Page 34 - September1951

304 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN September, 1951

WHAT HAS BECOME OF OLD STREET RAILWAY BUTTONS?
By H. A. VAN BUREN
This question is inspired by Donald Van Court's article, "Rapid Tran-
sit in New York State," which appeared in the BULLETIN for November,
1950. Figures in the following text refel' to his illustration in that issue
and Iretters are keyed to buttons appearing here.
Your reporter has been a ]ifelong resident of Brooklyn, N. Y., and for
the past eight years has haunted every antique shop in the city for buttons
of early horsecar and trolley lines. For reasons not immediately apparent'
the search has brought small reward. It is truthfully saial that the drab
and monotonous lives of railroad workers lack the glamour surrounding
policemen, firemen and the militia-that their uniforms hold no sentimental
value and are therefore destroyed or dismantled when no longer useful'
Ttris is reasonable to a certain extent, but it does not explain why so many
among thousands worn over a period of years have suddenly ceased to exist'
Mr. Van Court's report on one single line (that of the Atlantic Avenue Rail-
road Co., Fig.312) would indicate at least enough uniforms to accommo-
date the crews of the 250 cars he mentions-so WHERE are all the but-
tons? It is doubtful that they were deliberately thrown away, because but-
tons, especially gilt ones, are like jewelry, trinkets and coins-they invite
"saving." And surely there are not enough specialist collectors to account
for the scarcity.
The Brooklyn Heights Railroad (Fig. 308) is another case in point.
This line operated hundreds of well manned car$ throughout Brooklyn in
the 1890s and early 1900s, yet the writer has obtained only ONE of the
buttons in coat size and none of the smalls. What has become of the other
thousands so long in use?
The author was a nine-year old boy in 1895 (why be reticent, with my
white hair!) and well remembers various car lines in the old City of Brook-
lyn. Many of the BHRR cars were comparatively new in style and unusu-
aIIy pretentious, for their day, in size and comfort. They boasted a boxed-in
belly stove at the center of one side, with adjacent coal storage, a handy
shovel, and a smart little chimney protruding through the roof. Every
passenger's ambition was a seat next to the stove-reward of which was alto-
gether too much heat on one side and none at all on the other. The F ulton
Street line passed our corner and noisy Kings County Elevated trains,
drawn by dinky little steam engines, rumbled overhead (Fig. A). On
Franklin Avenue, a short block away; the Coney Island and Brooklyn RR
(Fig. 310) ran yellow cars with bright red dashboards protecting the open
end platforms. This company operated four lines in the city (Franklin Ave-
nue, Coney Island Avenue, DeKalb Avenue, and Smith Street), was highly
independent and reputed to have been a money maker. For many years it
resisted all efforts toward consolidation, until it finally became absorbed in
one of the later mergers.
This period (1895 and thereabouts) saw most of the surface lines elec-
trified and slow "two-horse-power" displaced by the unfamiliar speed of the
trolley. Drivers became "motormen" and their newly acquired importance
led to reckless operation. This resulted in an epidemic of fatal accidents
and aroused great public furor. Press and pulpit joined in Ioud condemna-
tion. Brooklyn citizens became known throughout the country as furtive
"trolley dodgers" and the Brooklyn Baseball Team, until then proudly
called the Superbas, thereupon received a new nick-name destined to become
:mmortal_the DODGERS!
Ebbets Fie1d, present commodious home of these near-champions, close-
ly adjoins a former site of the Kings County Penitentiary (X'iS. B), razed.
many years ago. That section was then a shantytown on the edge of the