Streetcar Conductor Glynn and the Christmas Radio
The Kindness Of Cincinnati Streetcar Conductor Brings Joy To A Little Girl In 1929
When you work as a streetcar conductor, you get to know people. The daily travelers become more than customers, they become a part of your life. You learn about their family, their work, their joys, and their sorrows. And when you are a kind soul like James Glynn, you are so touched by an unfortunate circumstance, that you can’t help but want to do something about it.
For 43 years, James Glynn was a conductor for the Cincinnati Street Railway Company. Anyone who was lucky enough to ride his car knew just how kind he was. He’d wait on passengers that were elderly or crippled. He’d sometimes help passengers to their door if the packages they carried became overwhelming. He’d talk with them, proving a shoulder to cry on, or an ear to listen. Often, James would receive praise in letters written to his superiors, and some were published in the company newsletter.
And so it should come as no surprise that during the Christmas season of 1929, James would provide a spark of kindness and humanity that inspired many of his East End riders.
It was just another late November morning. Another day. Another trek through the East End. The chill of fall was in full effect as James pulled his car up to a platform on Eastern Ave. A woman and her small daughter, who was perhaps 9, maybe 10 years old got on board.
The woman, the girl, and James exchanged pleasantries. As the car moved along Delta Ave., the conversation turned to radios and their batteries which seemed to always be dying. The woman explained to James that the radio was the only thing that kept her daughter happy and content, for she was blind and one need not sight to enjoy the radio. But the problem was that the batteries would often die on her old radio, and they could not afford to keep buying new ones. The little girl would sometimes go weeks without her radio, her only connection with a world she could only wish of seeing.
As James pulled into the platform area at their destination, he wished them well. As the day continued, James kept thinking about that poor little girl. Even after all his passengers left his car and he returned home, his thoughts were only with the girl and her burdens. As he lay down to sleep that evening, James hatched a plan to make this wrong a right.
The following morning, James put up a subscription list and sat a hat next his conductor chair. As he moved throughout his East End route, he told his passengers the plight of the little blind girl and how he wanted to purchase a new radio with better quality batteries for her as a Christmas gift.
“I’m giving $2, what will you give?”
One gave $1, another $10, there were nickels, and quarters, and more dollars. At every stop for the next few weeks, James collected until he had $126 in his hat.
And just days before Christmas, James went to the radio dealer after work and purchased a radio with the highest quality batteries they offered. He then sought out the home of the girl.
When James arrived with the radio, the little girl smiled a smile that she hadn’t smiled in quite some time. The mother, taken aback at the unprovoked kindness, hugged James, asking him how this could happen.
“It was the East Enders. They made this happen,” James smiled.
“And there is one more thing,” he said.
“You see, the people of the East End gave me $126, but the radio cost only $89. That leaves you with $37 as a gift.”
The woman lowered her head, praising the generosity.
James waved goodbye, and as he headed home, he smiled a smile he hadn’t smiled in quite some time, wiping tears of joy from his chilled cheeks.