Word: caseys
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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...glamor of railroading is summed up in two words-Casey Jones. Mention these words to any engineer, fireman or roundhouse worker, and he will immediately be your friend. If he doesn't start singing, he will tell you a pack of grand stories...
There was once an engineer named John Luther Jones, they called him Casey because he was born near Cayce, Kentucky. He piloted the Illinois Central's Cannonball...
...crack passenger train between New Orleans and Chicago. On the midnight run of March 18, 1900, with Mardi Gras guests abroad. Casey Jones saw a crash coming with the rear-end of a freight train near Vaughns, Mississippi. He did all he could to prevent it, pulled on the air-brakes, threw his engine into reverse. Then he yelled to the fireman: "jump if you want to save your neck." But Casey Jones, no jumper, stayed with his locomotive and died instantly in the crash...
After they buried Casey Jones, an old roundhouse Negro worker, Wallace Saunders, began to chant a song about him. In the railroad yards between New Orleans and Chicago, whites and blacks added verse after verse to Casey's epitaph. Soon there were some 50 verses and many a chorus. Eddie Newton and T. Lawrence Seibert converted them into a popular hit. Extracts...
...caller called Casey at a half past jour, Kissed his wife at the station door, Mounted to the cabin with his orders in his hand, And took his farewell trip to the promised land...