Hobo Jungle

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Well, he looks happy or that somebody just grabbed something they shouldn't have.

...or both.

Indeed!

[2railjon]

On this day in 1894 Pullman Railway workers went on strike. The strike left 34 dead.

Pullman died of a heart attack at the age of 66 in 1897, only three years after the strike. Fearing that some of his former employees or other labor supporters might try to dig up his body, his family arranged for his remains to be placed in a lead-lined mahogany coffin, which was then sealed inside a block of concrete. At the cemetery, a large pit had been dug at the family plot. At its base and walls were 18 inches of reinforced concrete. The coffin was lowered, and covered with asphalt and tarpaper. More concrete was poured on top, followed by a layer of steel rails bolted together at right angles, and another layer of concrete. The entire burial process took two days. His monument, featuring a Corinthian column flanked by curved stone benches, was designed by Solon Spencer Bemen, the architect of the company town of Pullman.
[12]

[rogruth]

WOW!

I don't need to worry about that happening.

[webenda]

Jon's Pullman reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pullman

More on Pullman

Pullman porters were men hired to work on the railroads as porters on sleeping cars. Starting shortly after the American Civil War, George Pullman sought out former slaves to work on his sleeper cars. Pullman porters served American railroads for 100 years from the late 1860s until late in the 20th Century.

Pullman porters, who were largely black, are widely credited with contributing to the development of the black middle class in America.

Under the leadership of A. Philip Randolph, Pullman porters formed the first all-black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Formation of the union, in 1925, was instrumental in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_porter

[rogruth]

Wayne,

Great further info on Pullman Porters.

I knew a Porter in my hometown but never understood why he was called George [?, not sure that's it but it seems that all Porters were called the same name] when his name was Tom. I understood when I got to high school. Did not like what I learned about it then.

[sarge]

Read it again with a questioning mind, and you can't help but wonder who writes that tripe?

The Porters Union was the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement? (the justification of that statement was a single union activist and former porter was involved in the bus boycott). That's a bit of a tenuous reach, isn't it? Really, now, the desegregation of the military by Truman had a helluva lot more to do with the post WWII Civil Rights Movement, but hey, Truman was, well...

Even the captions in that article are nonsense; "porters waiting tables in a dining car"? Wrong; diners were owned, run, and staffed by the railroads, not the Pullman Company.

I'll never forget knowing a couple old porters, not to mention dining car staff from NYC and later from Southern. They were all consummate gentlemen, each and every one. To cite Thomas Flemings revisionist "history", and writing for posterity that they were seething under the surface ("...remained an enigma if not an enemy") is to insult these gentlemen.

Oh well, the recasting of history from its own time to the social guilt er norms of the present will win out, and these gentlemen will be forgotten in favour of a feel-good re-interpretation for the most undisciplined historical cesspool to misrepresent itself as somehow "scholarly".

All hail the internet and Wikipedia!

[MurphOnMillerAve]

Read it again with a questioning mind, and you can't help but wonder who writes that tripe?

The Porters Union was the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement? (the justification of that statement was a single union activist and former porter was involved in the bus boycott). That's a bit of a tenuous reach, isn't it? Really, now, the desegregation of the military by Truman had a helluva lot more to do with the post WWII Civil Rights Movement, but hey, Truman was, well...

Even the captions in that article are nonsense; "porters waiting tables in a dining car"? Wrong; diners were owned, run, and staffed by the railroads, not the Pullman Company.

I'll never forget knowing a couple old porters, not to mention dining car staff from NYC and later from Southern. They were all consummate gentlemen, each and every one. To cite Thomas Flemings revisionist "history", and writing for posterity that they were seething under the surface ("...remained an enigma if not an enemy") is to insult these gentlemen.

Oh well, the recasting of history from its own time to the social guilt er norms of the present will win out, and these gentlemen will be forgotten in favour of a feel-good re-interpretation for the most undisciplined historical cesspool to misrepresent itself as somehow "scholarly".

All hail the internet and Wikipedia!

I admire your courage, here, Sarge.

[sarge]

I don't know if it's a matter of "courage", but perhaps disgust at the way those marvelous men are exploited for a social agenda. They are every bit worthy of the same respect as our Mr. Patel, and for many of the same reasons. Their life in those times was in the world of segregation, prejudice, and for many in the Depression and the South abject despair.

Yet these guys worked hard, with a quiet dignity and a helluva work ethic and those I met also had a ethical code to be admired. In return, the "civil rights" crowd vilified them as "Uncle Toms" and later that same crowd has rewritten them to be economic slaves who had no choice in the matter, seething just below the surface is the new stereotype.

These guys, the porters, the red-caps, the dining car staff, were amazing people when viewed against the times as they were then. Same with the black soldiers and sailors of the late '50s who became that highly respected command sergeant major or master chief that many a young troop (like me) or sailor respected in the late '70s and early '80s. I won't forget them, and they deserve better after those of us who remember them are gone.

[ChipR]

Sarge,

Thanks, I have the same memories of the porters, waiters and attendants I met whilst travelling on trains in the 1940's - 1960's. "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free".

ChipR

[rogruth]

Agreed.

Well said above.
If the ones that I knew were revolutionaries of any sort they kept it very quiet.
They were proud to have those positions.

[Tramp]

Here is my latest column as requested. Sarge might like this. It deals with old-school detectives.

http://www.penbaypilot.com/article/eric ... nist/52935

[rogruth]

I agree with Miss Marple. No other comments are needed after yours.
My favorite detective, I use the term loosely even though that is what he called himself,
was Mike Hammer. No good reason. He just seemed to be like a real person that I might
have known.

[ChipR]

Well written and fun. A scene from one of the Miss Marple TV shows was filmed in an alley just off Oxford St in London, and very near my office. It was a scene where the Beautiful lady criminal attempts to escape by racing her MG but crashes into a concrete post and dies instantly. What a waste of an MG.

ChipR

[rogruth]

Tramp,

Just as I finished reading the article, I recieved a warning from my computer that the site was not legitimate and was a phising site and it was blanked out.????

[AG]

Don't forget C. Card.
AG.