Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-12-08

and am such as Farragut and Hec-
tor. suggesting heroic deeds. embla
zoned on the side of Pullman cars
long ago aroused train passengers TO
curiosity and then to speculation.
The public enjoyed guessing and i'm
agination a riot. Passengers have
solemnly >averred that the Pullman
company employs an official manner OF
the cars" with the chief duty Of seeing
that each new car is fittingly and ar
tistically named. Others have insisted
that employees of the company are en-
couraged to suggest names, and that a
dollar is given for an acceptable sug-
gestiion.
One extravagant explanation was
that the company long ago made d
large collection of slips bearing names
Of states. cities, famous folk, flowers,
ct %cetera, and that these sips are
kept in a large box and one Is ceremo-
niously drawn forth by the president Of
the company when it becomes neces-
sary to christen a new car.
The reasons given to explain why
The cars are named instead of prosaic-
ally numbered have run from the sug-
gestion that passengers undoubtedly
have a more personal feeling toward a
car with a name, to the story that the
the little daughter Of a high official
| once insisted on calling a certain car
Violet.
The majority of the stories are off
shoots of the most popular explana-
ton. This was that the daughter Of
the founder of the Pullman company,
now Mrs. Frank D. Lowden. began to
name the cars when she was a girl and
| received q reward for each idea. The
| sum she was supposed to receive was
generally limited only by the magma
ton OF the teller of the tale. Some
who stuck to probability said that she
received a dollar a ear. Others said
800. and the most fanciful narrators
whispered that $4,000 a year was the
sum she drew for her services.
Now the Pullman company has de-
MED this interesting story and all Of
its variations in its magazine for en-
| ployes Of the company. 1t says Flor
ence Pullman never had such a job or
did any systematic car naming.
1t seems that the custom of nam
ing the cars arose naturally soon after
the Pullman's invention was introduced.
The first Pullman sleepers were re
modelled day coaches already known by
NUMBERS. w men i liIlLil1h bSEoh l "
build his own ears. letters of the al
phabet were used 70 distinguish the
| new sleepers from the numbered day
. coaches. But letters ran out too
quickly and numbers were unsatisfac-
torv because of the need for readily
! distinguishing the Pullman cars. The
only thing TO do was 10 name h cars
| and this was done.
Engines Formerly Christened
Using names for such a purpose was
not altogether an innovation. Back
IN 1926 the first real passenger rail-
way carriage had been given the name
Experiment. Early types OF ioeomo-
! tiyes bore individual names snch as
! Novelty. Rocket and Old Ironsides, and
bv the time the Pullman car was be
ing developed engines were regularly
| named. most frequently for prominent
men. :.
The Pullman company says: Car a
was really the first named car since
it was called the Pioneer, 1t was tihe
| first car built from top TO bottom by
George NJ, Pullman and it cost more
than 100000. Ii was hurriedly com
| pleted in 1865, so that it might form
n part of the train hat bore the body
| Of Abraham Lincoln from Washington
to Chicago and thence to it's final rest
| ing place ut Springfield. There can be
| no question as to the aptness Of the
name Pioneer since this ear led the
| march of progress into the waste lands
| of unimproved railroad travel"
After the Pioneer came the Atlantic,
Pacific, Aurora. City Of Chicago, ard
Omaha. The first hotel car. a sleeper
with a kitchen at one end and movable
/ tables placed in the sections, appeared
in 1867, and took as its title. the
President. Other hotel ears, named
| mostly for cities, were added until the
| modern dining ear replaced them. The
first of Mr.. Pullman's dining cars,
bearing the name Delmonico. was oper-
! ated on the Chicago and Alton line in
1868. The Mariana, the first parloE
car to be introduced TO the United
States, appeared in 1870.
There were no precedentS for nam
ing railway cars. and SO the range Of
names at the command Of officials OF
| the was practically unlimited
Names given dogs and other pets con
| form largely to custom. People and
towns are named along traditional lines.
But there Vas nobody to say what
! sort Of lame was suitable for a railway
| coach. and the company took advantage
of this to associate a wide variety Of
NJ with its cars.
Some attempts were made to use
classes Of names for certain types Of
| cars. AT first the parl0r ears were
given feminine names or those Of birds
or flowers. But the company found
that railroads often wanted cars named
after towns along their lines, and this
made it Impossible for an exact system
to be followed. In the first ail-puilmnn
train running between Chicago and
New York, the slreprs were named
after countries and the dining cars
after celebrated French chefs-Sav-
arain, Aberlin. Magdelin, V%aIentin.
Thousands of Names Needed
Though the officials who name the
cars have all the fields of literature,
history, geography, botany, and bio
graphy to search for James christen-
ing new ears becomeS Il problem. The
company has 7.214 standard cars.
which means the selection Of 7.214
names. And remember, parents of
families Of 10 sometimes write 10 the
papers for help in naming the new
baby
The officials of the company are as
careful IN their selection OF names as
any parent would be. The names paint
ed on the car sides 60 up and down
tile country for the public to see and
remember. Perhaps curiosity aroused