You're listening to an Airwave Media Podcast.
Welcome to the past and the curious.
Important animals in history.
Hello, everyone.
This is Mick Sullivan, host of The Past and the Curious, coming to you with my own mouth and my own brain and absolutely zero artificial intelligence.
No AI at all in this, and that is The Past and the Curious promise.
I'd like to congratulate you because you have found your way to the third installment of this podcast series.
Special series, sub series, important animals from history.
And in this episode we're going to meet a baboon named Signalman Jack, a black rhino who won political office named Kakareko and one of my favorites of all time a trophy-sniffing dog named Pickles.
That's right.
All of these are from an upcoming book that I am still working on and making progress.
But you know what?
It takes a while to write a book.
So the Kickstarter is coming soon.
Just stay tuned.
Just keep enjoying these and know that when the time is right, you can help me get this book to the world.
In the meantime, enjoy the show.
They say that good help can be hard to find.
So James Wide was lucky to meet a Chakma baboon who came to be known as Signal Man Jack.
Now, I get it.
You might think a baboon would be a little help, little assistance to a railroad worker.
But would you be right?
No, you'd be worse than right.
You would be wrong.
Sure, over the 10 years they spent together in the 1880s, more than a few train passengers pulling into Port Elizabeth, South Africa, were confused, alarmed even at the sight of a baboon working on the railroad.
But that was their problem, because Jack and James made a great team.
When he was younger James, the human of the duo, was known to his fellow railroad workers by the nickname Jumper.
James Jumper Wide was a bit of a daredevil, and he had a habit of jumping from rail car to rail car.
He didn't even care if the trains were moving or not.
Of course, this penchant for unnecessary risk caught up with him when a poorly timed jump resulted in a terrible, terrible injury.
No one was surprised, but everyone was worried.
This made his job changing signals and points for the many trains that came his way each day difficult, to say the least.
James couldn't afford to quit, but after the accident, just getting to work was going to be a challenge, let alone the demands of the workday.
When he met a baboon named Jack, James was amazed by the primate's intelligence.
So a bell rang in his head, and it wasn't a lingering effect of the fall.
It was a full-fledged good idea.
Before long, Jack and James were inseparable.
At first, Jack simply pushed his new human companion James, in a wheelchair to and from work at the station each day.
The uphill portion of their short walk from home was less fun than the downhill portion.
It was at this point in each day's journey that Jack would hop on the wheelchair and let gravity give them both a thrill.
Once at work, the observant baboon took on a growing role in operating the railroad signal station.
Conductors approaching the station would give a number of blasts on their horn if they needed to be sent to the coal shed, which required moving the points to redirect the track.
After watching James do it a few times on his crutches, Jack heard the train signal and hopped right up to take care of it himself.
So as time went by, Jack handled all of the levers and switches that oncoming trains needed.
James kept an eye on the helpful baboon and made sure his work was done correctly, but it was barely necessary.
As far as we know, Signal Man Jack never made a mistake.
Now of course, someone's always going to have an issue with a baboon.
One passenger through the station was shocked to see the animal pulling the levers the levers that affected so many lives and so much cargo.
She was so shocked, in fact, that she filed a complaint.
How could you trust a baboon with this job?
Railroad officials investigated, but ultimately decided that they didn't care if he was human or not.
They only cared about whether Jack could do the job.
Jack was supervised and he had been really well trained by James Jumper-Wide, so the baboon was really good at his job.
So to prevent any problems in the future, the railroad company decided to give Signal Man Jack an official employee number, along with a weekly paycheck.
So Signal Man Jack spent nine years with James Wide working on the railroad all the live long day.
Okay, story number two, now it's time to meet Kakareko!
Sometimes, human people running for political office leave a lot to be desired.
Sometimes the people who vote are so disgusted with their options that they just decide to elect an animal instead.
A surprise candidate took an election by storm in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1959.
That year, 539 people were running for seats in the city council, along with one rhinoceros.
When the votes were counted Kakareko, a five-year-old black rhino at the local zoo, received more votes than any of the humans.
So how's that for disgust with politics?
Unfortunately, corruption and dishonesty are traits that many people have.
On the other hand, rhinos are incorruptible.
Sure they might be smelly.
Eat bushels of hay every day, be too large to sit at the desk, have no true awareness of the spoken language, and they are very rarely housebroken.
But at least they're honest.
They might accidentally eat a book, but they're never going to misspend public money intended for the local library.
Kakareko had been visiting the zoo from another one in Rio de Janeiro, so she had a bit of celebrity status going for her with the public in 1959.
The people who snuck her onto the ballot were clearly fed up with corruption in local government.
None of the elected people were doing anything to help schools fix unpaved roads clean, open sewers.
So why not just vote for a rhino?
Clearly, voters agreed and cast their ballots for Kakareko in protest.
In fact, the Rhino's 100000 votes set the record for any of Sao Paulo's city council elections up to that time and were far more votes than any human in the race with her.
Unfortunately, the rhino was not allowed to serve out her term.
She wasn't even seated, though the zoo did ask if the job came with enough pay to cover the cost of Kakareko's food costs.
This included 70 pounds of vegetables every day.
Who knows though, Kakareko might have done as good of a job as any human who took her rightful seat at that desk.
Other animals have won elections for political office over the years.
Usually it's in small towns with no real need for leadership.
Usually there's a legal rule that says they must elect someone.
So that's how so many small towns have wound up with dogs, cats, and even goats as mayors.
Now, I'd like to have a quick pause.
How long?
How quick?
Oh, well, 30 seconds.
Because before we get back to the animals, it's time for You Have 30 Seconds.
Thanks, Mick.
That's right.
It's time for You Have 30 Seconds, the time in the show where listeners have 30 seconds to tell us something from the past, something fantastic, something cool.
So here comes Aquila to do just that.
Hola, and I'm from Columbus, Ohio.
In 1836, the Texan War of Independence had its most famous battle.
Mexican President Santa Anna intended to crush the American rebel once and for all at a Spanish mission called the Alamo, but was thwarted by a small band of settlers for 13 days.
American rebels pushed down the ladders of attacking Mexican soldiers and kept up their defense even as they died.
Their loss inspired Sam Houston to fight Santa Ana again six weeks later, this time winning the Texan independence.
Great work, Aquila.
Thank you so much for sending your You Have 30 Seconds.
And I will always remember the Alamo as the saying goes.
But another thing I'll always remember about the Alamo is thanks to Pee Wee Herman, I know that there is no basement in the Alamo.
Some of you might get that.
If you have a, you have a, you have a, you have a, you have a 30 seconds.
You just got to record it and send it in to hello at the past and the curious.
It's the moment we've all been waiting for.
My friends, I'd like to introduce you to a dog named Pickles.
Every four years, football fanatics, also known as soccer fans in America, scream and yell at screens showing the sport's biggest event, the World Cup.
At this special time, teams from around the world meet for several weeks of competition, while the global fan base cheers them on in hopes of victory.
Champions enter into sports immortality by earning a place in the history books, or at least on the Wikipedia page for World Cup champs.
They also get a pretty sweet trophy to boot.
When England hosted the World Cup in 1966, the nation was hopeful.
Their team had always come up empty-handed.
Time and time again, bounced from the tournament like a ball off of a goalie's face.
But fans believed this year was different.
Their team was good.
They were on their home turf and the dream of finally hoisting the trophy over their heads seemed within reach.
Everyone could practically smell it.
So when the trophy was displayed in public before the tournament, British crowds were eager to have a look at what could be theirs.
They didn't have long to see it.
On the second day of the pre-tournament festivities, a trophy poacher pilfered the prize.
It was hard to believe, but the World Cup trophy was stolen right in front of everyone's noses.
England's best detectives from Scotland Yard came up empty-handed in the search that followed.
Days went by, leads went cold, and hope kept slipping away.
Turns out that finding this missing trophy was not a job for people. it was a job for a dog.
Specifically, a little collie named Pickles.
On March 27th, Pickles was out for a normal walk on a normal day with his normal human.
By all accounts, he was a very normal dog.
He certainly had no idea that the World Cup trophy had been stolen.
Nevertheless, when Pickles noticed a roll of newspaper under a parked car, the trash captured his attention.
All sorts of things can get dogs excited.
Squirrels, doorbells, mail carriers, and as it would turn out, stolen trophies.
It's a good thing that some unsuspecting driver had not gotten in their car and driven off, because inside the twisted newsprint hid the stolen World Cup trophy.
The precious prize could have easily become a sad golden pancake.
But the trusty nose of Pickles knew something was not right.
Thanks to his instincts, the trophy was safely returned to the stadium in time for the tournament to begin.
And Pickles was a hero.
But he also might have been a good luck charm.
A few weeks later, after all of the goals were scored, all of the whistles were blown and all of the screams were screamed.
England won their first World Cup trophy.
A trophy recovered by Pickles.
At the award ceremony, Pickles was invited to join the team.
And after being reunited with the trophy in front of an adoring and elated crowd, the black and white Collie went on to enjoy celebrity status.
That same year, he starred in the movie The Spy with the Cold Nose.
In the film, Pickles played the role of a four-legged spy with a cold puppy dog nose.
Cha, cha, cha.
Well, that's the third episode of Important Animals from History.
I am Mick Sullivan.
This is my brain.
This is my mouth.
There is no AI.
I'm going to start saying that more because you know what?
There are podcasts that are now out there for kids that are AI.
And there's a history podcast that is AI.
And I'm pretty sure they trained it on mine, as well as other shows like Dork Tales and Forever Ago and shows that are made by people who work hard and really care.
And that's me.
And that's all of the creators that I know.
So I just want you to consider that when you are deciding what to press play on, when you are listening to a podcast.
I am a person and I love doing this.
So thank you for listening.
I'll be back in just a couple of weeks with an episode that is more of a traditional full episode.
You know, we've got a rhythm going.
And it's about some things that got lost and then found.
Might surprise you, though, what I'm going to talk about.
So thank you very much.
It's the end of the school year where I am.
It's probably getting close to that for you.
So I hope you have a successful end of the year.
I hope it's an easy entry into summer.
I know that I'm going to spend many a days with my family swimming at our beloved pool where we go visit.
We're part of a community pool.
It's great.
So I hope you find some joy and don't sweat too much because it's going to get hot.
My best to you and yours.
I'm Mick Sullivan.
This is The Past and the Curious.
