The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1907-11-16
BAGGAGE SMASHING DAYS.
Old Times Brought Back to Mr.. Mac
Blink by Seeing n Trunk Fall.

III olhSr udys, SAID Mr.. MacBllnf
tom New York Sun man, "the story Of
what the baggage smasher did to tn,
trunk was hardy perennial, ever
blooming. and unfailingly appealing, bu
where is that story now?
I'm those days when the baggage
master wanted to get a trunk dowr
from the top Of high pile of trunks
he never lifted 1t down, but Just pulled
1t far enough forward to let gravity
get 1t and then, with just the right slew
on 1t that 1t would land on its corner
let it 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 off trunks
lifting on them and yank Off their
handles, all these variations of the
baggage story being supposed to be
funny and often repeated.
people seemed never to tire of it 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 the bag
gage car to land violently there and
split wide open and scatter its con-
tents everywhere. In those days, in
deed, the baggage master was the bag.
gage smasher and, always provided that
II 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, a
conspicuous, If not leading feature, of
the comic literature of the day. But
where are those stories now?
'They were eked out for time by
baggage stories Of another sort, those
dealing not with what the baggage
masher 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, of
the circus man who, having his trunks
smashed up till he was tired of it,
finally filled frail trunk with boa
constructors and got that checked, and
when the baggage smasher had smash
ed the trunk the boa constructors thu,
released from 1t wrapped around and
crushed him.
"And there was the story of the dis
gruntled mining man who finally filled
and checked trunk full of dynamite
the baggage master who handled that
trunk never handled trunks any more.
And the story of the humorous traveller
who had his trunk fitted with corner
pieces of peculiarly elastic rubber, 30
that when the 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 1t passed out of fashion and
disappeared entirely, to be heard no
more from that to the present time.
Perhaps the people had tired of 1t,
as they do tire 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 than we
were then; things that We stood for
and laughed over then we would not
stand for now.
1--WE do many things better now and
one of our improvements is found In
our manner Of handling trunks The
railroads now discourage trunk smash
ing and seek to deliver baggage in the
shape In which it Is received. Not but
that things do happen even now to
trunks, but they don't happen as they
used to.
I'm fact with the requirements
of the railroad company and his own
sense Of the later and higher art of
baggage handling, it is not considered
good form now for baggageman to
smash a 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
longer, as rule, to let them fall on
their corners.
snow, when he pulls down or drops a
trunk he so manipulates 1t In falling
as to make 1t drop not on a corner but
on its end. This stirs the con-
tents of the trunk up pretty well and
1t may strain the trunk more or less
but dropping 1t sQuarely on the end
distributes the strain; 1t doesn't smash
the trunk as trunks were smashed in
the old days when they were dropped
on their, corners. In the present day
Of the art of trunk han
ding to smash any but very weak,
and fragile trunk would be considered
bungling.
$50 times have changed and the old
story no longer goes. The old times
were brought back to me yesterday by
seeing trunk fall off baggage wagon
into the street. sight, 1 confess, that
was joyous to see.
"But suppose 1t is better as 1t Is"