The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    THE AMERICAN DREAM

    By Richard Day on Wed, 09/07/2016 - 6:28pm |

    WORKIN ON THE RAILROAD
    150 years ago a strange type of caste system was created.


    The railroads needed engineers as well as hard working men to keep the engines running as well as look-outs making sure that the rails were cleared and many other positions related to a new tech that shrank America in terms of trade.


    But there was another class of workers seemingly created out of nothingness.


    The railroads needed baggage handlers and stewards and waiters and cooks.


    And this new class included mostly African-Americans.


    This class even had a union or unions to protect its members.


    The actual history is just fascinating to me.


    I mean here was a new technology that shortened a trip from the East Coast  to the West Coast from a few months to less than a week.


    One could not build any succeeding business enterpriSe without the railroads.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brotherhood_of_Sleeping_Car_Porters

    Well this model spilled over to the Airline industries.


    I began flying in the 80's and when you dropped off your baggage (for me it was one bag although I had a 'carry-on'. all these Black Men were waiting on the sidewalk.


    It took these claim agents about 30 seconds to properly tag the bag and even I would provide a tip.


    I mean I felt like it improved my odds that I would ever see my bag again.
    hahahahhah
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    That is the extent of any knowledge I have regarding the histories concerning railroads and airlines. hahahah

    ​
    The rest of this silly essay involves hearsay.


    There was this Black Guy. And he was pursing this wondrous woman. But the object of his wooing did not wish to marry a baggage handler at the airline.


    So this wooer provided this woman with his financials, so to speak, indicating that he had amassed three million bucks in his accounts.


    This still was not good enough.


    I aint worried about the wooer cause he probably saved himself a bunch of bucks. hahahaha

    ​
    What got to me was that this baggage handler ended up with 3 mill in the bank after a couple of decades saying : yassir, thanks you very much.....


    I assume that if the IRS ever audited him, they would have confiscated all those bills that were not properly accounted for in his returns together with interest and penalties.


    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
    Well the real story involves this white guy. Let us call him Jones.


    Jones probably had some BA in Business and ended up as a lower middle management stooge for the airlines.


    One of his functions was to watch over different divisions of the airline and make determinations concerning labor issues, et cetera.


    Well, this fine young man took a look at the baggage handlers and discovered the amount of money each individual handler was actually making. hahahahaha

    ​
    So he gave up his management situation and had himself relocated to the baggers division.
    hahahahahah

    ​
    Again hearsay, but damn, I am sure that this is a true story.


    I always wished to know how this white guy ended up twenty five years later.


    The last one now will later be first....

    Comments

    My great-grandfather, on my father's side, was a man named Olen Rozelle Smith, he was born in 1848 and died in 1925.  He lived in Ohio and worked, as did so many people in those days, for the railroad.  Here is the only known image I have found of him:
     

    His wife was named Malinda Burgoon.  Her brother, Isadore H. Burgoon (1839-1917) was the man who I told you about once before, the one who was a member of the electoral college that elected Rutherford B. Hayes by one vote.  Isadore it seems also worked for the railroad, ( Isadore began his lifelong career in railroading in the fall of 1860 as an office boy for the Fremont & Indiana Railroad, later the Lake Erie & Western Railroad. He steadily earned promotions and eventually became the superintendent and then receiver for the railroad, overseeing the sale and reorganization of the company (1874-79). During his career I.H. Burgoon worked for several railroads including the Fremont, Lima & Union Railroad; the Lake Erie & Louisville Railway; the Toledo, Delphos & Burlington Railroad; the Cleveland, Delphos & St. Louis Railroad; the Indiana, Bloomington & Western Railway; the Ohio Southern Railroad; the Bellaire, Zanesville & Cincinnati Railway; the Terra Haute and Peoria Railroad; the Findlay, Ft. Wayne & Western Railroad; the Utah Central Railway; the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad; and the St. Louis, Carruthersville & Memphis Railroad. His positions for these companies ranged from conductor to station agent to superintendent and general manager. )    I'm not sure if Olen worked for that same railroad or a different one, but it just shows how so many people worked for railroads back in the day. and there were so many of them.  Railroads were a major employer in America for so many years.

    Well, that's my insomniac's report for tonight.  Sorry.  I'm going to try to go back to sleep now.

     

     


    by MrSmith1 on Thu, 09/08/2016 - 3:37am

    AND SO TO BED.....

    ha

    The railroads made this country, the first time.

    Hell the North won the Civil War because of the railroads; and the telegraph of course.

    And the railroads made this country greater than any other country in the world.

    This is a fascinating bio, really.

    And there were other concerns.....

    The only capital this country had at the time was land.

    And I think that the rewards of land to these enterprises made this country great.

    Here is the land, do your business. hahahahaha

    Thank you for this Mr. Smith, in the middle of the night.

    A fascinating biol

     


    by Richard Day on Fri, 09/09/2016 - 3:27pm

    The Book of Days  

     


    by trkingmomoe on Sat, 09/10/2016 - 2:17am