In third or fourth grade the teacher discussed different occupations, and we all raised our hands and named different occupations that we could think of. You can imagine how confused she looked when I said "tarrier". She asked me what it was, but all I could tell her was that I had heard it in a song.

Years later, it occurred to me to look up the word in the dictionary, and I discovered it wasn't there. I decided that it must be a noun form taken from the verb 'to tarry', and that calling the workers tarriers was the same as calling them laggards or slackers.

The Stephen Crane quote seems to destroy that theory.