1
00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:03,200
Speaker 1: Hey, listeners, we are soon to be appearing at New

2
00:00:03,240 --> 00:00:05,800
Speaker 1: York Comic Con as part of New York Comicon presents

3
00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:08,360
Speaker 1: their evening programming. We are going to do an episode

4
00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,800
Speaker 1: about the creation of what is usually credited as the

5
00:00:11,800 --> 00:00:13,680
Speaker 1: first comic book, and we'll be talking about the man

6
00:00:13,680 --> 00:00:15,720
Speaker 1: who did it and how that came to be, and

7
00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:17,240
Speaker 1: if you want to get in on that, we would

8
00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:19,079
Speaker 1: love to see you for our live show. It is

9
00:00:19,120 --> 00:00:22,200
Speaker 1: taking place on October sixth, from nine point thirty to

10
00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:25,200
Speaker 1: eleven at the Hudson Mercantile. Again that runs during New

11
00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,080
Speaker 1: York Comic Con, and for more information on it, you

12
00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:31,360
Speaker 1: can visit our website Missed Inhistory dot com. You will

13
00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:33,199
Speaker 1: click on the link this is live shows and you

14
00:00:33,240 --> 00:00:36,040
Speaker 1: can get all the info and a link to order

15
00:00:36,080 --> 00:00:40,760
Speaker 1: your tickets. We hope to see you there. Welcome to

16
00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:51,280
Speaker 1: Stuff You Missed in History class from HowStuffWorks dot com. Hello,

17
00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,760
Speaker 1: and welcome to the podcast. I'm tra CYB. Wilson. I'm

18
00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:58,840
Speaker 1: Holly Frye. So Holly. You know how sometimes when something

19
00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,840
Speaker 1: terrible is happening that we just can't look away from,

20
00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,839
Speaker 1: we say it's like watching a train wreck. Yes, yes,

21
00:01:08,440 --> 00:01:13,280
Speaker 1: although people do describe actual catastrophes as train wrecks. A

22
00:01:13,280 --> 00:01:16,200
Speaker 1: lot of the times it's something a lot less tangible

23
00:01:16,280 --> 00:01:21,440
Speaker 1: with way less risk of injury or death, like bad

24
00:01:21,560 --> 00:01:27,040
Speaker 1: speeches or product launches that go really terribly or like

25
00:01:27,920 --> 00:01:32,800
Speaker 1: really cris cringeworthy TV shows, things that are not really ready,

26
00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:34,120
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, things that are not really going

27
00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:36,959
Speaker 1: to cause somebody to actually die. We describe as like

28
00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,320
Speaker 1: watching a train wreck. But I always thought that was

29
00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:45,120
Speaker 1: kind of weird that we would describe something like, you know,

30
00:01:45,440 --> 00:01:49,040
Speaker 1: somebody's bad talent show entry that's just awful that you

31
00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:51,280
Speaker 1: just can't stop staring at. Like why we would describe

32
00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:55,240
Speaker 1: that as like watching a train wreck. It turns out

33
00:01:55,240 --> 00:01:58,040
Speaker 1: that for a brief window from the late eighteen hundreds

34
00:01:58,200 --> 00:02:00,800
Speaker 1: into the early nineteen hundreds, people in the United States

35
00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:05,120
Speaker 1: were watching train wrecks for fun. It's hard to come

36
00:02:05,200 --> 00:02:07,680
Speaker 1: up with the exact tally of how many of them

37
00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:11,120
Speaker 1: there were, because there were several different people who were

38
00:02:11,280 --> 00:02:13,960
Speaker 1: arranging these things in different venues. Over the span of

39
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:18,680
Speaker 1: about forty years, there were definitely at least seventy five

40
00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:23,079
Speaker 1: planned train wrecks to watch for fun, mostly playing out

41
00:02:23,080 --> 00:02:27,480
Speaker 1: in the southwestern and Midwestern United States often at events

42
00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:34,400
Speaker 1: like state fairs. So that's weird. Here's what it reminds

43
00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,400
Speaker 1: me of. So when my husband and I got married

44
00:02:37,760 --> 00:02:40,880
Speaker 1: and we merged our households, we found that we had

45
00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,200
Speaker 1: multiples of things, uh huh. And somehow in that deal

46
00:02:44,280 --> 00:02:48,360
Speaker 1: we had three microwaves, two which were pretty good, in

47
00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:51,239
Speaker 1: one which was really junkie. So we gave the really

48
00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:53,960
Speaker 1: good one away to somebody who needed one, and then

49
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:56,200
Speaker 1: the junkie one we took out on the back patio

50
00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,119
Speaker 1: and we blew stuff up in it. So I kind

51
00:02:58,120 --> 00:03:02,400
Speaker 1: of understand this train wreck thing. Well. When I was

52
00:03:02,440 --> 00:03:07,040
Speaker 1: a kid, my elementary school had a Halloween carnival every year,

53
00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:08,600
Speaker 1: and one of the things that they would do for

54
00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:12,560
Speaker 1: this Halloween carnival is that they would go buy a

55
00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:16,600
Speaker 1: really junkie used car and you could pay a dollar

56
00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:18,640
Speaker 1: to get to take a swing at it with a

57
00:03:18,639 --> 00:03:25,160
Speaker 1: baseball bat. Yes, so yes, this is It still seems

58
00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:27,040
Speaker 1: weird though, so it's what we're going to talk about today.

59
00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:29,359
Speaker 1: I also, it's felt like we needed a little bit

60
00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:32,000
Speaker 1: of a lighter topic. We've had some heavier things lately,

61
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:35,080
Speaker 1: some lighter stuff too. I in particular, though, had researched

62
00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:37,680
Speaker 1: some really heavy stuff and so I was like, let's

63
00:03:37,720 --> 00:03:40,840
Speaker 1: just do something goofy. I will say this is mostly goofy.

64
00:03:40,880 --> 00:03:42,800
Speaker 1: It does have a little bit of tragedy, but is

65
00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:48,880
Speaker 1: overall weird and fun. Yes, the concept of someone going, hey,

66
00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:54,320
Speaker 1: let's stage some rex so we can all gock at them.

67
00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:58,120
Speaker 1: There is an inherent level of comedy there. Yes, So

68
00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,160
Speaker 1: we are going to start though with the one that

69
00:04:00,360 --> 00:04:04,680
Speaker 1: did actually have a few fatalities. This is the most

70
00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:08,960
Speaker 1: famous and most deadly of the United States stage train wrecks,

71
00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,040
Speaker 1: and it was known as the crash at Crush, which

72
00:04:12,080 --> 00:04:15,600
Speaker 1: took place in September of eighteen ninety six, and this

73
00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:19,560
Speaker 1: was the brainchild of William George Crush, passenger agent at

74
00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,000
Speaker 1: the Missouri Kansas Texas Railroad Company also known as the

75
00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:27,280
Speaker 1: KD which was shortened down from its initials MKT by

76
00:04:27,320 --> 00:04:30,159
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety five. The year before this event took place,

77
00:04:30,560 --> 00:04:33,359
Speaker 1: the KD had one hundred and thirty three locomotives and

78
00:04:33,400 --> 00:04:38,200
Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty three cars. William George Crush came

79
00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:40,240
Speaker 1: up with this idea to try to drum up some

80
00:04:40,360 --> 00:04:43,880
Speaker 1: publicity for the railroad and to sell tickets on the railroad.

81
00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:49,279
Speaker 1: The railroad wasn't really in financial danger in any way,

82
00:04:49,839 --> 00:04:52,320
Speaker 1: but the nation was just starting to come out of

83
00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:54,760
Speaker 1: the Panic of eighteen ninety three, so the KD was

84
00:04:54,800 --> 00:04:58,599
Speaker 1: definitely interested in protecting its bottom line. The railroad was

85
00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:01,920
Speaker 1: also in the process of replacing its thirty five ton

86
00:05:02,040 --> 00:05:06,520
Speaker 1: locomotives with sixty ton models, so Crush proposed they take

87
00:05:06,560 --> 00:05:09,839
Speaker 1: two of those retired thirty five ton locomotives and smash

88
00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:15,800
Speaker 1: them together. It really is just like my microwave. The

89
00:05:15,920 --> 00:05:18,800
Speaker 1: venue that he proposed for this stage train wreck would

90
00:05:18,800 --> 00:05:22,240
Speaker 1: be a pop up town named Crush, located about fifteen

91
00:05:22,240 --> 00:05:25,039
Speaker 1: miles north of Waco and about three miles south of

92
00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:28,640
Speaker 1: the town of West, conveniently close to the existing Waco

93
00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,920
Speaker 1: Dallas track. The designated spot was in a small valley

94
00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:36,440
Speaker 1: with hills on three sides, making a natural amphitheater with

95
00:05:36,640 --> 00:05:40,719
Speaker 1: plenty of viewing locations. They'd supplement this with things like

96
00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:45,160
Speaker 1: a restaurant, a grandstand in carnival attractions, selling two dollars

97
00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:48,400
Speaker 1: round trip tickets on the KDI to get there and back.

98
00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:54,479
Speaker 1: The KD had some concerns about the safety of this scheme,

99
00:05:55,480 --> 00:05:58,279
Speaker 1: namely that the boilers of one or both of the

100
00:05:58,279 --> 00:06:02,960
Speaker 1: locomotives might explode on impact, so they asked the opinions

101
00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:06,080
Speaker 1: of several of the railroad's engineers, all but one of

102
00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:08,840
Speaker 1: whom agreed that the risk of an explosion was low,

103
00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:13,840
Speaker 1: so William Crush was given the go ahead to proceed. First,

104
00:06:13,880 --> 00:06:17,800
Speaker 1: they laid track from the existing Waco Dallas line, terminating

105
00:06:17,920 --> 00:06:20,800
Speaker 1: at a twoy one hundred foot that's six hundred and

106
00:06:20,839 --> 00:06:25,080
Speaker 1: forty meters depot platform, complete with a sign telling passengers

107
00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,000
Speaker 1: that they had arrived at Crush. There was also a

108
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:30,480
Speaker 1: stretch of track for the two trains to travel down

109
00:06:30,560 --> 00:06:33,960
Speaker 1: and crash into each other, which followed the natural slopes

110
00:06:34,000 --> 00:06:36,599
Speaker 1: of the land, and this gave the track a slight

111
00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:39,719
Speaker 1: downward grade from each end toward the middle, which would

112
00:06:39,760 --> 00:06:43,520
Speaker 1: help the locomotives pick up more speed. Locomotives nine to

113
00:06:43,560 --> 00:06:46,120
Speaker 1: ninety nine and one thousand and one were chosen for

114
00:06:46,200 --> 00:06:49,240
Speaker 1: the crash, with one painted green with red trim and

115
00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:53,000
Speaker 1: the other painted red with green trim. For their pop

116
00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:56,400
Speaker 1: up town, they drilled wells and installed spigots for fresh

117
00:06:56,440 --> 00:07:00,800
Speaker 1: water along the spectator area. William Crush, which was apparently

118
00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:05,679
Speaker 1: his fortuitous but actual real name, was friends with P. T. Barnum,

119
00:07:05,839 --> 00:07:08,680
Speaker 1: so he borrowed a circus tent from Barnum to house

120
00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:13,680
Speaker 1: a restaurant. They also constructed lemonade stands to telegraph offices,

121
00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,400
Speaker 1: a stand for reporters, and a bandstand. They built a

122
00:07:17,440 --> 00:07:22,040
Speaker 1: wooden jail, which I found one source saying that that

123
00:07:22,200 --> 00:07:25,320
Speaker 1: was made out of a caboose. They hired two hundred

124
00:07:25,360 --> 00:07:28,840
Speaker 1: constables to patrol on the day, and they also made

125
00:07:28,880 --> 00:07:32,360
Speaker 1: plans for a huge carnival, complete with games and medicine

126
00:07:32,360 --> 00:07:35,840
Speaker 1: shows and a variety of other diversions. Clearly they were

127
00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:41,000
Speaker 1: expecting this to be a party. Yeah. William Crush and

128
00:07:41,080 --> 00:07:44,880
Speaker 1: The Katie advertised this spectacle heavily all through the summer

129
00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:48,880
Speaker 1: of eighteen ninety six, calling it the Monster Crash. The

130
00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,080
Speaker 1: crash and the preparations for it became regular news items

131
00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:55,640
Speaker 1: all throughout the Texas papers and outside the state as well.

132
00:07:56,440 --> 00:07:59,680
Speaker 1: Organizers fielded queries from all over the country, and in

133
00:07:59,720 --> 00:08:02,680
Speaker 1: the day leading up to the actual event, William Crush

134
00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:06,960
Speaker 1: estimated that there would be fifteen thousand to twenty thousand spectators.

135
00:08:07,960 --> 00:08:11,800
Speaker 1: William Crush had arranged for thirty three trains to provide

136
00:08:12,040 --> 00:08:16,400
Speaker 1: passenger service to Crush and the Cadie started dropping passengers

137
00:08:16,400 --> 00:08:20,600
Speaker 1: off around dawn on September fifteenth, eighteen ninety six. By

138
00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:24,679
Speaker 1: ten am, there were at least ten thousand people already

139
00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:27,160
Speaker 1: on the scene. They were picnicking and playing games and

140
00:08:27,200 --> 00:08:31,320
Speaker 1: listening to political speeches while they waited. More trains kept

141
00:08:31,400 --> 00:08:34,160
Speaker 1: arriving all through the morning and afternoon, some of them

142
00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,040
Speaker 1: so crowded that people were riding on the roofs of

143
00:08:37,080 --> 00:08:40,679
Speaker 1: the cars. The Monster Crash was supposed to start at

144
00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:44,200
Speaker 1: four but people were still arriving as that hour drew near,

145
00:08:44,880 --> 00:08:47,440
Speaker 1: so they delayed the start until five pm, at which

146
00:08:47,440 --> 00:08:50,440
Speaker 1: point there were about forty thousand people there, double what

147
00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,040
Speaker 1: William Crush had estimated. First, the two locomotives came together

148
00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:59,320
Speaker 1: very slowly on the track and touched their cowcatchers together.

149
00:08:59,559 --> 00:09:02,080
Speaker 1: That's the little, great looking thing on the front of

150
00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:06,520
Speaker 1: a locomotive. They touched their cowcatchers together, kind of like

151
00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:10,079
Speaker 1: boxers touching their gloves before a match. Then they were

152
00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:14,560
Speaker 1: reversed apart again, and William Crush, on horseback, raised a

153
00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:17,160
Speaker 1: white hat into the air and whipped it down to

154
00:09:17,200 --> 00:09:20,520
Speaker 1: give the signal for the wreck to officially begin. The

155
00:09:20,559 --> 00:09:24,080
Speaker 1: two locomotives pulling empty box cars that were festooned with

156
00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:28,440
Speaker 1: advertisements and decorations, then began moving toward each other and

157
00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:32,679
Speaker 1: picking up speed. Their engineers pulled their whistle cords and

158
00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,839
Speaker 1: tied them down, then jumped clear and ran away from

159
00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,040
Speaker 1: the track. They estimated that at the moment of impact,

160
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,440
Speaker 1: each locomotive was traveling at about fifty miles per hour

161
00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:47,360
Speaker 1: when they crashed into each other. The collision was incredibly violent.

162
00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:52,680
Speaker 1: The box cars unsurprisingly shattered into splinters, but the locomotives

163
00:09:52,720 --> 00:09:56,560
Speaker 1: didn't behave as they expected. Organizers had thought that they

164
00:09:56,600 --> 00:09:59,480
Speaker 1: would basically push each other up into an inverted V

165
00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:01,880
Speaker 1: and the they would expend most of that energy and

166
00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:06,199
Speaker 1: the upward trajectory of doing that. Instead, it was more

167
00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:09,520
Speaker 1: like squeezing an accordion or collapsing a telescope, and the

168
00:10:09,559 --> 00:10:13,840
Speaker 1: two giant locomotives just folded into each other, and then,

169
00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,679
Speaker 1: to the surprise of everyone except perhaps that one dissenting engineer,

170
00:10:19,400 --> 00:10:23,679
Speaker 1: both their boilers exploded. Scalding water and flying debris from

171
00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:27,360
Speaker 1: the locomotives, including pieces of iron and steel of all

172
00:10:27,400 --> 00:10:30,760
Speaker 1: shapes and sizes, flew into the crowd, most of whom

173
00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:33,480
Speaker 1: were along the hills at least two hundred yards away.

174
00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:38,160
Speaker 1: At least two people were killed, although some accounts say

175
00:10:38,160 --> 00:10:41,840
Speaker 1: there were three. Ernest Darnell, who had climbed up a

176
00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:44,480
Speaker 1: mesquite tree to watch, was hit with a ten pound

177
00:10:44,559 --> 00:10:47,800
Speaker 1: length of brakechain and was killed instantly. A young girl

178
00:10:47,880 --> 00:10:50,520
Speaker 1: was hit with a chunk of iron that fractured her skull,

179
00:10:50,880 --> 00:10:54,239
Speaker 1: and although she was reported to be resting comfortably afterward,

180
00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:57,520
Speaker 1: she died on the way home. There was a third man,

181
00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:01,800
Speaker 1: John Morrison, who survived the wreck itself, but fell between

182
00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:04,680
Speaker 1: train cars on the way home and was run over

183
00:11:04,720 --> 00:11:07,320
Speaker 1: by the train and died. I haven't quite figured out

184
00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:10,079
Speaker 1: if that is the third person some of the counts

185
00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,400
Speaker 1: referred to as being killed, or if that was a

186
00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:17,240
Speaker 1: separate incident. There were also a lot of injuries from

187
00:11:17,240 --> 00:11:19,880
Speaker 1: the flying debris and boiling water then at least six

188
00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:23,079
Speaker 1: of those were serious, and some of them were sustained

189
00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:27,280
Speaker 1: more than a mile away from the actual crash. J. C. Dean,

190
00:11:27,559 --> 00:11:30,800
Speaker 1: a photographer from Waco, had been hired to take pictures

191
00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:32,800
Speaker 1: of the event, and he lost an eye when a

192
00:11:32,840 --> 00:11:36,120
Speaker 1: bolt from the wreck tore through it. His response was

193
00:11:36,160 --> 00:11:38,839
Speaker 1: to get up and keep working, telling his brothers, who

194
00:11:38,840 --> 00:11:41,960
Speaker 1: were also photographers, how to finish the shot that he

195
00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:45,680
Speaker 1: had been framing. Even in the midst of all this

196
00:11:45,960 --> 00:11:50,160
Speaker 1: chaos and the tragedy that was unfolding, souvenir seekers rushed

197
00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:53,320
Speaker 1: in to try to claim pieces of the wreck. Wrecker

198
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:56,600
Speaker 1: trains hauled off the biggest remaining pieces. After the event

199
00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:00,680
Speaker 1: was over, people began to leave the temporary of Crush.

200
00:12:00,720 --> 00:12:04,080
Speaker 1: As soon as the event had finished, Workers struck the

201
00:12:04,120 --> 00:12:07,000
Speaker 1: tent and the other structures erected for the town, and

202
00:12:07,040 --> 00:12:11,480
Speaker 1: the whole thing was essentially gone by nightfall. William Crush

203
00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:16,160
Speaker 1: was fired immediately, but then officials at the KADI realized

204
00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:19,920
Speaker 1: they'd had an incredibly profitable day in spite of the tragedy,

205
00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:22,720
Speaker 1: so they hired him back the next day, and he

206
00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:26,360
Speaker 1: worked at the railroad until his retirement in nineteen forty.

207
00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,760
Speaker 1: The KD began quickly and quietly settling lawsuits and paying

208
00:12:30,800 --> 00:12:33,800
Speaker 1: compensation to the people who had been injured and the

209
00:12:33,840 --> 00:12:37,480
Speaker 1: families of those who had been killed. Photographer J. C.

210
00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:41,199
Speaker 1: Dean was paid ten thousand dollars and given a lifetime

211
00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:45,120
Speaker 1: pass on the train. There wasn't nearly as much public

212
00:12:45,160 --> 00:12:48,080
Speaker 1: condemnation as he might expect from an event that killed

213
00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:51,280
Speaker 1: at least two spectators and injured many others, but the

214
00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:54,760
Speaker 1: news reporting at the time was actually relatively pragmatic about it.

215
00:12:55,360 --> 00:12:58,280
Speaker 1: A few weeks after the crash, at Crush, composer and

216
00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:03,200
Speaker 1: pianist Scott Joplin public his Great Crush Collision March. Joplin

217
00:13:03,200 --> 00:13:05,480
Speaker 1: would go on to be known as the King of Ragtime,

218
00:13:05,559 --> 00:13:09,160
Speaker 1: whose other most famous pieces include Maple Leaf Rag and

219
00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:11,520
Speaker 1: The Entertainer, which would become the theme music for the

220
00:13:11,559 --> 00:13:15,720
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy three film The Sting starring Paul Newman, Robert Redford,

221
00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:19,640
Speaker 1: and Robert Shaw. It's unclear whether Joplin was actually at

222
00:13:19,640 --> 00:13:22,959
Speaker 1: the crash, but the Great Crush Collision March was one

223
00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:26,119
Speaker 1: of his earliest published pieces of music and a relatively

224
00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:30,200
Speaker 1: early example of ragtime, which is a distinctly African American

225
00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:32,319
Speaker 1: form of music that was at the height of its

226
00:13:32,320 --> 00:13:35,760
Speaker 1: popularity from the mid eighteen nineties through the nineteen teens.

227
00:13:35,800 --> 00:13:37,600
Speaker 1: And we're going to link to that in the show

228
00:13:37,600 --> 00:13:41,160
Speaker 1: notes so people can listen to it. Scott Joplin is

229
00:13:41,200 --> 00:13:45,000
Speaker 1: the reason I took piano lessons as a child. Really, yes,

230
00:13:45,080 --> 00:13:47,160
Speaker 1: I love it, and the part of me that wants

231
00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:49,640
Speaker 1: to do an episode about him is at odds with

232
00:13:49,679 --> 00:13:52,559
Speaker 1: the part of me that does not like the sad

233
00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,559
Speaker 1: aspect of the story, which is his death at a

234
00:13:55,679 --> 00:14:01,240
Speaker 1: very early age from untreated syphilis. So the Katie went

235
00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,880
Speaker 1: through waves of financial success and difficulty after this point

236
00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:07,559
Speaker 1: until really starting to struggle along with the rest of

237
00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:10,720
Speaker 1: the industry in the nineteen fifties. It was ultimately bought

238
00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:13,800
Speaker 1: by the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company in nineteen eighty nine.

239
00:14:14,480 --> 00:14:17,840
Speaker 1: There's a historic plaque commemorating the Crash at Crush in

240
00:14:17,960 --> 00:14:23,280
Speaker 1: McLennan County, fifteen miles north of Waco. Although the Crash

241
00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:26,160
Speaker 1: at Crush is the most famous of these staged wrecks,

242
00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:28,360
Speaker 1: it wasn't actually the first one, and so we are

243
00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:30,840
Speaker 1: going to talk about that first one and some others

244
00:14:31,040 --> 00:14:39,760
Speaker 1: after a quick sponsor break. Really frequently, the Crash at

245
00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:42,720
Speaker 1: Crush is described as the first staged train wreck in

246
00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:45,920
Speaker 1: the United States. It was something that drew a big crowd,

247
00:14:46,400 --> 00:14:50,600
Speaker 1: but which no other actual railroad company tried again afterward

248
00:14:50,840 --> 00:14:54,680
Speaker 1: for obvious reasons. But that September fifteenth, eighteen ninety six

249
00:14:54,800 --> 00:14:58,680
Speaker 1: event was actually predated by one staged by a man

250
00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:03,560
Speaker 1: named Al Street. He was a railway equipment salesman from Illinois.

251
00:15:04,120 --> 00:15:06,960
Speaker 1: Streeter first tried to stage a train wreck in Illinois,

252
00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:10,600
Speaker 1: but wasn't able to generate enough attention, so he turned

253
00:15:10,640 --> 00:15:13,600
Speaker 1: his attention to Ohio, where he got the ok to

254
00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:17,200
Speaker 1: conduct a crash on July twentieth, eighteen ninety five, a

255
00:15:17,200 --> 00:15:21,280
Speaker 1: couple of miles outside Canton. Here's how he described it

256
00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:23,240
Speaker 1: in one of the ads that he ran to promote

257
00:15:23,240 --> 00:15:26,880
Speaker 1: this event. Quote, two monster locomotives with full head of steam,

258
00:15:27,040 --> 00:15:29,800
Speaker 1: starting a mile apart, will rush toward each other at

259
00:15:29,840 --> 00:15:32,160
Speaker 1: the rate of sixty or seventy miles an hour, and

260
00:15:32,240 --> 00:15:35,200
Speaker 1: allowed to come together with a crash that will result

261
00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:38,960
Speaker 1: in the most horrible head on collision ever seen or

262
00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:42,960
Speaker 1: heard of. Streeter made arrangements to buy a couple of

263
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,400
Speaker 1: retired locomotives and decorated them. One was emblazoned with free

264
00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:51,280
Speaker 1: trade and the other with protection, symbolically pitting the two

265
00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:55,160
Speaker 1: economic theories against one another. The two engines would pull

266
00:15:55,240 --> 00:15:59,880
Speaker 1: flat cars loaded down with rocks like the crash a crash.

267
00:16:00,080 --> 00:16:03,760
Speaker 1: Part of Streeter's plan involved selling train tickets a fifteen

268
00:16:03,840 --> 00:16:06,960
Speaker 1: cent fair on the Cleveland Canton and Southern Railroad would

269
00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,360
Speaker 1: get people to the actual location for the crash, but

270
00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,840
Speaker 1: once people got to that location, admission to the crash

271
00:16:13,840 --> 00:16:17,160
Speaker 1: itself was not free. He hoped to sell twenty thousand

272
00:16:17,200 --> 00:16:20,280
Speaker 1: tickets at seventy five cents apiece so that people could

273
00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:23,840
Speaker 1: then watch the crash from a designated viewing area. However,

274
00:16:23,960 --> 00:16:27,680
Speaker 1: the overwhelming majority of spectators had a different idea that

275
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,960
Speaker 1: was to climb trees and together outside the official viewing

276
00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:33,800
Speaker 1: area and watch it for free, so he only sold

277
00:16:33,800 --> 00:16:38,960
Speaker 1: about two hundred tickets in the end. Though these two

278
00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:42,480
Speaker 1: locomotives never wrecked, the whole event was canceled at the

279
00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:46,800
Speaker 1: last possible minute. Streeter claimed it was because spectators got

280
00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:49,880
Speaker 1: too close and refused to move, ruining it for everyone

281
00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,320
Speaker 1: else and forcing him to cancel for safety reasons, but

282
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:57,160
Speaker 1: the railroad claimed that Streeter owed them two four hundred

283
00:16:57,240 --> 00:17:00,640
Speaker 1: dollars for the retired locomotives, which he had known paid,

284
00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:06,440
Speaker 1: so the railroad exercised their right to take them back. Spectators,

285
00:17:06,440 --> 00:17:09,160
Speaker 1: of course, were outraged, and the ones who had paid

286
00:17:09,200 --> 00:17:12,119
Speaker 1: demanded a refund. People were also upset that they had

287
00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,040
Speaker 1: spent that fifteen dollars train fare for something that didn't

288
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:19,159
Speaker 1: actually happen. Streeter was widely criticized in the press for

289
00:17:19,280 --> 00:17:22,240
Speaker 1: wasting people's time and money, even as he claimed to

290
00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,560
Speaker 1: have lost about eight hundred dollars of his personal funds

291
00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:29,440
Speaker 1: in the venture. Streeter didn't give up though. On Memorial

292
00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:32,879
Speaker 1: Day eighteen ninety six, he tried again, this time in

293
00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:37,000
Speaker 1: Buckeye Park in Marietta, Ohio, about twenty five miles southeast

294
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,920
Speaker 1: of Columbus. The locomotives this time were named the AL

295
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:44,439
Speaker 1: Streeter and the W. H. Fisher. Fisher worked for the

296
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:48,720
Speaker 1: Columbus Hawking and Toledo Railroad, and to add some more drama,

297
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:51,600
Speaker 1: Streeter put mannekins aboard so it would actually look like

298
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:55,640
Speaker 1: there were people in there. This time, the wreck did

299
00:17:55,720 --> 00:17:59,280
Speaker 1: indeed go as planned. Clarence Metters wrote about the event

300
00:17:59,320 --> 00:18:02,919
Speaker 1: in National Magazine, saying, quote, twenty five thousand pairs of

301
00:18:02,960 --> 00:18:06,120
Speaker 1: eyes were riveted upon one engine or another as they

302
00:18:06,200 --> 00:18:10,119
Speaker 1: rushed together. And so critical was the moment that scarcely

303
00:18:10,160 --> 00:18:13,240
Speaker 1: a word was spoken. On and on sped the two

304
00:18:13,359 --> 00:18:17,280
Speaker 1: iron monsters at the rate of over forty miles an hour,

305
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:20,680
Speaker 1: and when the crash came it was terrific, both trains

306
00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:25,560
Speaker 1: being practically destroyed. Streeter continued to organize more of these

307
00:18:25,600 --> 00:18:29,600
Speaker 1: spectacles around the country until the early twentieth century. But

308
00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:32,200
Speaker 1: another man organized so many of them that it became

309
00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:35,680
Speaker 1: part of his personal brand, and he was Joe Connolly,

310
00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,880
Speaker 1: who was known by the nickname head On Connolly, who

311
00:18:38,880 --> 00:18:42,280
Speaker 1: staged at least seventy three wrecks between eighteen ninety six

312
00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:45,840
Speaker 1: and nineteen thirty two and became the most famous organizer

313
00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:49,840
Speaker 1: of planned train wrecks. I found one account that said

314
00:18:49,880 --> 00:18:53,440
Speaker 1: that he tried to sue someone for staging a train

315
00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:55,919
Speaker 1: wreck and using the term head on when that was

316
00:18:56,080 --> 00:18:59,439
Speaker 1: clearly his, but I couldn't find any evidence that he

317
00:18:59,480 --> 00:19:02,639
Speaker 1: had actually to register that trademark, so not sure what

318
00:19:02,720 --> 00:19:06,280
Speaker 1: the actual status of that was. Regardless though, head On

319
00:19:06,440 --> 00:19:09,720
Speaker 1: Joe had worked in theater in Des Moines for decades

320
00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:13,000
Speaker 1: before putting his hand to staging trade wrecks, and he

321
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,520
Speaker 1: was scrupulous about safety. He had a very specific set

322
00:19:16,560 --> 00:19:19,040
Speaker 1: of safety rules that had to be followed at any

323
00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:22,480
Speaker 1: wreck he staged. He also toll reporters that he had

324
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,960
Speaker 1: a quote lifelong desire to see such a disaster without

325
00:19:26,080 --> 00:19:29,880
Speaker 1: danger to himself and thought many other people harbored the

326
00:19:29,920 --> 00:19:33,840
Speaker 1: same secret desire. He was also a showman, and as

327
00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:36,520
Speaker 1: his res went on, he did things to make them

328
00:19:36,560 --> 00:19:39,879
Speaker 1: more and more dramatic. He started laying small charges on

329
00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:42,560
Speaker 1: the tracks that would explode when the trains rolled over them,

330
00:19:42,920 --> 00:19:47,000
Speaker 1: creating tiny explosions that, in normal circumstances were used to

331
00:19:47,080 --> 00:19:50,679
Speaker 1: warn other trains of incoming traffic. He'd also douse the

332
00:19:50,720 --> 00:19:53,840
Speaker 1: cars in fuel and filled them with flammable materials so

333
00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:58,119
Speaker 1: that they would burn after impact. Connelly made a lot

334
00:19:58,200 --> 00:20:00,959
Speaker 1: of money staging these crashes over the years, and his

335
00:20:01,080 --> 00:20:04,240
Speaker 1: last one took place as the fad was really starting

336
00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,920
Speaker 1: to wane. This one was at the Iowa State Fair

337
00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:10,280
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty two. He'd staged recks at the Iowa

338
00:20:10,359 --> 00:20:13,439
Speaker 1: State Fair previously to a lot of fanfare, but in

339
00:20:13,520 --> 00:20:16,720
Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two, the United States was facing the Great Depression.

340
00:20:17,240 --> 00:20:20,119
Speaker 1: Even naming one of the locomotives that Roosevelt and the

341
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:23,280
Speaker 1: other the Hoover, wasn't enough to make the event sit

342
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:26,639
Speaker 1: right with the crowd. The explosion itself was reported to

343
00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:29,280
Speaker 1: be a good one, but the response from the audience

344
00:20:29,400 --> 00:20:33,880
Speaker 1: was really lackluster. That seemed like seeing two huge trains

345
00:20:33,960 --> 00:20:37,399
Speaker 1: wrecked against each other for sport was needlessly wasteful in

346
00:20:37,480 --> 00:20:39,879
Speaker 1: a time when so many people were hurting for money.

347
00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,359
Speaker 1: This was doubly true when words started to spread that

348
00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:47,320
Speaker 1: Connolly had charged the fair forty thousand dollars to stage

349
00:20:47,320 --> 00:20:49,600
Speaker 1: the wreck, and that the fair had lost sixty five

350
00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:53,439
Speaker 1: thousand dollars that year, people who were already angry at

351
00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:56,480
Speaker 1: the idea that the crash had been wasteful or furious

352
00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,080
Speaker 1: that it had cost so much money. In addition to

353
00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:03,399
Speaker 1: the wreckage of the lower locomotives themselves, al Streeter and

354
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:07,200
Speaker 1: head On Connolly weren't the only people organizing these staged wrecks.

355
00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,640
Speaker 1: As another example, in September nineteen oh six, approximately six

356
00:21:11,760 --> 00:21:14,639
Speaker 1: thousand people paid to see two engines that had been

357
00:21:14,680 --> 00:21:17,720
Speaker 1: retired from the Salt Lake Railroad crashed together at an

358
00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:22,360
Speaker 1: agricultural park near downtown Los Angeles. Organizers for this one

359
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:26,320
Speaker 1: were James Morley and former promoter football coach Walter Hemple.

360
00:21:27,080 --> 00:21:30,800
Speaker 1: This particular wreck didn't go all that well. The engineers

361
00:21:30,840 --> 00:21:34,159
Speaker 1: tried to extort extra pay from the organizers. In the

362
00:21:34,200 --> 00:21:37,200
Speaker 1: middle of the event. They were doing a prolonged run

363
00:21:37,280 --> 00:21:39,600
Speaker 1: up to the actual crash, in which they'd run the

364
00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:43,080
Speaker 1: trains at one another and then stopped them before a collision.

365
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,840
Speaker 1: The engineers thought it would probably be impossible to find

366
00:21:46,880 --> 00:21:49,920
Speaker 1: replacements in the literal middle of the event, so they

367
00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,760
Speaker 1: asked for an extra three hundred and fifty dollars. Organizers

368
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:57,080
Speaker 1: managed to find replacements with no problem, though in general

369
00:21:57,359 --> 00:22:01,120
Speaker 1: engineers were pretty eager to volunteer, so the original engineers

370
00:22:01,119 --> 00:22:05,640
Speaker 1: were fired and then the event proceeded as planned. Yeah,

371
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:08,000
Speaker 1: the idea that you would get to just on purpose

372
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:11,520
Speaker 1: run a locomotive that was normally where you had to

373
00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 1: spend your working life into another locomotive and just smash

374
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:18,000
Speaker 1: it to pieces like that apparently was attractive to a

375
00:22:18,080 --> 00:22:23,720
Speaker 1: number of engineers, and I really didn't find any indication

376
00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:26,359
Speaker 1: that any of them were seriously injured while doing this,

377
00:22:26,440 --> 00:22:29,680
Speaker 1: although I did find one that was an engineer who

378
00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:33,200
Speaker 1: fell while trying to jump free of the locomotive and

379
00:22:33,359 --> 00:22:38,880
Speaker 1: sprained his ankle. So in this event at the Agricultural

380
00:22:38,920 --> 00:22:42,120
Speaker 1: Park near downtown Los Angeles, the locomotives did run into

381
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,280
Speaker 1: each other whistles blaring, but the end result was pretty

382
00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: anti climactic because they just sort of whammed into each

383
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:51,840
Speaker 1: other with a thud and then stopped and nothing derailed,

384
00:22:51,880 --> 00:22:54,639
Speaker 1: and nothing caught on fire, and nothing exploded, and so

385
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 1: people were not particularly impressed. And these are just some examples.

386
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:01,439
Speaker 1: There were lots of life of others, and there's actually

387
00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 1: footage of several of them on YouTube. We're going to

388
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,120
Speaker 1: link to that footage in the show notes. Thanks. We're

389
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:09,560
Speaker 1: going to talk about some ideas about why maybe this

390
00:23:09,720 --> 00:23:20,640
Speaker 1: caught on so well. So for roughly thirty or forty years,

391
00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:24,679
Speaker 1: staged train wrecks were a really big deal in the

392
00:23:24,720 --> 00:23:28,600
Speaker 1: Midwestern and southwestern parts of the United States. The biggest

393
00:23:28,720 --> 00:23:31,280
Speaker 1: crowd reported at one of these events was one hundred

394
00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:35,280
Speaker 1: and sixty thousand people, and attendance was routinely in the

395
00:23:35,359 --> 00:23:38,840
Speaker 1: tens of thousands. The town of Crush had about the

396
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,080
Speaker 1: same population as Dallas or San Antonio for the few

397
00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:46,040
Speaker 1: hours that it existed. In nineteen twenty, a staged wreck

398
00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:49,520
Speaker 1: on opening day of the Minnesota State Fair doubled the

399
00:23:49,600 --> 00:23:53,159
Speaker 1: fair's first day attendance from the year before. All of

400
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:56,720
Speaker 1: this happened at a time when getting somewhere was a

401
00:23:56,760 --> 00:24:00,399
Speaker 1: lot less comfortable and convenient than it can be today.

402
00:24:01,160 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 1: This has led some people to speculate as to why

403
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,400
Speaker 1: this all caught on so well. One aspect was certainly

404
00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:11,480
Speaker 1: the marketing organizers promoted their events heavily, getting lots of

405
00:24:11,480 --> 00:24:15,120
Speaker 1: fanciful coverage and newspapers, and there was often a political

406
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,920
Speaker 1: theme to the decorations on the trains themselves. In addition

407
00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:21,080
Speaker 1: to the ones that we talked about already earlier in

408
00:24:21,119 --> 00:24:25,760
Speaker 1: this show, a stage wreck pitted locomotives dubbed evolution and

409
00:24:25,840 --> 00:24:30,320
Speaker 1: fundamentalism after the Scopes trial in nineteen twenty five. There

410
00:24:30,400 --> 00:24:33,600
Speaker 1: was also a showdown between the National Recovery Act, part

411
00:24:33,600 --> 00:24:36,280
Speaker 1: of the New Deal versus Old Man Depression at the

412
00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:40,960
Speaker 1: Minnesota State Fair in nineteen thirty three, And for some

413
00:24:41,080 --> 00:24:44,679
Speaker 1: people the attraction was related more to the general politics

414
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:48,080
Speaker 1: of the day than any specific political issue. There was

415
00:24:48,119 --> 00:24:51,920
Speaker 1: a general idea that locomotives were symbols of big businesses

416
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:54,919
Speaker 1: and industries that were taking advantage of people and ruining

417
00:24:54,920 --> 00:24:56,800
Speaker 1: the landscape, and so it was really fun to think

418
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,560
Speaker 1: about their destroying one another. And then, of course is

419
00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:03,920
Speaker 1: this fact that humanity has kind of a morbid fascination

420
00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,280
Speaker 1: with destruction. There's a complicated set of emotional and psychological

421
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:12,880
Speaker 1: responses that feed into the general human trait of morbid curiosity.

422
00:25:13,640 --> 00:25:17,200
Speaker 1: In the decades after stage train wrecks, there were demolition derbies,

423
00:25:17,320 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 1: monster truck rallies, a whole slew of disaster films, true

424
00:25:21,320 --> 00:25:24,400
Speaker 1: crime shows, and on and on. These are all still

425
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 1: money makers in many caseses yep, I mean, I think

426
00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:30,879
Speaker 1: the thing that strikes me is so weird about the

427
00:25:31,680 --> 00:25:35,520
Speaker 1: train part is that locomotives are just so big. Yeah,

428
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 1: they like, that's a lot of metal smashing together and

429
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,160
Speaker 1: then doing I don't know, send negative the scrap heap

430
00:25:42,240 --> 00:25:46,440
Speaker 1: or whatever, which you know, may made it seem a

431
00:25:46,480 --> 00:25:49,280
Speaker 1: little odder to me than a demolition derby or a

432
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 1: monster truck rally or whatever. But also, I mean, people

433
00:25:52,280 --> 00:25:55,199
Speaker 1: do just do, as we have shown in our some

434
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,560
Speaker 1: past episodes of the show, people go on on to

435
00:25:57,640 --> 00:26:04,439
Speaker 1: weird stuff sometimes. I think it's also a factor. This

436
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 1: is the kind of episode that happens when you're looking

437
00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:11,199
Speaker 1: for something a little less heavy to write about and

438
00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:18,240
Speaker 1: you google weird fads. Right, I've done similar things, Yeah,

439
00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: it is. It's a I'm trying to think if there

440
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: would ever be like an modern day equivalent attempted, Like

441
00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:30,760
Speaker 1: would anybody ever go, let's try to crash planes together?

442
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:33,200
Speaker 1: I don't know how you would possibly orchestrate such a thing,

443
00:26:33,359 --> 00:26:39,199
Speaker 1: but that sounds very scary. Yes, well, and suddenly I

444
00:26:39,280 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 1: just remembered when when I was also a kid, in

445
00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: addition to having the elementary school Halloween carnivals where you

446
00:26:45,080 --> 00:26:49,600
Speaker 1: could smash old cars with a baseball bat, whenever the

447
00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:54,040
Speaker 1: fire department would be conducting training by burning down a

448
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:57,800
Speaker 1: derelict building and extinguishing the fire. Oh yeah, like there

449
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,680
Speaker 1: would always be a crowd to watch that. Oh, anytime

450
00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:02,840
Speaker 1: there's a building demolished, there's a crowd. We had one

451
00:27:02,840 --> 00:27:05,760
Speaker 1: in Atlanta not long ago, and everyone who lived in

452
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:07,879
Speaker 1: Atlanta had it all over their social media because they

453
00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:09,879
Speaker 1: got up in an ungodly hour to go look at it.

454
00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 1: We're like blowing stuff up. I mean, I then feel

455
00:27:17,680 --> 00:27:19,480
Speaker 1: very tame for like being like what happens when you

456
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:23,120
Speaker 1: put a CD in a microwave. By the way, it's

457
00:27:23,200 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 1: very pretty. Do you have some listener mail? I do.

458
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 1: I was in our Atlanta office recently, which is a

459
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:35,840
Speaker 1: treat whenever I get to do that, and I went

460
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:39,159
Speaker 1: through some of our incoming parcels, and so I have

461
00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 1: some thank yous to give out for that. First is

462
00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:49,439
Speaker 1: Katie Katie sent us suffragetsu t shirts if you have

463
00:27:49,600 --> 00:27:54,679
Speaker 1: not heard about suffragetsu. Basically in the nineteen teens during

464
00:27:54,720 --> 00:27:58,199
Speaker 1: the suffrage movement, a lot of women were studying jiu

465
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:03,000
Speaker 1: jitsu for self defense purposes, and so these are t

466
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:11,360
Speaker 1: shirts showing a suffragette defending herself or depending on how

467
00:28:11,359 --> 00:28:14,280
Speaker 1: you're looking at it, just throw in a police officer.

468
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:21,240
Speaker 1: So thank you for the suffragiitti shirts. This is also

469
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:25,040
Speaker 1: from quite a while ago after our episode on Walt Whitman,

470
00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:31,119
Speaker 1: Kristen sent us an exhibition catalog called Bold Cautious True

471
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,760
Speaker 1: Walt Whitman and American Art of the Civil War era,

472
00:28:35,640 --> 00:28:41,400
Speaker 1: which is just lovely collection. And then lastly, thank you

473
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:45,040
Speaker 1: to Nancy for sending us the Naughty Fairies adult coloring

474
00:28:45,080 --> 00:28:50,400
Speaker 1: book of bad Words and were Satitudes. I was delighted

475
00:28:50,400 --> 00:28:52,680
Speaker 1: to see a couple of copies of that and on

476
00:28:52,720 --> 00:28:55,840
Speaker 1: my desk. So thanks to all three of you and

477
00:28:55,880 --> 00:28:58,920
Speaker 1: to the other folks who have sent us faarious parcels

478
00:28:58,920 --> 00:29:01,680
Speaker 1: that we try. We try to keep a list and

479
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,680
Speaker 1: thank everybody, but I know sometimes we fail. So usually

480
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:08,239
Speaker 1: that's my failure, since I'm here and it all ends

481
00:29:08,320 --> 00:29:10,280
Speaker 1: up on my desk there are days when I'm just like,

482
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 1: can't look at this. I'm so busy working on a thing,

483
00:29:12,880 --> 00:29:14,760
Speaker 1: and then it gets pushed aside. And then there have

484
00:29:14,840 --> 00:29:17,440
Speaker 1: been times I'm sorry to admit this listeners where like

485
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: which note goes to which parcel has gotten jumbled? And

486
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, dear mon dieu, I can't figure it.

487
00:29:24,600 --> 00:29:27,120
Speaker 1: Because sometimes they're obvious, like it will reference the gift,

488
00:29:27,160 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 1: and other times it's just like, here's the thing that

489
00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:30,840
Speaker 1: we thought you would love, and I'm like, I don't

490
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:33,760
Speaker 1: know which thing it is, So I apologize that is

491
00:29:33,800 --> 00:29:38,720
Speaker 1: my mediocre spatial organization skill. We've also had a couple

492
00:29:38,720 --> 00:29:42,760
Speaker 1: of things this year from listeners outside of the United

493
00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:46,480
Speaker 1: States run a foul of customs and be apparently tied

494
00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:48,520
Speaker 1: up in customs for a really long time before getting

495
00:29:48,520 --> 00:29:52,320
Speaker 1: to us, and then it becomes awkward, Hey, remember that

496
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:55,760
Speaker 1: thing you mailed eight months ago? Yeah, we just kind

497
00:29:55,800 --> 00:29:58,200
Speaker 1: of thanks So anyway, thank you so much to all

498
00:29:58,440 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: of our generous life listeners, uh for sending us such

499
00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:06,200
Speaker 1: lovely and thoughtful things. If you would like to write

500
00:30:06,240 --> 00:30:09,080
Speaker 1: to us, we're at History Podcast at HowStuffWorks dot com.

501
00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:11,760
Speaker 1: We're also on Facebook at Facebook dot com. Slash mist

502
00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:14,840
Speaker 1: in History and on Twitter at Myston History, our Tumblr,

503
00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:17,920
Speaker 1: our Pinterest, our Instagram, all of these things on social media,

504
00:30:17,960 --> 00:30:21,400
Speaker 1: we are at mist in History. Our website mistanhistory dot

505
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,959
Speaker 1: com is where you will find a searchable archive of

506
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,200
Speaker 1: every episode we have ever done. We will also find

507
00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 1: show notes for all the episodes Holly and I have

508
00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 1: done together. We will link to several YouTube videos of

509
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:39,280
Speaker 1: locomotives smashing into each other in the player page for

510
00:30:39,400 --> 00:30:44,160
Speaker 1: this particular episode, along with Scott Joplin's March that was

511
00:30:44,200 --> 00:30:46,560
Speaker 1: about the crash at Crush, So you can do all

512
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 1: that on a whole lot more at our website, which

513
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 1: is missed Inhistory dot com. For more on this and

514
00:30:56,600 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit houstuffworks dot com