Part of the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival held in Sedalia is on the site of the building that housed the Maple Leaf Social Club. The area is paved and easily accomodates a large tent (background, but all of this has been changed). This was a club for blacks, most of whom worked for the railroads that passed immediately behind the Maple Leaf building (the club was housed on the second floor and accessed from the rear or track side with the Negro district, called Lincolnville, to the northwest of the tracks). Joplin's famous "Maple Leaf Rag" could have been named after this club or it could have been named after the Maple Leaf Line for which the club was named. Joplin worked on the railroads from time to time to keep food on the table.
Bill was carrying one of those junk cameras of his (in the bag) that wasn't working and wanted me to fix it. Luckily, for me, I was able to. Bill went behind the tent and shot up and down the tracks and took all kinds of those strange Russell photographs. But it made him happy. I could do no wrong after that, I had fixed his camera. When you walked with Bill, he took two steps and you took one and ran one. I think his speed came from the fact that he didn't like to tarry at night on the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans. Bill Russell was one of those men who liked you or he didn't and that was that. But if you ever did him hurt as in breaking the faith, he was finished with you...forever.
