We’re off to a great start. Nonetheless, those first ten were far from the only jobs that the stories we read, listen, and watch often glamorize and romanticize. Ever imagine yourself as a showgirl or bar maid at the Moulin Rouge or the Old West? How about fighting for American independence during the Revolution? Or mushing sled dogs during the Klondike Gold Rush? Or driving a chariot during a high-stakes race on Ben Hur? Or maybe fancy yourself working on the railroad, serving on a whaling ship, or sweeping chimneys? Here is another addition of ten more romanticized jobs with darker realities that many of us either ignore or don’t really think about too much.

11. Medical School Professor – This one isn’t exactly obvious since it’s pretty much the same as it was in the olden days: teaching new generations of doctors with the latest scientific knowledge and technology available. Albeit with certain risk for disease when there wasn’t much emphasis on sanitation. However, back in the olden days when obtaining dead bodies to dissect was very difficult to come by due to strict anti-dissection laws and lack of preservation methods, there’s an added dimension to this job that many tend to overlook but was once subject to a famous serial murder case in 19^th century Scotland. Sure, teaching future doctors required tremendous curiosity and understanding of how the human body works. But it also required the ability to not ask too many questions of where those dead bodies came from. Sure, they could dissect executed criminals, but even in harsher times, the supply didn’t meet the demand. So more often than not, a medical school professor would have to pay for those bodies to men who dug them up from a cemetery, which by the way was an illegal but lucrative side gig for many. So much so that people took great measures to protect their loved one’s corpses from grave robbers. And if you’re a medical school professor who pays for those bodies out of your own salary, the average person isn’t going to like you for dissecting their loved ones in front of their students. Then there’s the University of Edinburgh professor named Robert Knox who unwittingly paid for a bunch of dead bodies from a couple of Irish guys who turned out to be serial killers. Before the Burke and Hare murders, he was seen as a revolutionary scientist and respected anatomist. After the Burke and Hare murders became a sensation in the newspapers, the British medical establishment saw him as a disgraced public figure and pushed him out. Yet, it’s probably fair to ask how times other medical school professors bought bodies that didn’t make a temporary stopover to the local cemetery.

12. Bar Maid – Ah, the pretty bar maid who’s always happy to serve drinks to a rowdy crowd, chat with customers, and even give them a wink or two. Maybe even share a romance with the hero either in a Belle Epoque nightclub, German bier haus, or an Old West saloon. Then there’s Manet’s A Bar at the Foiles Bergere that features a bar maid who doesn’t seem to like her job very much. Being a barmaid is a grueling job where you’re working 8 to 12 hours, possibly as late as 3 or 4 in the morning. During that time, you must carry heavy cases of bottles or heavy kegs. You must deal with sexual harassment such as perverted comments, inappropriate touching, and customers mistaking good customer service for romantic interest. You also have to put up with drunk and combative customers who pose a daily hazard. As cutting them off can result in verbal hostility. You have no days off for emotions and often have to hear lectures from strangers on how you should “smile more.” Not to mention a disrupted social life. And that’s what the job of bar maid’s like today. If you were that barmaid at the Foiles Bergere, you’d be dealing with the same crap at longer hours, at a lower salary, and a greater reliance on tips. In fact, the Foiles Bergere was a notorious establishment for picking up prostitutes. While 19^th century French society viewed barmaids like you as Guy de Maupassant put it, “vendors of drink and of love.” So yes, you’ll also be serving some paying customers upstairs but not with drinks.

13. Medieval Squire – In stories about heroic knights, the noble squire tags along as his sidekick during his boss’s adventures, assisting him however he could. Or if it’s Sancho Panza, happily tag along for the ride because seeing your boss attack windmills brings a much-needed escape to your otherwise boring life. But to be a squire in reality was like being on a seven-year internship as a knight’s personal assistant from completing your time as a page at 14 to 21. You have to clean and polish your master’s heavy, bloody plate armor with harsh abrasives such as sand, vinegar, and possibly your own piss. You must accompany your knight directly onto the battlefield and often take the brunt of danger. In addition to camp and sparring partner duty, you also have to drag your knight to a safe place should he get wounded or killed. As for training, expect to endure a harsh regimen as your knight beats you with a stick every time you make a mistake along with punishing sword drills in the mud, bleeding knuckles during shield lessons, and enduring harsh weather. Your living accommodations will comprise of sleeping in your master’s drafty stable alongside his unruly war horses along with meager food rations while you must serve a luxurious feast to your knight. But if you stick it out for 7 years, you earn that long-awaited knighthood you endured so much abuse for. Unless you can’t afford the price tag for the ceremony or the equipment which could be incredibly expensive. That many squires simply remained servants or became mercenaries simply because they couldn’t afford to be officially knighted.

14. Showgirl – Whether a Parisian cabaret dancer at the Moulin Rouge, a Ziegfield Girl in an old Broadway chorus line, a saloon girl in the Old West, or a lady in a feather headdress in Las Vegas, showgirls are always these beautiful well-dressed goddesses with shiny costumes amid bright lights on the stage who sing, dance, play, and/or entertain patrons with a smile. But behind the fancy costumes and the limelight, a showgirl’s life involved grueling physical demands, severe age and weight limits, and brutal exploitation. Currently, Las Vegas showgirls must perform high-energy, precision routines up to 2 shows every night that could result in chronic foot, knee, and back injuries. Their career span is notoriously short with many women being pushed out or “aged out” once they reach their late 20s or 30s. They also have to maintain rigorous weight, height, and appearance standards. With the pressure to maintain that specific look contributing to an environment that could quickly lead to replacement and blacklisting. Instead of artists and athletes meriting respect, they’re often treated as interchangeable props and objects of male desire. While working late on the Las Vegas Strip can leave performers prone to aggressive, drunken crowds, unwanted advances, and unsafe working conditions. But at least they get paid well for this, don’t they? Actually, they’re often paid relatively low, contracted wages compared to their off-stage labor. Even though their casino resort workplaces may yield massive ticket sales. Most of these Vegas showgirls’ historical counterparts had to contend with a lot of the same crap and then some. Ziegfeld girls were expected to maintain a flawless public image, socialize with wealthy patrons, and navigate relentless attention of stage-door “Johnnies,” rich men who lavished them with expensive gifts and Park Avenue apartments. Sure, some Ziegfeld girls would marry rich sugar daddies and enjoy successful show biz careers like Barbara Stanwyck. Yet, others struggled with transitioning from a working-class life to high society. While the social pressures, volatile relationships, and physical toll from fame often led to tragedy. Those working at a Belle Epoque night club or an Old West saloon may also work as prostitutes on the side though this wasn’t universal.

15. Continental Soldier– Ah, to be a member of the Continental Army during the American Revolution. Your commander is George Washington and you’re fighting for independence from the tyrannical Great Britain. However, fighting for independence shouldn’t be taken lightly so you better know the significant risks involved. Because fighting for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness will be a completely miserable 6-8 years. Most of you will likely be from impoverished backgrounds and between the ages of 15-30. Since your new country’s government has no power to tax, you’ll spend a lot of time constantly starving, freezing, and unpaid. If you’re paid in Continental currency at $6.23 monthly, severe hyperinflation will render it worthless. And because merchants don’t want to receive worthless currency, they won’t sell anything to the Continental Army. So expect frequent food and supply shortages. You’ll also often lack adequate clothing, blankets, and shoes so enjoy the catching exposure, frostbite, and starvation during the winter at Valley Forge. Besides, it’s not like you needs those toes anyway. As for camp conditions, well, they’ll be notoriously filthy with diseases like smallpox killing more of you than musket balls ever will. Offenses from petty theft to minor insubordination will get you a dozen floggings from your friend or a drummer boy or even public execution. And if you get captured by the British, well, expect spending your POW days on a decaying, unsanitary prison ship in New York harbor where the starvation and disease will make it more likely that you’ll not leave there alive.

16. Chariot Racer – The epic chariot race scene in Ben Hur is among the most memorable in cinema and mostly holds up to historical accuracy if we ignore Messala’s participation. In ancient Greece and Rome, chariot racing was a highly popular spectator sport. Even more popular than gladiator matches and we know Romans loved their gladiators. With the Circus Maximus able to seat up to 150,000-250,000 screaming fans watching competitors racing teams of 4 horses for 7 laps along a narrow track divided by a central barrier. However, we must concede that racing chariots were helmed by slaves or hired professionals. Because the sport was extremely violent and often fatal. Collisions were frequent. And because drivers wrapped the reins around their waists for better control, crashes meant being dragged to death. But they also carried curved knives in case of emergencies. Still, despite the risks, successful chariot racers could become a megastar athlete of the ancient Greco-Roman world. One Gaius Appuleius Diocles competed for 24 years, won 1,462 of his 4,257 starts, and become one of the highest paid athletes of his day. Yet, his biggest victory was being able to retire at 42. Scorpus was said to win over 2,000 before a collision at the meta killed him at 27. Some slave racers were able to win their freedom if they raced long enough. But given the high fatality rate, such illustrious careers weren’t likely.

17. Musher – Dog sledding might seem rather benign nowadays since sled dog teams mostly used for racing and recreation. But mushing is one of the oldest forms of transportation in the Arctic and was one of the primary modes for getting from point A to point B for thousands of years. Until the mid-20^th century, dog sledding was a primary mode of transportation in the Arctic and essential to survival since dog sleds carried freight, mail, and passengers across the frozen North. Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen used sled dogs to carry supplies during his Antarctic expedition, eventually becoming the first to reach the South Pole. However, mushing is an extremely grueling, exhausting and financially draining lifestyle. You’re dealing with navigating through extreme freezing temperatures, intense winds, and whiteouts for days or weeks on end. If you must do a speedy relay of serum during a diphtheria outbreak in Nome, you’ll have to sleep in short bursts lasting 2-4 hours as well as constantly watch over and care for your dogs before briefly hitting the hay so keep that alarm clock handy. You may also risk severe frostbite, hypothermia, and injury in the remote wilderness. You should also be wary of the local wildlife like moose, wolves, and grizzly bears which can seriously injure or kill dogs on the line. In today’s dollars, keeping a medium-sized kennel annually can cost between $30,000-$75,000 for food, equipment, and veterinary care and it’s not exactly a profitable enterprise. And that’s not getting into what the dogs must contend with. While 20^th century advances in transportation such as airplanes and snowmobiles would render dog sledding as no longer essential for the most part.

18. Railroad Worker – With locomotives becoming a dominant form of transportation during the 19^th century, railroad construction sprang throughout much of the western world. Although building the railroad isn’t as glamorized as other professions, it’s still immortalized in the tale of John Henry who beat a drilling machine before dying from exhaustion. Nonetheless, although we know that building railroad track was hard and grueling work, we often don’t see the full picture. When it came to building the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States during the 1860s, the workforce was very diverse with Chinese, Irish, German, and Italian immigrants along with Mormons and American Civil War veterans. Chinese railroad workers who did most of the manual back-breaking labor on the western Central Pacific Railroad faced severe discrimination, long days, lower wages than their white counterparts and had to pay for food and board, and dangerous working conditions (like blasting tunnels through solid granite). They also faced a lot of harassment by their white co-workers seeing them as competition. But why did they hire Chinese workers? Because most white people in California didn’t want to work on the railroad. Yet, Chinese workers did go on strike once in 1867 while building track along the Sierra Nevada. But at least Chinese workers didn’t drink as well as regularly bathed and washed their own clothes. The same couldn’t be said about their white counterparts who lived in cramped quarters, didn’t bathe much, and became susceptible to water-borne illnesses. Then there were fears of Native American raids to worry about in the Great Plains area since attacks were known to happen on that land the US government had stolen from them. The labor was backbreaking through bad weather conditions. Still, during the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, hundreds would die from explosions, accidents, landslides, and disease.

19. Chimney Sweep – Who remembers all the happily singing and dancing chimney sweeps in Mary Poppins? Well, that’s a rather spirited and quaint homage to what’s been long-considered as one of the most brutal and dangerous jobs to ever exist. From the late 17^th to the late 19^th centuries, the job of chimney sweep often involved forcing desperately impoverished small boys as young as 3 years old into dangerously narrow 14-18 inch venting systems of wealthier homes. Many of these children were orphans but some were sold out by their destitute parents. And sometimes girls were used, too. Often they worked in a forced apprenticeship under an adult master sweep who had complete control over their lives as their legal guardian. This tied them to their master and to their profession until adulthood with no legal route to escape. While the local parish often paid the master sweep to take these children in and teach them the trade. Money brought by paying customers went to the master. Today we call this arrangement legalized child trafficking and child slavery. Anyway, these little chimney cleaning boys regularly suffocated inside the flues or died after getting hopelessly stuck in the labyrinth brickwork along with falling and burns. Should a child freak out or climbed too slowly, “masters” sometimes resorted to lighting small fires at the chimney’s fire to force them to move faster. Because sweeps were forced to wedge themselves into tight spaces and navigate small corners in unnatural positions, many suffered from twisted spines, deformed ankles, and twisted kneecaps. Constant exposure to toxic coal soot and ash caused horrific, long-term health conditions that would give pediatricians trauma-inducing nightmares. Inhaling the residue ruined children’s lungs and caused a specific, incredibly painful, and fatal form of scrotal cancer called “Chimney Sweep’s Carcinoma.” And like most jobs that employed child laborers, sweeps typically worked without pay, were barely fed, and were forced to sleep in basements on piles of filthy soot bags. This resulted in them frequently suffering from eye inflammation and blindness from rubbing soot in their eyes. While bathtime was rare if not, then nonexistent. The job of child chimney sweep was such a nightmarish practice that British Parliamentarians began to crack down on this exploitation in 1875. And the fact they did this during the Victorian Era really says something.

20. Whaler – Although this practice has long gone by the wayside due to the number of whales it put on the endangered species list, commercial whaling was big business back in the olden days when whale oil was used fuel our lamps. Yet, the idea of serving on a whaling ship evokes being in a Herman Melville story where the biggest danger is a one-legged captain who let it go with that one white whale. That or catchy sea shanties on TikTok. However, before you grab your harpoon to get yourself a nice sized sperm whale, know that the job was famously miserable. You get to hunt large, desperate animals from small, fragile wooden rowboats. Should that whale thrash and dive deep, expect the boat be smashed to splinters or drag the crew to their watery death. When you successfully harpoon a whale, know that it’ll frantically swim away and drag your little whaleboat at breakneck speeds across choppy, freezing ocean waters. This is what we call the “Nantucket Sleighride.” But once you successfully kill the whale it’s on to the processing phase. First, it’s the physically exhausting and messy “cutting in” that involves hacking into thick, oily blubber in freezing, storm-tossed waters while enduring the stench of whale flesh was nauseating and overwhelming. Then there’s the boiling process where that blubber’s melted down in massive brick furnaces on deck called tryworks that turned the whaling ship into a floating fire hazard and filled the living quarters with thick, choking, black soot. As for accommodations, expect your whaling voyage to last 3-4 years where you’ll be crowded with your fellow sailors in damp, dark, and unventilated spaces below deck. You’ll sleep in bug-infested bunks and survive on a monotonous diet of spoiled food like wormy hard tack and salted meat. Due to living in the 19^th century, medical care will be primitive so expect to lose a limb, suffer severe burns from burning oil, or die from outbreaks of scurvy, typhoid, or dysentery. But at least the job pays well? Uh, actually being part of a whaling crew won’t guarantee you a set wage but a “lay” which is a percentage of the voyage’s profits. But after your captain deducts ridiculous fees for food, gear, and supplies, you’ll likely find yourself deeply in debt to the ship’s owners and having to go through all this nightmare again.