The daily tribune., 1907-09-06
BAGGAGE
SMASHING DAYS

ly appealing. but where is that story
now?
| In those days when the baggage
master wanted to get trunk down
from tho top of high pile of trunks
he never lifted 1t down. but Just pull
ed 1t far enough forward to lot gravi-
ty get 4; and then. with just the right
slew on 1t that 1t would land ON its
corner, let 1t fall.
| And then baggage masters used
simply to push trunks out OF car doors
and let them fall any way they would,
and they'd tear the straps OF trunks
! lifting on them. and yank of their
handles. all these variations Of the
baggage story being supposed to be
funny and often repeated.
People seemed never to tire of 1t
In what was perhaps Its most favored
form. which told how the brawny bag
gage HEAVIER lifted the trunk by one
handle and swung it twice around
his head and then launched 1t on Its
flight from the station platform to
1.-THE baggage car to land violently
there and split wide open and scatter
Its contents everywhere. In those
days. indeed, the baggage master was
the baggage smasher. and. always pro-
vided that 1t was not ones own trunk
that was thus demolished, everybody
enjoyed reading the stories told about
this brawny mans feats OF strength
and destruction. which formed indeed
conspicuous II not the leading fea-
ture Of the comic literature 'of the
day. But where are those stories
now?
They were eked out for q time by
baggage stories OF another sort, those
dealing not with what the baggage
smasher did to the trunk. but with
what the trunk did to the baggage
smasher. There, for instance, was
the story widely reprinted at the time,
trunks smashed up till he was tired
of 1t, finally filled frail trunk with
boa constructors and got that checked,
and when the baggage -smasher had
smashed the trunk the boa construct
ors thus released from II wrapped
themselves around and crushed him.
And there was the story OF the
disgruntled mining man who finally
filled and checked a trunk full OF dy-
namite-the baggage master who han
died that trunk never handled trunks
any more. And the story OF the hum
orous traveller who had his trunk fit
ted with corner pieces OF peculiar
Iy nl OF hnt u,Inn ko
baggage master dropped this trunk
out OF the car door to fall on = corner,
AS he was sure to do, the trunk would
fly up and hit him under the chin.
But evidently the trunk smashing
story in whatever form was petering
out when 1t came to this. and soon
thereafter II passed out Of fashion and
disappeared entirely to be heard no
more from that to the present time
Perhaps the people had tired OF It.
as they do OF all things; perhaps
there was less reason for writing It.
Trunks came to be better made. for
one thing. less easy to smash. And
we are generally less boIsterous now
shan We were then; things that we
stood for and laughed over then we
would not stand for now.
I'VE do many things better now.
and one Of our many improvements
is found In our manner OF handling
trunks. Tho railroads now discourage
trunk smashing and seek To deliver
baggage In the shape In which It is
received. Not but that things do hap
pen even now to trunks, but they
don't happen az they used to.
In fact what with the requirements
Of the railroad company and his own
sense OF the later and higher art Of
baggage handling 1t is not considered
good form now for baggage man to
smash trunk. He still does pull
trunks down from the tops OF tall piles
and drags trunks from car doors and
from the tails OF wagons. but no long
er, as n rule. to let them fall on their
corners.
Now when he pulls down o. drops
trunk he so manipulates 1t In falling
az to make It drop not on corner
but squarely on Its end. This stIrs the
contents Of the trunk up pretty well.
and It may strain the trunk more or
less. but dropping II square!y on the
end distributes the strain: II doerp't
smash the trunk as trunks were
smashed In the old days when they
were dropped on their corners In the
present day development OF the art Of
trunk handling to smash any but q
very weak and fragile trunk would be
considered bungling
80 times have changed. and the
old story no longer goes. The old
times were brought back to me yestcr-
day by seeing a trunk fall on bag
gage wagon into the street, a sight. I
confeas that was foyous 10 sce