Another Chicago specialty of wide fame is the railway sleeping-car,
brought to its present high stage of development by one of the most
prominent Chicagoans, the late George M. Pullman. The earliest
American sleeping-car was devised by Theodore T. Woodruff, who
constructed a small working model in 1854 at Watertown, New York, and
subsequently building his car, first ran it on the New York Central
Railroad in October, 1856, charging fifty cents for a berth. George M.
Pullman was originally a cabinet-maker in New York State, and moved
when a young man to Chicago. His first fame in that city, as already
stated, came from the ingenious methods he devised, when the grade of
the town was elevated to secure better drainage, for raising the
buildings by putting hundreds of jackscrews under them, trade
continuing uninterrupted during the process. Pullman, subsequently to
that time, travelled occasionally between Chicago and Buffalo, and one
night got into Woodruff's car. He was stretched out upon the vibrating
couch for some two hours, but could not sleep, and his eyes being
widely open, and the sight wandering all about the car, he struck upon
a new idea. When he left the car he had determined to develop from his
brief experience a plan destined to expand into a complete home upon
wheels for the traveller, either awake or sleeping. In 1859 he turned
two ordinary railway coaches into sleeping-cars and placed them upon
night trains between Chicago and St. Louis, charging fifty cents per
berth, his first night's receipts being two dollars. He ran these
experimental coaches about five years before he felt able to carry out
his ideal plan, and he then occupied fully a year in constructing his
model sleeping-car, the "Pioneer," at Chicago, at a cost of $18,000.
But when completed the car was so heavy, wide and high that no railway
could undertake running it, as it necessitated cutting off station
platforms and elevating the tops of bridges before it could pass by.
Thus he had a white elephant on his hands for a time. In April, 1865,
President Lincoln's assassination shocked the country, and the
funeral, with its escort of mourning statesmen, was progressing from
Washington to Chicago, on the way to the grave at Springfield. The
nation watched its progress, and the railways transporting the
_cortége_ were doing their best. The manager of the road from Chicago
to Springfield used the "Pioneer" in the funeral train, taking several
days to prepare for it by sending out gangs of men to cut off the
station platforms and alter the bridges. Pullman's dream was realized;
his "coach of the future," with its escort of statesmen, carried the
dead President to his grave and became noted throughout the land. A
few weeks later, General Grant, fresh from the conquest of the
Rebellion, had a triumphal progress from the camp to his home in
Illinois. Five days were spent in clearing the railway between Detroit
and Galena, where he lived, and the "Pioneer" carried Grant over that
line.
These successes made Pullman's fortune, and the business of his
company grew rapidly afterwards, it being now an enormous concern with
$70,000,000 capital, controlling practically all the sleeping-cars of
this country and many abroad. The main works are at the Chicago suburb
of Pullman, ten miles south of the centre of the city, where there are
about twelve thousand population, most of the people being connected
with the works, which are an extensive general car-building
establishment. Pullman was built as a model town, with every
improvement calculated to add to the comfort and health of the
working-people, being also provided with its own library, theatre,
and a tasteful arcade, in which are various shops. It was at Pullman
in 1894 that the great strike took place which ultimately involved a
large portion of the railways of the country, causing much rioting and
bloodshed, and finally requiring the intervention of the Federal
troops to maintain the peace. After a protracted period of turmoil,
the strike failed.