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That Time a Baboon Worked for the Railroad · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show, Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for our
0:33
Speaker 1: one and only super producer, Mr Max Williams. You know him,
0:38
Speaker 1: you love him. He's live and direct. I'm Ben and Noel.
0:42
Speaker 1: I gotta tell you man this by way of tangent.
0:46
Speaker 1: One of the first things I thought about when we
0:48
Speaker 1: were diving into today's story is how you and I
0:53
Speaker 1: and our colleague Matt has spent so many years trying
0:57
Speaker 1: to get work to pay for us to ride amtrack. Yeah,
1:01
Speaker 1: we were trying to do it for a tour we
1:03
Speaker 1: did for stuff they don't want you to know, and
1:05
Speaker 1: ended up being more expensive than just like renting a car.
1:08
Speaker 1: It is a great way to travel, though, like I
1:10
Speaker 1: not terribly many years ago, took a train from Boston
1:14
Speaker 1: to New York, and while the train ride is pretty long,
1:17
Speaker 1: you kind of forget the fact that you end up
1:20
Speaker 1: right in the middle of everything, as opposed to at
1:23
Speaker 1: like JFK or LaGuardia, which is like easily an hour
1:26
Speaker 1: car ride into the city, which is also expensive. When
1:30
Speaker 1: you take the train, you end up kind of right
1:32
Speaker 1: in the heart of the city, So it's definitely a
1:34
Speaker 1: trade off. Yeah, and there's something I think romantic about
1:39
Speaker 1: it or I just have this airbrush damage. I I
1:42
Speaker 1: have not taken a long Amtrak trip, but I have
1:46
Speaker 1: traveled extensively on the Japanese train system, which was pretty awesome,
1:51
Speaker 1: even the super fast ones, the Shinkansen. It's like it's
1:54
Speaker 1: like a weird Uh. It's like a weird robot snake
1:59
Speaker 1: from the future that just flies as very visual. It's
2:03
Speaker 1: super is what's the sensation? Like, do you get a
2:05
Speaker 1: sense that you're moving much much faster than a traditional trains?
2:08
Speaker 1: I always feel like traditional trains feel slow, right, Yeah,
2:13
Speaker 1: it's weird because once you're in motion at speed, you'll
2:17
Speaker 1: look out the window and things are It's hard to
2:21
Speaker 1: gauge just how quickly you're traveling unless you see something
2:24
Speaker 1: up close. You know, like when you go into a tunnel,
2:27
Speaker 1: it hits you and you go, oh oh wow, okay, there,
2:30
Speaker 1: open the door. It's like going into it's like going
2:33
Speaker 1: into warp speed or something and Star Wars, yes, engage uh.
2:38
Speaker 1: And the staff, at least in Japan, they're all super professional,
2:43
Speaker 1: pretty fancy people. Uh. Max are you a train guy,
2:47
Speaker 1: if you traveled by training? I don't think Nolan, I've
2:49
Speaker 1: ever asked you this. Well, first and foremost I want
2:51
Speaker 1: to say, uh, you guys said warp speed, and then
2:54
Speaker 1: Noll said Star Wars. That is incorrect. That is Star Trek.
2:58
Speaker 1: Come on, excuse me? That that that's that that's the
3:02
Speaker 1: trigger right here for you. What do you call in
3:03
Speaker 1: Star Wars? Though? What's the thing they what do they
3:05
Speaker 1: do in Star Wars? And they kick in the hyper draft?
3:09
Speaker 1: They talk about parsecs in a way that is technically incorrect,
3:13
Speaker 1: but are a real measurement? Yes, yeah, but the welcome
3:17
Speaker 1: to pedantic sci fi corner on ridiculous history. Yeah, Max,
3:21
Speaker 1: you're the wrong show. This is ridiculous history. Not just kidding,
3:24
Speaker 1: but but yes, make it so you've corrected us. Star Trek. Yes,
3:28
Speaker 1: I like that. I like that, but yes, uh, I
3:30
Speaker 1: actually am. My dad is a miniature train collector. He's
3:34
Speaker 1: a big time fans train. He's got like the whole
3:37
Speaker 1: the situation with like the townspeople and all of the
3:41
Speaker 1: conductor's hat. Yes, I've spent many a day as a
3:44
Speaker 1: child at ministure train expos. Alex has come along as well,
3:48
Speaker 1: but he, being the older brother, has found it easier
3:50
Speaker 1: to slip his way out. I'm the youngest child, so
3:54
Speaker 1: I I just you know, it would be like seventeen
3:56
Speaker 1: and my Dad's like, all right, get up at like
3:58
Speaker 1: six in the morning on a sa today we're gonna
4:00
Speaker 1: go to this expo and I don't know Shamble or somewhere.
4:03
Speaker 1: You know who else is into miniature trains to surprising figures.
4:08
Speaker 1: One is Neil Young, Um the singer, songwriter, musician renaissance man,
4:15
Speaker 1: and the other is Sebastian Bach. Not Johann Sebastian Bach,
4:19
Speaker 1: mind you, Sebastian Bach, the frontman for the seminal hair
4:22
Speaker 1: metal band skid Row. He actually has his own arc
4:25
Speaker 1: in a season of Trailer Park Boys, revolving around a
4:28
Speaker 1: model train heist that Bubbles initiates. And so, uh you
4:33
Speaker 1: know what's funny about that is, first Max, you're referring
4:36
Speaker 1: to Alex Williams, who composed our soundtrack, and it's also
4:39
Speaker 1: your brother. But what's funny is that I bet old
4:43
Speaker 1: man Williams about your pattern. Familius knows that Neil Young
4:46
Speaker 1: and Sebastian Baker into trains. Uh so wait, so miniature trades. Yes,
4:52
Speaker 1: but back to the question, have you traveled on a train? No,
4:56
Speaker 1: I have not. What you think, okay, well you are
5:00
Speaker 1: in for an adventure, my friends. Uh so, the thing is,
5:04
Speaker 1: there's a null. I know you like traveling by train
5:07
Speaker 1: or by rail because it's less stressful than going to
5:10
Speaker 1: the airport. That's something people can agree with. And that imagine, folks,
5:15
Speaker 1: fellow ridiculous historians, if you are traveling on a train,
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Speaker 1: imagine you're pulling into the station and you see the
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Speaker 1: usual bells and whistles sometimes literally you know, bells and whistles,
5:26
Speaker 1: and uh you see if you if you're traveling, you know,
5:31
Speaker 1: back in the olden days, you might see what's called
5:34
Speaker 1: a signal man. A signal man is the person who
5:39
Speaker 1: they're also called a signaler, who operates a signal box
5:42
Speaker 1: to control the movement of trains because you know, trains
5:47
Speaker 1: are trains are good, but they're not super nimble, that's right,
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Speaker 1: and the signal and in particular and does not. There's
5:53
Speaker 1: such thing as a signal woman as well. If you
5:56
Speaker 1: go to the Wikipedia entry for it US, that's the
5:58
Speaker 1: first thing they show you as a picture of a
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Speaker 1: signal woman in great central cabin at ANALCUH Nottinghamshire, UH
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Speaker 1: in the UK. But this is an individual who operates
6:07
Speaker 1: these switches that actually switches the tracks. There's these parts
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Speaker 1: of the tracks, these junctions that have variable you know, paths,
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Speaker 1: and according to the number of toots that the train
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Speaker 1: conductor um gives off exactly, the signalman listens to that
6:23
Speaker 1: and switches the tracks accordingly. So pretty rudimentary system. Probably
6:28
Speaker 1: not operated exactly the same way anymore. I have a
6:30
Speaker 1: feeling it's more automated these days. But back in the
6:34
Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds is what we're talking about today. This was
6:36
Speaker 1: a very manual and analog task. Some say it was
6:40
Speaker 1: a simple job. Some may have even said it was
6:43
Speaker 1: so simple a monkey could do it. Yeah. Yeah, that
6:47
Speaker 1: is our segue. Today we are traveling to South Africa,
6:52
Speaker 1: and well done with that seguel, because we're traveling to
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Speaker 1: South Africa to explore the story of a unique signal
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Speaker 1: operator signal person uh signal sentience named signal man Jack Signal. Yes, yes, yes,
7:12
Speaker 1: that's true. You see what made Jack most unique in
7:17
Speaker 1: his job in the eighteen hundreds in Cape Town area
7:21
Speaker 1: around the Port Elizabeth Railroad was that signal man. Jack
7:26
Speaker 1: was not a man signal man. Jack was a male baboon.
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Speaker 1: And uh, it's yeah baboon. You guys, you guys know
7:35
Speaker 1: what everybody knows what a baboon is. Uh. That said
7:38
Speaker 1: that they're about as intelligent as a three year old child.
7:43
Speaker 1: But I think that this this will. I feel like
7:47
Speaker 1: you have to be smarter than a three year old
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Speaker 1: to do what Jack's doing here a million percent. And
7:51
Speaker 1: Jack does prove to be quite a special boy. Baboons
7:54
Speaker 1: are the ones with the red butts, right, yeah, I
7:56
Speaker 1: believe so. Baboons are the ones with a really scary
7:59
Speaker 1: snouts and they can be very aggressive. Um, they are
8:03
Speaker 1: very very strong, uh, and they have quite large, very
8:06
Speaker 1: scary teeth uh and opposable thumbs which plays a very
8:09
Speaker 1: important role in being able to grip and uh and
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Speaker 1: switch those levers that we're talking about. But let's talk
8:15
Speaker 1: first about the human center of our story. We're going
8:18
Speaker 1: back to Cape Town, like you said, in the eighteen
8:21
Speaker 1: hundreds and a man by the name of James Edwin
8:24
Speaker 1: Wide who had the nickname Jumper. He was an employee
8:27
Speaker 1: of the Cape Government Railways for ten years. Um, he
8:31
Speaker 1: got the nickname jumper because he was a bit of
8:33
Speaker 1: a daredevil Um. He would hop on and off of
8:37
Speaker 1: moving trains and swing from rail car or rail car
8:40
Speaker 1: to to do his job. Eventually, this you know, kind
8:44
Speaker 1: of reckless behavior caught up with them and he jumped,
8:47
Speaker 1: and he misstepped and fell underneath the moving train, where
8:51
Speaker 1: his shins and feet were absolutely obliterated by an eight
8:55
Speaker 1: ton car. Um. The damage was so bad that he
8:59
Speaker 1: had to have his leg amputated at the knee, which
9:01
Speaker 1: left him handicap. But he didn't want to lose his job,
9:05
Speaker 1: and he was a very tenacious dude. UM, So he
9:08
Speaker 1: carved himself a pair of wooden peg legs and he
9:12
Speaker 1: asked his superiors to give him another chance and and
9:14
Speaker 1: give him a job as a signalman. And they agree, yeah,
9:18
Speaker 1: they agreed. Well, he was also this is before the
9:22
Speaker 1: time of like disability insurance and things like that, if
9:25
Speaker 1: he was out of a job, he could starve become
9:29
Speaker 1: a beggar. Any family members he had might end up
9:32
Speaker 1: going down with him. So his motivation here was apparent
9:38
Speaker 1: from the beginning, and the company put him in that
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Speaker 1: position of signalman that allowed him to communicate with conductors
9:47
Speaker 1: via the different signals placed along the track. His jumping
9:51
Speaker 1: days were over, and the job itself didn't have a
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Speaker 1: ton of super strenuous activity because he had he was
10:00
Speaker 1: sitting in a chair, of course, and he had a
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Speaker 1: series of levers that he would pull. There was one
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Speaker 1: catch though, He still had trouble getting to and from work,
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Speaker 1: to from his job to to his house, and so
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Speaker 1: he ended up carving the way, carved his his legs,
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Speaker 1: his prosthetics. He made a trolley that he could sit on.
10:23
Speaker 1: And it's still it's still sucked for let's be honest,
10:27
Speaker 1: because it's not an electric trolley, right, it's it's there's
10:30
Speaker 1: no internal combustion. He's pushing himself every day, right, And
10:33
Speaker 1: there were no Americans, or rather South Africans with disability
10:37
Speaker 1: acts that you know, made conditions more acceptable in that situation, So,
10:41
Speaker 1: I mean absolutely would have been a total slog and
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Speaker 1: in a real strenuous task is getting to and from work.
10:47
Speaker 1: So he found the answer to his prayers at a
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Speaker 1: market in eight one was at his local um open
11:01
Speaker 1: air market where he saw something miraculous. It was a
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Speaker 1: baboon who was leading an oxen cart and wide was
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Speaker 1: absolutely fascinated he talked to the animal's owner, and he
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Speaker 1: learned that the baboon UH named Jack, was trained to
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Speaker 1: obey some specific commands and that he could push and
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Speaker 1: pull these different loads uh and that he was pretty
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Speaker 1: good at what he did. And wide Um was able
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Speaker 1: to talk Jack's owner into selling him the baboon and
11:30
Speaker 1: they became fast friends, and he was able to train
11:33
Speaker 1: him to be his helper monkey essentially, which is a
11:36
Speaker 1: thing I think still to this day, I've always been
11:38
Speaker 1: fascinated by the term helper monkey. It would be it's
11:41
Speaker 1: the same as having, you know, a guy dog that
11:43
Speaker 1: could help somebody who is visually impaired. A helper monkey
11:45
Speaker 1: is able to jump around and grab things again because
11:48
Speaker 1: of those handy dandy opposable thumbs. And he was even
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Speaker 1: able to train Jack to do things like sweeping up
11:54
Speaker 1: and cleaning the dishes and uh taking out the trash,
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Speaker 1: So some pretty specific um duties that Jack was doing
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Speaker 1: for for Why. Yeah, yeah, it's it's kind of like
12:05
Speaker 1: a service animal. But given his given Jack's intelligence, it
12:10
Speaker 1: was pretty obvious to Why pretty quickly that he had
12:13
Speaker 1: indeed stumbled upon something something special in his pal the
12:18
Speaker 1: signal man. So there is one funny part of this
12:22
Speaker 1: story that it's strategy nuts. You wouldn't do this normally
12:27
Speaker 1: with a service animal, but Jack's original owner told him, Hey,
12:33
Speaker 1: you want to keep the you want to keep the
12:34
Speaker 1: boy happy, give him a good shot of Kate Brandy
12:38
Speaker 1: each night before bedtime if you want him to do
12:42
Speaker 1: good work the next day. And if you don't, Jack
12:45
Speaker 1: is going to pout at you and he might even
12:47
Speaker 1: become rebellious. Our pal Gabe Bluesier notes that this is
12:52
Speaker 1: similar to the story of a circus elephant named Jumbo,
12:55
Speaker 1: who would get super super angry if his train or
13:00
Speaker 1: didn't give him his daily bottle of beer before he
13:02
Speaker 1: went to sleep. Was a Jumbo also the nickname that uh,
13:07
Speaker 1: who's that creepy president who was always Johnson Lennon Johnson
13:10
Speaker 1: and he needed his pants uh uh taken out to
13:13
Speaker 1: make room in the bunghole area. But yeah, he nicknamed
13:16
Speaker 1: his his his tender bits Jumbo. Yeah. Yeah, in a
13:21
Speaker 1: burst of humility, so so so, like you said, at first,
13:28
Speaker 1: whid gave Jack some pretty simple chores and the main
13:33
Speaker 1: thing was to help him with his commute. But then
13:35
Speaker 1: all of a sudden he realized, Wow, this this baboon
13:39
Speaker 1: is much more intelligent than I thought. He can do
13:42
Speaker 1: other stuff. Uh. And one example of this is the
13:46
Speaker 1: key that Why kept in his signal box, as pointed
13:50
Speaker 1: out in Baboom Matters dot Org. Yeah, the baboom that
13:55
Speaker 1: worked for the railroad. Uh. This key unlocked the differ
14:00
Speaker 1: print points that allowed locomotive drivers to hit the coal
14:04
Speaker 1: sheds to re up their coal supply. And whenever a
14:08
Speaker 1: driver wanted to get to one of those coal sheds,
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Speaker 1: he would blow the whistle four times. Max helped me out, yep,
14:18
Speaker 1: like that, and four tutes and Wide would go out
14:26
Speaker 1: and he had to he still had to walk on crutches,
14:29
Speaker 1: even with those prosthetics. He would go out and he
14:32
Speaker 1: would hold up the key. And after Jack was watching
14:35
Speaker 1: this for just a few days, Jack clocked it and
14:40
Speaker 1: as soon as he heard those four tutes, he would
14:43
Speaker 1: run out with the key. And then you know why
14:46
Speaker 1: I liked it. And he thought, okay, all right, pal,
14:49
Speaker 1: that's extra shot of brandy for you tonight, and this
14:52
Speaker 1: is your job now. And Jack loved he was like
14:54
Speaker 1: a dog with a ball. As they said, that was
14:56
Speaker 1: some baboon is what with the cent she uh anthrow
15:01
Speaker 1: morphic spider with a celebrity voice would would write in
15:03
Speaker 1: her web in this situation, and it escalated from their
15:06
Speaker 1: why It started to be like this guy might be
15:09
Speaker 1: a little smarter than I gave him credit for. I
15:11
Speaker 1: think he might be able to take this partnership to
15:13
Speaker 1: the next level. And so he started to teach um
15:17
Speaker 1: Jack how to actually run the signal levers himself, and
15:21
Speaker 1: and then you know, interpret the number of toots and
15:24
Speaker 1: act accordingly. And by the way, the train station in
15:28
Speaker 1: question here, uh is it's a really interesting word. The
15:31
Speaker 1: spelling is U I T E n h A g
15:34
Speaker 1: E and I looked it up and it's pronounced eden
15:36
Speaker 1: hague us, the name of the train station in South Africa.
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Speaker 1: So Jack was now in charge of the levers and
15:43
Speaker 1: why it could just kind of chill, uh, The train
15:45
Speaker 1: drivers would toot their whistles or their horns, Um and
15:49
Speaker 1: Jack would act accordingly, and the rest of history. I mean,
15:54
Speaker 1: he was essentially, for all intents and purposes, taking over
15:57
Speaker 1: the job for his master, who was just kind of supervising.
16:00
Speaker 1: Right right, there was a there was a human quote
16:04
Speaker 1: unquote at the wheel, but this was quickly becoming Jack's responsibility.
16:09
Speaker 1: And to be fair, the system itself wasn't super complicated.
16:14
Speaker 1: It wasn't necessarily rocket science, nor was a brain surgery,
16:17
Speaker 1: but it was very important and we have to remember
16:19
Speaker 1: that if things went wrong, lives could be lost. So
16:23
Speaker 1: the system, now, if if you looked at it, you
16:26
Speaker 1: would see there were a couple of levers that control
16:29
Speaker 1: different pieces of track and you pull them in a
16:31
Speaker 1: certain order based on what you hear the conductor of
16:35
Speaker 1: the train toot on their whistle, so you'll hear people
16:39
Speaker 1: say this, this is something could train a dog to do.
16:43
Speaker 1: Canines are quite intelligent. But you know, like you said, thumbs,
16:48
Speaker 1: that's that's the big decider. Uh, And pretty soon according
16:53
Speaker 1: to the railway signal, why didn't even have to watch
16:57
Speaker 1: Jack that much? He sat around and he would stuff
17:01
Speaker 1: birds he got into like taxidermist. That's right. He was
17:04
Speaker 1: an amateur taxidermist. UM, and he did keep Jack chained up,
17:09
Speaker 1: you know, but probably wasn't even necessary. I mean, Jack
17:11
Speaker 1: was a very loyal companion who by all accounts um
17:14
Speaker 1: loved his master, and it was very, very very loyal.
17:17
Speaker 1: But there was kind of a wrinkle in this story
17:21
Speaker 1: that took place when a very high class woman Um
17:27
Speaker 1: traveling to Port Elizabeth spotted Jack working the levers and
17:32
Speaker 1: kind of freaked out. Um, and she reported this situation
17:36
Speaker 1: to the railway authorities, who then promptly came and visited.
17:41
Speaker 1: They didn't believe her at first thought this was like
17:42
Speaker 1: a wild tale from like a proto Karen type figure,
17:46
Speaker 1: and they didn't pay much more mind. But then they
17:48
Speaker 1: decided to come inspect the scene themselves, and they did
17:51
Speaker 1: so then saw, out of their surprise, this uh, this
17:54
Speaker 1: baboon running the signals, and they promptly fired. Why Jack
17:59
Speaker 1: wasn't officially in a boy so he just kind of
18:00
Speaker 1: went along. Um, but yeah, it was not a happy
18:03
Speaker 1: day for Mr. Why. Yeah. And Jack had to know
18:07
Speaker 1: something was up because he had learned these patterns, right,
18:12
Speaker 1: He kind of just trained himself through observation in a
18:16
Speaker 1: very real way and he was into it. And Why again,
18:21
Speaker 1: just like with his earlier train accident, he he tried
18:25
Speaker 1: to get the company to reconsider and he said, look,
18:29
Speaker 1: they're nothing went wrong. Before Jack knows what he's doing,
18:33
Speaker 1: you guys never would have heard about this. It would
18:35
Speaker 1: have all been fine. And then several more workers had
18:40
Speaker 1: Jack's back. He was like a mascot to them or
18:42
Speaker 1: a colleague. They came forward and they told the company themselves.
18:45
Speaker 1: They said, look, honestly, this baboon is doing a pretty
18:49
Speaker 1: pretty good job. And so as surreal as it may sound,
18:54
Speaker 1: as much as this may sound like a Pixar movie
18:58
Speaker 1: or something you would see on Disney, the big wigs
19:01
Speaker 1: at the rail company said, okay, all right, we'll give
19:05
Speaker 1: up a shot. We'll give him a shot, and they struck.
19:08
Speaker 1: They made this test that was pretty tough, and the
19:13
Speaker 1: test was comprised of a bunch of rapidly changing whistles
19:16
Speaker 1: that Jack would hear, and he would be placed in
19:20
Speaker 1: front of a set of dummy levers. So they were
19:23
Speaker 1: it was like a flight simulator, but for a signal operator,
19:27
Speaker 1: the same exact layout as the ones that he was
19:29
Speaker 1: actually working in in I R O exactly. And so
19:32
Speaker 1: we had this um. So they had somebody observing while
19:35
Speaker 1: these engineers were blowing these train whistles, and Jack was
19:39
Speaker 1: supposed to make the correct changes, pull the correct levers
19:43
Speaker 1: in the correct order. How to go No, quite well, Ben,
19:47
Speaker 1: He passed UM with honors. He did a fantastic job,
19:51
Speaker 1: and the railway system manager was incredibly impressed, he gave
19:56
Speaker 1: Wide his job back and get this hired Jack on
20:00
Speaker 1: uh just to become the only baboon in the history
20:03
Speaker 1: of the South African railway system to be given official
20:07
Speaker 1: work and pay. Um. His pay was twenty cents a day.
20:12
Speaker 1: It's about five bucks a day in today's dollars and um.
20:16
Speaker 1: He was given food and half a bottle of beer
20:19
Speaker 1: on Saturdays, and presumably Wide was still giving him his
20:22
Speaker 1: little his little schnops before bet or what was it, Brandy.
20:25
Speaker 1: So pretty insane. And he goes on to continue working
20:29
Speaker 1: for the company for several more years and it created
20:33
Speaker 1: a kind of a boom for the the area, the
20:36
Speaker 1: region because it was like now they had this tourist attraction.
20:40
Speaker 1: People would come from miles around to see the famous
20:43
Speaker 1: signalman Baboon Jack the baboo. Yeah. People would buy a ticket,
20:47
Speaker 1: not to really go anywhere, but to just get a
20:49
Speaker 1: chance to see our boy Jack. And it's interesting to
20:53
Speaker 1: me too that they landed on half a bottle of beer.
20:57
Speaker 1: It feels like there was a negotiation give him the
21:00
Speaker 1: full bottle. You know, maybe they were just concerned, you know,
21:03
Speaker 1: they want him drinking on the job. This is only
21:04
Speaker 1: on Saturdays though I assume that was his day off.
21:07
Speaker 1: But he also acted as a guard and would chase
21:10
Speaker 1: away any trespassers or you know, like trained kids that
21:13
Speaker 1: would come along with their dogs wearing bandanas. Um and uh.
21:18
Speaker 1: He even was able to repeat some of the tasks
21:21
Speaker 1: that Why taught him at home and clean rail cars
21:25
Speaker 1: and move railway sleepers. That's right, pull pull weeds and all.
21:31
Speaker 1: That was his giant baboon arms. And he was officially
21:35
Speaker 1: put in charge of that key. We were talking about
21:37
Speaker 1: the key to the coal yard that was originally um
21:40
Speaker 1: wide responsibility. So I imagine Wide still kind of just
21:44
Speaker 1: got to stay on and supervise and do his taxidermy. Yeah,
21:47
Speaker 1: Like who is the in the Curious George books? Who
21:51
Speaker 1: is the man in the yellow hat? Is that just
21:54
Speaker 1: his name? He's just the man on the yellow hat? Yeah, yeah, okay,
21:58
Speaker 1: his George's owner. And know what he actually does. I
22:01
Speaker 1: think we've got a max with the facts coming in here. Hot,
22:04
Speaker 1: Yes it is Ted Shackleford, Are you kidding? And why
22:08
Speaker 1: he has a name. In a deleted scene in the
22:11
Speaker 1: two six Here Is George movie, the man with the
22:14
Speaker 1: yellow at full name was revealed as Ted shackle Ford
22:17
Speaker 1: canon from that quick Google search, but it is from
22:24
Speaker 1: a senn Arkle But no, that is not Canada. All right, Well,
22:28
Speaker 1: well he was in a curious George situation, is what
22:31
Speaker 1: I'm saying, and he got he got glowing reviews. A
22:34
Speaker 1: railway superintendent, uh circa ninety a guy named George B.
22:39
Speaker 1: Howe visited and he said, Jack knows the signal whistle
22:44
Speaker 1: as well as I do almost every one of the levers.
22:48
Speaker 1: It was very touching to see his fondness for his master.
22:50
Speaker 1: As I drew near. They were both sitting on the trolley,
22:54
Speaker 1: the baboon's arms round his master's neck, the others stroking
22:57
Speaker 1: Wide's face. Total, MAT's I love it? Yeah, well don't
23:03
Speaker 1: you mean? Yeah a little bit. The whole thing. The
23:05
Speaker 1: whole thing is weird love, which is touching. He like touching.
23:19
Speaker 1: But there this is weird too, and something that I
23:21
Speaker 1: was completely not aware of. Jack unfortunately passed away. Um
23:25
Speaker 1: he contracted tuberculosis, in which I had no idea was
23:32
Speaker 1: something that affected the monkeys, but only what's referred to
23:35
Speaker 1: in this Today I found out article as Old World monkeys,
23:39
Speaker 1: which is what Jack was, unlike New World monkeys. I'm
23:42
Speaker 1: not quite sure that the distinction is there, but probably
23:44
Speaker 1: worth a little further investigation. Um. But Jack worked the
23:47
Speaker 1: rails for a total of nine years and he never
23:50
Speaker 1: made a single documented mistake yep, which not every trade
23:55
Speaker 1: employee can see by the way he u His story
23:59
Speaker 1: got covered in a science journal Nature in eighteen ninety,
24:04
Speaker 1: and then it was kind of like an obscure thing.
24:07
Speaker 1: It was a story of regional interest for a lot
24:10
Speaker 1: of people, but not internationally until a century later. The
24:15
Speaker 1: Telegraph newspaper covered it and a lot of people thought
24:18
Speaker 1: it was a hoax because it sounds crazy, but the
24:20
Speaker 1: truth is often stranger than fiction. This is unlike the
24:24
Speaker 1: story of Otto. The first we can historically established there
24:28
Speaker 1: was a baboon. There wasn't Mr Wide. The baboon was
24:32
Speaker 1: called Jack and did work at the railway. UM. Because
24:37
Speaker 1: we know we saw correspondence as well from scientists who
24:40
Speaker 1: ran into Jack. You can even if you visit the
24:43
Speaker 1: Albany Museum in Grahamstown, South Africa, see what the curator's
24:49
Speaker 1: claim is Jack's skull, which is a little mormid, but
24:52
Speaker 1: it's proof consistent. Yeah, and that's at the Albany Museum
24:56
Speaker 1: in Grahamstown, South Africa that also has a little bit
24:59
Speaker 1: of a photo exhibits about the old eden Hague station.
25:05
Speaker 1: M and I, you know, I felt like this episode
25:09
Speaker 1: was an excellent opportunity for us to talk a little
25:13
Speaker 1: bit more about interesting things that baboons do. So we're
25:17
Speaker 1: talking about Jack, who's kind of like a super heroic
25:21
Speaker 1: service animal. You could say, but did you guys know
25:25
Speaker 1: That's why I think baboons are more intelligent than they
25:27
Speaker 1: get credit for it. Did you guys know that baboons
25:29
Speaker 1: keep pets. They abduct. Yeah, they abduct like puppies, wild dogs,
25:38
Speaker 1: and they they feed them, They raised them, and they
25:43
Speaker 1: groom them. They play with the dogs, and the dogs
25:47
Speaker 1: are treated like family pets for the baboon community, the
25:50
Speaker 1: baboonity and community. Sorry, and so the uh no, we're
25:57
Speaker 1: keeping it. We're keeping it, Maxi'm sorry. Uh. The the
26:01
Speaker 1: dogs have a role to play because they defend their
26:06
Speaker 1: family from other dogs who haven't been turned by the baboons,
26:10
Speaker 1: and they watch over them when they sleep at night.
26:13
Speaker 1: That's kind of wild, right, they really is. And in
26:16
Speaker 1: true curious George fashion, uh, Jack and Jim are the
26:21
Speaker 1: subject of a best selling children's book called Railway Jack,
26:24
Speaker 1: The True Story of an Amazing Baboon, which you can
26:27
Speaker 1: get on Amazon UM if you're interested by Kat Johnson.
26:31
Speaker 1: Really really cool story. I can't believe this hasn't been
26:34
Speaker 1: made into UH at the very least like one of
26:36
Speaker 1: those UM Pixar shorts. You know they feature that'd be good. UM.
26:42
Speaker 1: I can see them adding a little detail and then
26:44
Speaker 1: creating a feature out of it. UM. But let's see too.
26:47
Speaker 1: To close out, we've got a couple of interesting UM
26:49
Speaker 1: examples of other types of animals working at railway stations,
26:53
Speaker 1: in the form of Japan's station master cats. Yes, that's correct.
26:58
Speaker 1: So there's a Japanese hound called Keno Kawa and for
27:03
Speaker 1: around eight years, the station master of Kenya Kawa's Kishi
27:08
Speaker 1: station was a Calico cat named Toma and Toma or
27:14
Speaker 1: Tama she was astray. She lived near the station. Some
27:18
Speaker 1: people worked there were feeding herse so she was hanging
27:21
Speaker 1: out and the station was automated in two thousand seven
27:24
Speaker 1: to save some money on the bottom line. So this
27:27
Speaker 1: cat was hired, or as we say on our other show, hired,
27:32
Speaker 1: and she was paid in food and people loved seen
27:38
Speaker 1: her just like folks would ride the train to see
27:40
Speaker 1: signalman Jack. People would travel to the station just to
27:43
Speaker 1: see the cat boss of Kishi Station, and they gave
27:47
Speaker 1: her a tiny hat, a tiny station master hat while
27:53
Speaker 1: she worked in her office. That's adorable. Um. And unfortunately,
27:58
Speaker 1: I sorry, we're killing off all these animals, not us.
28:00
Speaker 1: It's just time in history. Uh. Tama passed away in
28:05
Speaker 1: heart failure. But she lived on the right bold cattage
28:07
Speaker 1: of sixteen which is up there. And she was actually
28:09
Speaker 1: credited with saving the train line from financial collapse because
28:14
Speaker 1: of all of the tourists that she drew with an
28:16
Speaker 1: estimated at one point one billion yen of additional revenue
28:19
Speaker 1: UM since her tenure began. Yeah, yeah, and Uh. If
28:23
Speaker 1: you would like to learn more about this very strange
28:27
Speaker 1: but fascinating and adorable are often adorable corner of history,
28:32
Speaker 1: then do check out ten animals with better jobs than
28:36
Speaker 1: you at how Stuff Works dot com by Melanie rad
28:40
Speaker 1: Zicki McManus. Uh. This is where you'll find some some excellent,
28:45
Speaker 1: more lighthearted examples of animals being employed in jobs that
28:50
Speaker 1: you know are commonly thought to be the domain of people. Uh.
28:53
Speaker 1: This doesn't count a ton of military animals, but Also,
28:58
Speaker 1: you know what this reminds me of, you guys, there
29:00
Speaker 1: is who's that dog? There's a dog in the US,
29:03
Speaker 1: maybe more than one that is like the mayor of
29:06
Speaker 1: a town. I am not aware of a dog mayor
29:09
Speaker 1: Ben Ah. Yes, I'm thinking of Max the gold Retriever,
29:14
Speaker 1: not Max Williams superducer. Max Williams, no Goldener Treever, who
29:19
Speaker 1: was also mayor of idle Wild, California in two thousand
29:24
Speaker 1: and twelve. I wonder if they gave him a dogs
29:28
Speaker 1: like one of those mayor sashes like we talked about
29:30
Speaker 1: on the last apsode, like with Mayor mccheese. Yeah, and
29:33
Speaker 1: two uh dog named Duke the Dog became mayor of Cormorant, Minnesota.
29:41
Speaker 1: This is weird. There are actually a lot of uh.
29:45
Speaker 1: There's an insider dot com article that points out there
29:48
Speaker 1: have been no less than nine dogs who have been
29:50
Speaker 1: elected mayor of small towns. I fell asleep trying to
29:55
Speaker 1: put on a pair of pants once. And these dogs
29:57
Speaker 1: are out here changing the world a man, They really
29:59
Speaker 1: are an doing God's work. And hey, if you're interested
30:01
Speaker 1: in more crazy stories about animals or unusual animals and
30:06
Speaker 1: unusual locations, um, why not check out an episode that
30:09
Speaker 1: we did several years back about weird presidential pets. Worth
30:13
Speaker 1: a listen, and we would also love to hear from you.
30:16
Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed today's episode. It's a little bit
30:19
Speaker 1: short and sweet story UM where luckily nothing terrible happened
30:24
Speaker 1: to signal man Jack and Uh, a man who was
30:27
Speaker 1: grievously injured was able to get in a very real way,
30:30
Speaker 1: a new lease on life with a new best friend.
30:33
Speaker 1: So tell us your stories of other animals that have
30:37
Speaker 1: had amazing jobs. Uh, we'd love to hear from you.
30:41
Speaker 1: You can find us at Ridiculous at i heeart media
30:44
Speaker 1: dot com. You can find our Facebook group Ridiculous Historians
30:48
Speaker 1: some of the some of our favorite animals on the
30:50
Speaker 1: internet us included and uh and as always, folks, UM,
30:55
Speaker 1: thank you for thank you for tuning in. UH, maybe
30:59
Speaker 1: we could a ridiculous history rail tour. Ridiculous rails? What
31:04
Speaker 1: do they call that? A whistle stop tour? Like the
31:07
Speaker 1: presidents used to do? You know, he's like you, we
31:09
Speaker 1: hang out on the back and just wave very very
31:12
Speaker 1: minimal movement to our wrists. We'll do that. We'll stop
31:15
Speaker 1: and hang we'll stop and chat. But I'm down for
31:17
Speaker 1: that idea. I like old timey stuff like that. You
31:19
Speaker 1: can also find Ben and I as individual human people
31:22
Speaker 1: on the Internet. I am exclusively on Instagram at how
31:25
Speaker 1: Now Noel Brown. How about you, buddy. Yeah, you can
31:27
Speaker 1: find me at Ben Boland bow L I n On
31:31
Speaker 1: Instagram you can get a preview of my various misadventures,
31:34
Speaker 1: what I'm reading, the research I'm doing. Uh. And you
31:37
Speaker 1: can also find me on Twitter, where I am at
31:39
Speaker 1: Ben Bowland hs W and in a never before revealed
31:45
Speaker 1: look into the life of super producer Max Williams. Uh, Max,
31:50
Speaker 1: you're on the undernet too, I hear, Yes, I am,
31:53
Speaker 1: and I am on Twitter and only Twitter. I am
31:56
Speaker 1: at a t L underscore Max Williams. Okay, alright, got
32:00
Speaker 1: a lot of hot takes on sports ball games uh
32:04
Speaker 1: Lional trains, uh not a ball games and Lionel trains,
32:08
Speaker 1: the Max Williams story, and a lot of Star Trek,
32:10
Speaker 1: A lot of Star Trek and a lot of Star Trek. Okay, man, well, uh,
32:14
Speaker 1: this this is gonna do it for us today. Thanks
32:17
Speaker 1: of course to Max Williams. Thinks to Alex Williams who
32:20
Speaker 1: can post our track. Thanks to Gabe bluesier who keeps
32:23
Speaker 1: this show on track. And and thanks of course to
32:26
Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland ak the Twister. Yeah, he's a good monkey.
32:31
Speaker 1: That's nicer. That's nicer than what we've we said and
32:33
Speaker 1: cut off air. We'll keep this parted. We could talk
32:36
Speaker 1: about the backstage. Do you think we can teach them
32:38
Speaker 1: how to pull levers? I bet you we could. He
32:41
Speaker 1: pushes my buttons. That's that's he's already got ahead to start.
32:46
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time, folks. For more podcasts from
32:55
Speaker 1: my Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
32:58
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,