Existing comment:
"Few... are so widely traveled as Owney, the pet and mascot of the railway mail service."
-- Los Angeles Times, March 15, 1896
Owney: Mascot of the Railway Mail Service:
In his day, Owney (about 1888-1897) was the most famous dog in America, celebrated for traveling the length and breadth of the country on mail trains. His career began when he followed some mailbags onto a train in Albany, New York, and after that, he never stopped moving. Clerks working on Railway Mail Service cars loved having Owney on board and adopted him as their mascot. Reporters began to write about Owney, and by the early 1890s he appeared in headlines from the San Francisco Call to the New York Times.
At that time, most of the nation's mail was sorted and moved on trains. Railway accidents were common and the clerks' jobs dangerous. Clerks considered Owney a good luck charm because they believed that he had never been in a train wreck. To mark Owney's trips on their trains, the clerks began adding medals and tags to his collar. |