AtD translation: brakebeam stiff

[Ian Livingston]

Well, my thinking is that since AtD so effectively engages the labor struggles of the late 19th and early 20th C, and because the railroads were featured in many of those conflicts, a down and out brakeman might indeed have casually been referred to by another working stiff as a brakebeam stiff. To an old working stiff, it sounds right as rain. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Feb 28, 2021, at 12:36 AM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> I don't think a brakeman fits into this context of vagrant, down-and-outer, helpless looking citizen – rather a fellow riding the rods, like Leon, Ian's namesake, who obviously rode a wooden brake beam once.
> 
>