[New-York-News] FW: Tobacco and Trains

Sat Apr 1 14:21:37 UTC 2023

From: The Blind History Lady [mailto:theblindhistorylady at gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2023 8:02 AM
To: margo.downey at roadrunner.com
Subject: Tobacco and Trains

Tobacco and Trains 

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Hello to All:.

We are starting to plan our summer vacations. Here is a timely reminder that blind people did not always travel freely on long trips. 

For almost a century, blind men and women worked diligently to secure local ordinances, then state and national legislation guaranteeing a blind person’s right to travel freely on the public streets and public transit. White Cane Laws, as they are commonly referred to, confirm a blind person’s right to travel with a white cane or guide dog, and expect the same protection under the law as sighted pedestrians or passengers. The White Cane Laws state that blindness alone will not imply automatic contributory negligence on the part of a blind person in any accident. The laws guarantee a blind person’s right to ride public transit, such as trains, taxis, and busses. The laws also provide equal access to public buildings and services. Sadly, year after year, these rights are denied many blind individuals, resulting in legal cases brought by the blind, through the U. S. court systems.

Over the centuries, blind people got to where they wanted to go by using staffs,  canes, horses, dogs, human guides, and their own abilities. By the end of the nineteenth century, blind men, found themselves fighting with not only, an individual or small businessman for their right to travel, but increasingly, the bureaucracy of big business, making decisions for a class of people without any regard to how the company’s rules impacted the individual. When refused service or travel, big business representatives blamed “management,” But, “management” too often meant no one in site for the blind man to reason with, for an immediate resolution. 

It is important to note that blind women rarely traveled unescorted. As late as the 1930s, women, blind or sighted, did not travel alone. Thus, blind men were the pioneers of independent travel for the blind.

Around 1900, United States railroads began adopting rules regarding blind passengers. Some railroads initiated a “half fare” policy for blind travelers. For some railroads, this meant a blind person could travel for half fare, due to the railroad management’s belief that most blind persons were financially unable to pay full fare. Other railroads offered the blind traveler discounts when traveling with a guide. Two for the price of one. In short order these railroad policies were revised to include the phrase, “sighted guide” or competent attendant” as some blind men traveled with a blind friend or blind wife and only paid for one fare. 

Some railroads kept track of which blind person purchased a “half fare” companion ticket. The next time the blind passenger tried to purchase a full fare ticket to ride without a companion, the railroad denied them transportation on the basis the blind passenger already declared themself unsafe to ride unguided. Rarely did the blind traveler know of the entire rule as the offer of the half fare was usually conveyed, word-of-mouth by a ticket agent. In most early cases, the “half fare” was a courtesy, but not required of a blind passenger. Not until a blind person was refused a ticket or transportation was the repercussions of taking advantage of a free or low cost ride discovered. 

One blind Coloradan, Robert Derry found himself fighting for his rights to travel safely and freely, as a blind man. For more than twenty years, he worked hard for the public to regard him as a successful businessman. To be blind meant helpless. Robert Derry was not helpless. 

In April of 1910, the Colorado Supreme Court in Denver upheld a lower court ruling that affirmed the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG) was liable for the injuries Robert Derry, a blind, traveling tobacco and cigar salesman from Ouray, suffered to his arm, during a fall in the Salida rail yards seven years previous. His award of $1,000 was paid to him after the decision, but it was not the money that Robert celebrated, rather, the affirmation of his right to travel. 

A lawsuit lasting seven years was almost unheard of during the first part of the twentieth century. Had Robert been sighted, the case may never have gone to court. 

Robert Derry, born in 1856, in Pennsylvania, came out west in his late teens and lived a rebel lifestyle. Accused of five murders, but never convicted, he was no stranger to the law. In 1880, Robert marched in a parade in Buena Vista, Colorado, to celebrate the Republican victories in the Illinois primary. Protesters of the parade threw rocks, hitting Robert in his only good eye, blinding him immediately. The other eye was lost in his youth, to an unknown accident. 

In August of 1903, Robert transferred trains in Salida on a trip from Ouray to Denver. His first train arrived in Salida about 8:30pm. It was dark enough that coachmen and porters had their lanterns lit. When boarding in Ouray, Robert asked for a porter to take him from one train to the platform of his next train when they arrived in Salida. Robert was a frequent passenger on the trains. The porters knew him well, that he was blind, and regularly asked for assistance in Salida. 

That night, the porter from the first train brought Robert to the Pullman car he was assigned, on the Denver train. The porter turned Robert over to the Denver-bound coachman. The coachman was boarding other passengers in that car, even though the car would not be connected to the Denver train, nor departing for Denver for another ninety minutes.

Robert asked the coachman to help him find a seat in the sleeping car. The coachman took his elbow, directing him the few feet to the railcar stairs. With his overcoat over one arm and his case in the other hand, Robert climbed the stairs, holding onto one of the handrails with his free hand. When Robert reached the top of the platform, he turned the opposite direction from the car entrance. The gate between cars should have been closed when not connected to another rail car. But the gate had been neglectfully left open as the car was not yet attached to the heavy gage train to Denver. Robert fell onto the tracks and injured his arm as his hands were full and unable to break his fall in time.

Robert assumed that since he asked for assistance to find his seat as a blind man, before climbing the stairs, the coachman who grabbed his elbow and guided him up the first stair, was watching for him. The rail yard was dark for all passengers. The coachman’s lantern was lit to light the steps and platform for all passengers. 

Robert asked the D&RG railroad for medical compensation and loss of income, on the basis that the railroad was negligent by not closing or securing the gate at the edge of a platform in an active rail yard, as was the custom. 

At first, the D&RG defended itself by saying that since Robert had a free ticket, because he was blind, they were not liable. The D&RG free railroad ticket policy for the “infirmed” assumed, as in the regulations of several railroads, stated clearly, the “infirmed” rider must have a competent attendant to care for them, paying full fare. The D&RG asserted that Robert, by taking the free ticket acknowledged he was unable to care for himself. Therefor, it was Roberts fault he fell. They argued that all blind persons were unable to care for themselves on a train or in an active rail yard and should not be allowed to travel alone.

Robert was incensed and took the case to court. He could afford the medical bills and the loss of a weeks worth of sales. But, he had been riding the trains for decades as a blind man and that specific route for over fifteen years, by himself, with no accidents or injuries. But most insulting to him was the fact that he purchased a first class, round trip, ticket from Ouray to Denver that included a birth in the Pullman Palace sleeping car!

If Robert let the incident go without challenge, his fear was that the railroads might require him to travel with a companion. Would his customers begin to regard him as less of a businessman if he had a “competent attendant” with him on his weekly travels? Would his customers prefer to talk to his “competent attendant” rather than him when he called at their businesses? What was a “competent attendant” anyway? This was his independence and livelihood for which he was fighting.

He won the first case in front of a jury who based their decision on reasonable expectations for passengers in general. Robert was awarded $5,000 for the accident and punitive damages. The railroad appealed. 

A second trial was held in 1905. Robert had several Ouray citizens testify to his ability to travel with ease as a blind man. Witnesses from that night in 1903, passengers who heard Robert ask for assistance to find his seat before boarding, also testified. The second trial decision said, it did not matter if Robert did or did not have a competent attendant. The D&RG, knowing Robert as a frequent traveler, allowed him to board the train at the beginning of the trip. The D&RG honored his request in Ouray, for a porter to assist him through the rail yard to his next car in Salida based on his blindness. The coachman agreed to board Robert onto the car, knowing he was blind.

In the third hearing, before the Supreme Court in 1910, attorneys tried to assert that the D&RG, itself was not responsible for the negligent actions of its employees. However, the court did not buy this new argument and found in favor of Robert.

The final appeal language did not address Robert’s blindness at all. The ruling concluded that Robert, as a paying customer had the right to expect that the railroad provide a safe environment. Robert demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt, the negligence on the part of the D&RG railroad. The D&GR violated its own safety protocols in leaving the gate open in a dark rail yard. The decision also affirmed that any passenger who purchases a ticket from one destination to another through a railroad, no matter how many other companies or entities contracted by the railroad are involved, the railroad is still responsible for the safety of the ticketed passenger throughout the trip.

Robert’s true victory was that no restrictions on his travel with any railroads of Colorado were placed on him, or any other blind person, regardless, if the blind passenger asked for assistance due to blindness. A decision against him could have meant that Robert, himself, would not be allowed to purchase any priced ticket to travel on the railroads in Colorado without another sighted person to be responsible for him during his travels. Robert knew that part of his success with the courts was his reputation as a successful businessman, not a blind businessman. 

In later years, Robert was the victim in several pedestrian/vehicle accidents. After each incident, Robert found himself needing to justify his right to be on the streets without a guide, even though the driver of the conveyance was clearly at fault. Because he was blind, the public wrote letters to the editors of local newspapers where the accidents took place, asserting that Robert’s irresponsible behavior, not having a sighted guide, contributed greatly to the accident, and the drivers should not be fined or charged. 

Robert did not live long enough to see the passage of the first statewide White Cane Laws in Colorado, in the 1940s. 

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