Mopac Railway Spittoon

[peggyrothschild]

Back in the mid1970’s I was a frequent visitor to the NMoT in west St Louis. Dr Robert’s and his wife Mary ran the museum with Mary overseeing the gift shop and book store. The MP General Offices must have cleared out all the spittoons they had in the building as the gift shop had a number of them for sale at $25 each. I never bought one – probably knowing what Mrs D would think of the new addition to our house. Years later I was In Jeffeson City and stopped in an antique mall on Missouri Blvd hoping to uncover some rare MP item. Only MP item in the place was this Mopac Ry spittoon which dated it older than those being sold at Museum. Mrs D still hasn’t changed her position on it remaining in a dark corner of the basement. My kids being young at the time and not being exposed to saloons didn’t have a clue what it was for. Their only guess was it was used “for cooking”.

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[bargetanika]

I remember them being in banks and barbershops in the early 1950s and being truly nasty.

[Mike Vana]

Spittoons were required in Louisiana and other states through the late 60s to keep patrons from spitting on the floor or sidewalk. We still had large coffee cans in the courtroom at the Morehouse Parish Courthouse in 1977 since the originals were taken home by employees and repurposed as planters. (They found the law requiring them was still on the books)

If you see one for sale, but it put a large candle it it or a dried flower arrangement in it,

Jim Ogden

[Author]

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