Around 100,000 women signed contracts to come west and work the railroad restaurants, and one of the terms was that they would not get married. Fred Harvey ran the eating houses along the Santa Fe line starting in the 1870s. Before dining cars existed, a train stopped every few hours and passengers had about twenty minutes to eat. What was available near the tracks was mostly bad food served badly. Harvey fixed that. And starting in 1883 he staffed it with women, because he did not think the men he was hiring could hold his standard. The ads ran in eastern and midwestern papers looking for young women between 18 and 30, of good character, educated through the eighth grade. Wages, plus room and meals. What they signed up for was a six month contract. Twelve hour shifts, six days a week. Living in a dormitory with a house matron and a curfew. And an agreement to stay unmarried for the length of the contract. For a lot of these women it was the first time they had been more than fift...