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Retroterm of the Day: Whistlestop.

June 3, 2009 //  by David Keyes

A century ago, towns too small to merit regular train service were called “whistle stops.” Trains stopped there only when a passenger pulled a signal cord.  The engineer would then blow his whistle to indicate that he’d got the message.  When Harry Truman campaigned by train in hundreds of such towns in 1948, he was said to be “whistlestopping.”

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