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Appetite For America

How Fred Harvey Built A Hospitality Empire That Civilized The Wild West

Stephen Fried

NY Times review of book here Link

The Nineteenth Century migrants to America disembarked opposite the Washington St market, full of fresh fruit veges and meat. And in the market was Smith and McNeill's restaurant. They kept no written records of any sort,paid all their bills COD, and at the end of each day settled up all their accounts and divided their profits.

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America had a plethora of time zones bc each town parochial and refused to fit in with neighbors. In Britain the govt simply imposed a single time zone on the whole country. But in US it was the railroads who accomplished the task - got sick of trying to deal with all idiosyncratic times so simply imposed 4 zones across country and everyone had to follow suit.

George Pullman built the first (comfortable) sleeping cars on trains, and also invented flexible joint which allowed people to move between carriages. (Before that diners would be trapped in dining car, and hungry passengers couldn't get there until train stopped in station). But his reputation ruined by a violent strike when his workers objected to wages being reduced in a depression.

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So his will provided for a desecration-proof tomb 13 feet long 8 feet deep and 9 feet wide - a lead-lined coffin strengthened and then surrounded by layers of steel reinforced concrete.

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