introducing his back to their new place of rest, the knotty wood of the bed of a new railroad baggage truck.

Page 20: "baggage truck"

A baggage truck was simply a porter's cart for transporting freight around the depot in the late 1880s but by 1906, the carts were equipped with batteries and electric motors.

 Page 20: "It's better'n wakin' up with Hearn rootin' from one side and Jeff from the other till they prize me up off the pallet"

circa 1935 Walker Evan's photo of an Alabama child sleeping on a pallet on the floor.

Page 20: "the one curious older girls took behind the privy after school"

A Texas school privy with five vent pipes exposed.

Page 20: "already his eyes would glide over one girl without quickening, to suddenly narrow sleepily at the first sight of her sister." (Hearn was focusing his attention on greener pastures at an early age.)

Page 20: "sitting on the front porch pleating and unpleating her skirt" (A nervous gesture betraying an uneasiness. Buck's Mother's restless fingers take a fold in her skirt or apron and nervously bend it back and forth.)

Page 20: "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves"

from the August 1, 1928 SOUTHERN STAR [Newton]

Page 20: "we got rid o' downright hard shirt sleeves"

The term "downright hard" often precedes the word "work", as in "downright hard work."

Page 20: "a live creek meandering the year round through the bottom" 

The term "live creek" describes a stream always flowing as opposed to an intermittent creek. "A live creek" is often used as a property description for land that is watered year-round by a stream.

page 21: "lifting the lid off a mess of greens and fatback"

Page 21: "the rifle at Chickamauga Gap and slippery ellum bark for dressing

Many Alabama units participated in the Battle of Chickamauga but I have no idea who Dougie may have modeled this after. As far as I know, Joe Baker, Sr. never served in the Confederate army. https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/Regimental/alabama/confederate/lawsbrig

from the June 14, 1898 NEWS-PALLADIUM (Benton Harbor, Michigan)

Page 22: "ease out of bed so the rustling of shucks wouldn't wake Joe"

"The shuck mattress was a horse of a different color. It was quite noisy to sleep on and required a fair amount of work to make because the corn shucks had to be painstakingly shredded or torn into tiny strips by hand. The easiest way was to cut the butt end of the shucks off with a pair of scissors thus making tearing them into strips quite a bit easier. They had to be fluffed up regularly like the straw and feather mattresses in order to keep them nice and soft. It took quite a bit of labor and time to make a shuck mattress but when it was finished it was quite noisy but comfortable.

The feather bed or mattress was made out of the fine feathers of chickens or ducks and geese. Each time a victim ended up on the table as the main course the feathers were put into a sack and saved till there was enough to stuff a tick with." https://www.themountaineagle.com/articles/straw-mattresses-were-the-worst/

Page 22: "hot smells of side meat and chicory coffee bellied out of the chimney's draught"

"Side meat" was another name for home-made bacon. 

from the October 29, 1953 NASHVILLE BANNER

Page 22: "He'd cut a step or two"

from the December 2, 1943 PRATTVILLE PROGRESS

Page 22: "tinka-bell reflections" 

Tinker Bell, the fairy in J.M. Barrie's PETER PAN, is associated with twinkling light, such as you would see reflected off of white sand used for flooring.

Page 22: "what the sand was for. Floorin'. Floorin' to cover the clay and drain off the bath water."

Page 22: "creek-bottom sand"

Page 22: "God's bottom. A hobo on a baggage truck I never thought to see."

Page 23: "if you're any kind o' hand with a pick"

Page 23: "but I ain't aimin' to dig in no more dirt"

Page 23: "He felt the excitement yeasting inside at sight of a small neat buggy with new harness"

INTERLUDE

page 29: "long billed railroad man's striped cap"

CHAPTER THREE

"rocking whip of the drive shaft"