Riding with Class Distinction

The American opportunity to travel was a good equalizer in the early days.  The transportation systems, like rail, tended to not only reduce the difference between cities but between classes as well.  In America, the "common people" traveled more and steam locomotion confined people more closely for longer periods of time, erasing distinctions of class.  In the desire to arrive some place quickly, passengers ignored the social distinctions of other places - usually.  

The aristocratic Philadelphian, Samuel Breck, on a journey from Boston to Rhode Island on a hot summer's day in July of 1835, recorded his views on being confined with those of a lesser class as he saw it..."Two poor fellows squeezed me into a corner while the hot sun drew from their garments a villainous odor of salt, fish, tar and molasses."  Can't you just see his pursed lips and nose lifted up??

There were no first class and second class cars in America like there were in Europe in the early days of rail, although there were sometimes (especially in the South) separate cars for men and women, and blacks and whites.  The men's car was the smoking car where men could smoke, chew and spit without the women complaining.  These special cars were seen as wasteful, eventually however, and gradually discontinued. 

Until then it was seen as proper for a lady to be in select company while traveling, to dine with her peers and not be subjected to the lesser things of society.  To do otherwise, one man said, was to reduce her gentility.  For a "master" and his slave to share the same table on the train was just "uncomfortable" as one man put it.  The old-fashioned way, even if it took longer to reach one's destination was preferable where a man could be "master of one's movements."  It was believed that that old-fashioned way would be the way of future generations again...first class air travel??

Next time...Class by design

____________________________

Today in Pioneer History: "On October 8, 1871, flames sparked in the Chicago barn of Charles and Catherine O'Leary, igniting a two day blaze that kills between 200 and 300 people, destroys 17,450 buildings, leaves 100.000 homeless and causes an estimated $200 million ($4 billion today) in damages.  The fire is known as the Great Chicago Fire."

Harriet Sherril Ward - Culture on the Westward Trail

A fifty year old woman of education and wealth, Harriet Ward, traveled west with her husband, her son, Willie who was 11 or 12, and her 17 year old daughter Francis.  The journey, to her educated taste, was full of artists' scenic views.  She described Independence Rock by writing, "Cold chills came over me and tears would flow in spite of all my efforts to suppress them."

Harriet's journal is written on blue vellum paper.  She wrote of extravagances such as when her husband "brought me beautiful flowers.  The form and color resembles the snowball and the perfume the night blooming Jassamine." 

Her daughter Frankie played guitar along the journey.  Another family friend and guitarist, Amelia White, joined their party with her sister Sarah.  Harriet records the evening with evident upper class values:  "Frankie and Amelia amused us with the 'Mansion of Happiness' and it was indeed pleasant to see Frankie again in the enjoyment of young ladies' society whose tastes and feelings are in union with her own." 

Next time - Fashion of the Trail

Note: Amazon has a book on Harriet, Prairie Schooner Lady

_____________________________________

Today in Pioneer History:  December 3, 1818, Illinois achieves full statehood. Though Illinois presented unique challenges to immigrants unaccustomed to the soil and vegetation of the area, it grew to become a bustling and densely populated state.