The Red Badge of Courage
Page 27
NOTES ON “THE BRIDE COMES TO YELLOW SKY”
1 . Pullman: A railroad passenger car manufactured by the company of George Pullman (1831-1897). A nationwide strike against the Pullman company in 1893 led by the union leader Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926) largely paralyzed rail traffic in the West.
2 . mesquit or mesquite: Shrub-like tree indigenous to the American Southwest.
3 . Pullman passenger cars were often staffed by African-American porters and waiters who lived on the south side of Chicago and depended on tips for a livelihood.
4 . The character Jack Potter was actually named for a prominent cattleman in south Texas at the time Crane visited there in 1895. See Lisa Thalacker, “Jack Potter: Fictional Sheriff and Legendary Cowboy,” American Literary Realism, 36 (Winter 2004), pp. 180-83.
5 . The Southern Pacific Railroad connection between El Paso and San Antonio was completed in 1883.
6 . Winchester: A repeating rifle manufactured in many models, the so-called “gun that won the West” after the Civil War.
7 . A number of garment sweatshops were located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, most notoriously the Triangle Shirtwaist Company just east of Washington Square, where 146 workers, most of them young immigrant seamstresses, were killed in a fire in 1911.
NOTES ON “THE BLUE HOTEL”
1 . Palace Hotel: The original luxury hotel in San Francisco, opened in 1875.
2 . High-Five: An American card game related to All Fours that “may be played by two to six participants.” See James Ellis, “The Game of High-Five in ‘The Blue Hotel,’ ” American Literature, 49 (November 1977), pp. 440-442.
3 . Probably an allusion to Tennyson’s poem “The Dying Swan” (1827):“The wild swan’s death-hymn took the soul
Of that waste place with joy
Hidden in sorrow.”
4 . Lincoln: The capital of Nebraska, with approximately 50,000 residents in 1890.
5 . Dutchman: Usually a resident of Holland; also may refer to a German (Deutschmann).
6 . dime novels: Pulp novels usually set at this time in the American West featuring such characters as Calamity Jane, Deadwood Dick, and Buffalo Bill and priced at ten cents per copy.
7 . Pollywog Club: Fictional club.
NOTES ON “THE OPEN BOAT”
1 . Built in 1882 for harbor tug work in New York, the Commodore sank twelve miles off the coast of Florida in 75 feet of water.
2 . “lighthouse so tiny”: The Ponce de Leon Light Station at Mosquito Inlet, ten miles south of Daytona Beach on the Florida coast, was completed in 1887.
3 . “seven mad gods”: Crane refers to the seven gods who rule the sea in Greek mythology: Poseidon, Triton, Oceanus, Pontus, Nereus, Proteus, and Phercys.
4 . St. Augustine: A city some fifty miles north of Daytona Beach on the Florida coast.
5 . A compressed version of the first stanza of Caroline E. S. S. Nor-ton’s poem “Bingen on the Rhine” (1867):A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,
There was lack of woman’s nursing, there was dearth of woman’s tears;
But a comrade stood beside him, while his life-blood ebbed away,
And bent with pitying glances, to hear what he might say.
The dying soldier faltered, as he took that comrade’s hand,
And he said, “I nevermore shall see my own, my native land;
Take a message, and a token, to some distant friends of mine,
For I was born at Bingen,—at Bingen on the Rhine.