Wonder What a Pullman Porter Thinks
Clare Briggs
Clare Briggs is a famous cartoonist who lived from 1875 to 1930. Poems by Wilbur Nesbitt.
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December 21, 2024
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A whole quarter?Report
About $3.65 in today’s money. Figure he’s a pro, but not hurrying, so guess a pair of shoes every ten minutes. Six pair per hour, so a few cents under $22 in tips for an hour’s work. In addition to whatever the railroad was paying a night porter at the time.
Side note: The railroads were unionized by then. Relationships weren’t particularly good (see the Great Railroad Strike of 1922). The Railway Labor Act was passed in 1926 (coincidence in dates there?) in hopes of avoiding future strikes.Report
The internet says that Pullman Porters were exclusively African American until the 1960s. (And then they completely went away and/or got absorbed by Amtrak within a decade)
Just out of curiosity (not trying to make an accusation or trouble in any way) was this comic altered at all before you put it up? I could see how Briggs may have chose not to do, um, dialect, for this monologue, but being entirely comprised of black men was, at the time, a very notable and well known attribute of the Pullman Porter name brand.Report
No, you are correct. The visual and dialectical depict of African-Americans is not suitable to modern audiences (You may recall that time when one got through!). However, since the content itself is rarely at the expense of the character and doesn’t involve their race (except, as in this case, as a historical matter), most are still usable with some alteration.
I had actually put notations on the ones that I have altered but at some point (probably because I messed up) they stopped appearing.
Ones that have “rx” or “rv” (occasionally “cx” or “cv” if I forgot to rename on completion) in the file name have been altered. Sometimes for this, sometimes for illegible text.
Anyway, I realize this hasn’t been transparent. I was making some of these decisions on the fly.Report