In the 1955 Pullman training films "Your Tradition of Service" and "The Pullman Pledge" (which are add-ons to the companion DVD for Larry Tye's "Rising from the Rails"), are several mentions of the practice of a Pullman Porter offering passengers a paper bag for their hats. (The intention being for the bag to absorb sweat and prevent staining of other luggage or garments when storing the hat). In the filmstrips these appear to be regular brown kraft paper, of the sort used for grocery bags.

A description of the practice appears in "Instructions to Porters, Attendants and Busboys", quoted here from the August 1, 1952 issue, Pages 27-28 "Care of Passengers":

"Promptly tender hat bags to all passengers, both men and women. They shall be offered to each passenger but given ony to those who desire them. Crumpled bags which have the appearance of being used must not be offered to passengers. Discard such bags".

In the last few days these bags appeared on eBay, which appear to be light weight wax-paper (of the sort a bakery might use). Are these hat bags, or something else?

http://cgi.ebay.com/3-1940s-Pullman-Car ... 4cf058a22a

Tucked away someplace I think I have a Pullman hat bag. I obtained it about 1968-70. As I recall, it is a light tan color and of the material that an upscale store -- not a grocery store -- would use.

The hat bags were like the one in the Ebay listing. The bags were glossy and had the Pullman logo on them. They were flat and when held with the opening up the bottom was NOT flat and the bag would not stand on its own.

The larger bags mentioned were used as trash bags in the restrooms of sleepers. If you will notice the heavyweights did not have trash receptacles. You used cloth towels to dry your hands and then tossed those in the wire basket on the wall. What about trash? Well the porter would take one of these bags (like a grocey bag) and roll the edge down about 2 inches. This would stiffen the bag and make it stand alone. The porters could put one of these in each bathroom lounge (say in a 12-1) so if passengers had some trash they could toss it in. This would especially be the case in the mornings on a heavy run. The railroads also used these in long-distance coaches, especially when inferior paper towels became all the rage.

T7

Thanks for sharing your recollections of this bit of Pullman ephemera.

In followup, here's a screen shot from the Pullman training film pertaining to offering of hat bags, and perhaps you can see why I was uncertain as to the type of bags used.