Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1869-07-10
THE CONDUCTOR S STORY


the hotel smoking room @rate, when
one man said
Il have ulMay Thought IA like to
Ice a railroad coutiit..tor fsf "A little
| while III ieaEt"
The old coHtnrjor sfnile,i and
knn"Ec'i the ash,. nfi nis cigar
We'll, said hr, 81 believe almost
every body has had HAT feeling at
one Time or another. There l.. SOME
tlting fascinating to q sober business
man III thc idea of doing business
and your living at 30 miles AN hour.
ansl the spice Of danger that YOU lggutj
AT amy nontent be sent to Kingdom
""ii,t- i,y lightning express is junt
| vague enough {" not frighten, hut at
| tract. But L. Il conductor it,. n pro-
Saie business enough. So it is To en-
<ttt7 and brakcSiupn. DON'T you
icinetn ber that, at the inquest over
| tht- Norwich Bridge accident, ii was
shown That the engineer was in the
h'thtt of opening everything, and
| Then reading Il newspaper lie WAS
negieeting his business, of course :;
but IL shows what habit viii do !;
| tNiil make a fcadiug-room OF an cX-
| press engine.
Railroad men learn the lesson Of
| punctualIty very thoroughly. II
start on time, ana then All awful row
| IL certain. One Time / was in Alba
ny, and that afternoon the Hudson
| River, Boston and Central trains all
started at O'Clock. We'll, the con
uuetors OF the trains ana the engin-
cors, too, went down the river on \
| iittlc propelIef-thc Julia, | think
| she was called. We turned round in
| plenty OF time, nut about ten miles
| below Albany we ram agrodnd. We
were III Il nice scrapc. There wasn't
| a conductor at the depot To take amy
ones place, and the tide was falling.
| Williams, u splendid, great big fell
| low, got desperate, jumped into the
river, put his shoulder under the
stern, where the propeller had
caught on mud bank, and as the
| boat MAS about nine cat power only
| and lac WAS ii perfect Hercules, he ac-
tually lifted her oil, and " c got 10 Al
| bany just in time-only Williams
had To run to Syracuse with his wet
| clothes on.
Its queer existence, too. run
| ming day after day through a lot of
| little place that You don't take any
interest in, or know anything about,
| more Than that the stations are call
ed such stations. II isn't such n
| dangerous life, either. Accident in
/ 9urlnce companies don't rate paSsCu-
| ger conductors very high, but ii eV 80
| YOU want to feel how helpless a NOR
/ tai You are in the hands of the Al
I mighty, just got on an express en-
Sinc, and get the engineer to open
| every thing on n dark night. It's
| positively awful Ia see your head
| light boring into darkness, and To
| think that between you and instant
| death there's only the chance of the
| two pi~-svH II iron you're travelling
| on being continuous and clear; that
! II somebody has just pried up "A rail
since the last train went over, ur an
chor"st something on the track, your
friends won't know y"lr body when
| the cnrUnpt'a Jury calls them IA wit
ut-S4es Ia your identity. That's the
way / thuught the first time / tried
| Il, hut ihr engineer was smoking u
| pipe, aud the fireman w:,a whi-tin"
| '1im-a- long Ju>ry.'
"When a conductor rads a train
ont OF town mi rus- another in
again TIA" same day, IL isn't such n
queer life .tS when hr runs a tram
| ont one day und 5f the next IhsR
| lac lives two lives. one night he's "a
nrtfried man at One place; the next
| n,"htItc's "A bachelor at another place,
and the nrNt night 4 married man
again and 40 ON, see SAW.
There's a kind of feeling OF res
| pon-ibility, having three "a four
/ hundred lives la your keeping But
| then, there's lhe rules. II you keep
1" them, If any thing happens it isn't
youI iault- When yDu are out of
| tina" and have L. wait, ynu T. sure la
hr hHdevryd by questions. 4 for
| cIsuer once told mc that one of the
! most surprising thing he'd seen in
| America WAS the respect paid to CON
| turtnf~ ANA the WAY they were obey
| ed hS passengers. Rut passengers
| viii ask questions when you're wait
ing, aud its provoking. one day !
was oHt al time, and ran of on a
switch tu wait fur either TIA" down
train nr a Telegram to como on. Ry
ant 10y, l"IHpaI~ mHu comes to me
t= wa~ -Ittiu. on the fence.
Mt conductor, saA Hr, what
1.c We waiting fol t'
For the down train we're out
of tiHue. There's a single track here,
nnd ~hy h:,s the TIs.i,t ui way
'Iut suppose ih" down train Is
behind, tnu.'
Then IN get "a telegram
'I.ut SUPPOSE they don telegraph
y"u, how long viii you wait
d.. -fir .tfstr.t~ sts't tW. SAID l.
He went back 10 the coach,
growing something cli,odt haN ing
au engagement III town 1T the hour
the train WAS due, and / afteTward
found oUt that Ne was the Nire-P Pres
ident al thc ro,td. But lac WAS "A sen
-ihlc old fellow, though q-Iick tenn
| pered, aua l stood better with the
officers Tor what had said. He used
Ia .'okc heavy fun at me sometimes,
al.d recommend me to wet the
wheels ami they would rust oil
| sooner.
Its astonishing how reckless
some railroad men become. | WAS
ou "a side track waiting ont Of time
OIcc, ana a fellow comes la me and
says. why don't you 80 on - Cause
my orders are to stay / said rather
sharply.
He was the new superintendent,
! 3 young fellow whom / had never
4 seen, because he'd Just come on 10
the road. Tie was courtius q girl ola
the line ot the road, | afterwards
found out, and lad an engagement
tp 20 10 n bali With her that night,
which this lay-oNcr' lntcrfered with.
$50 lac says. very quickly, No
|, they amt and when / looked sur
/ prise,l, he says, Il IN the sUperintend-
ent Of this road, and tell you You Ye
time 10 get over this hit OF single
track and have three minutes Ia
spare before the Down train reaches
g it. l have calculated and kHoto.'