People are great. Just in general -- people are the most inventive and hilarious humans around. If it weren't for people, and their incessant need to live and breathe, this world would be a lot less funny. I am brave enough to say, even if it could be an unpopular opinion, that most of the world's top-rate humor comes from people.
This week's installation of "People -- The Things They Do and The Many Ways We Laugh at Them" includes the tremendous story of "Saddle Men". Don't know what Saddle Men are? Fortunately, you have come to the right place. Read on, intrepid humor-desirer, and be entertained by the sheer brilliance of people.
The Journal of Ride Theory Omnibus appears to be a short-lived publication covering a wide variety of amusement park information. Dan Howland wrote this journal, stylizing it in perfect 1920s fashion. The whole run of the Journal, five issues, is available from this website, and more information and cleverness from Dan Howland is available here. The particular issue I am interested in, at the moment, is issue #5 -- The Bad Ideas issue.
In this issue of the Journal, Dan illuminates bad ideas for amusement that appeared in some form over the last century or so. This includes a unicycle ride, a "cyclodial chariot" that was essentially a ferris wheel that travelled along a roller coaster track, and a roller coaster that jumped over a gap, a literal break in the tracks. Each of these ideas is illustrated with historical documented evidence, or pictures of the crzy contraption.
My favorite, by far, is "Saddle Men". Not a ride as much as it is an experience, Saddle Men was the name given to men, clearly lower class citizens, who were tasked with carrying the upper class citizens on their back. They were used in lieu of saddle horses and wore a specialized harness to support the men who could not walk themselves between point A and point B. Don't believe that it existed? Take a look at this:
The text below the image states:
Source: Scientific American, 10/4/1884, "In Nepal, India, there is a class of natives who serve as 'saddle men,' and take the place of saddle horses. Strapped around the waist and fitting into the curve of the back is a padded ledge. it is supported vertically by shoulder straps. The rider rests on the ledge, in the position shown in the engraving, which is from the Graphic, and represents the Duke of Portland, and the Earl De Grey, going on a hunting excursion. Ladies of rank in this part of India are carried on 'saddle women' in the same style."
Seriously? Someone thought that this was an appropriate use for a human being? I realize that many more horrendous acts have been perpetrated in the name of slavery, torture, etc., but this one just floored me. That picture -- the Duke and Earl sitting up on the saddlmen, the looks of dejection of the saddle men themselves, the seemingly uncomfortable phyiscal relationship here -- it is all a little surreal.
But people...what are you going to do? People are people and, sometimes, you just have to expect this stuff.
