The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1869-07-29
Gales, gkettBes, 5mtOotrs, dc.
THE CONDUCTORS STORY.

We were smoking one night before the
hotel smoking room CRATE, when one man
said
81 have always thought I'd like TO be
a railroad conductor-for little while at
least"
The old conductor smiled and knocked
the ashes off his cigar.
"WelI," said he, Il believe almost ev-
erybody has bad that feeling at one time
or another There is something fascina-
ting to a sober busin ess man in the idea
of doing business and earning your living
at 80 miles an hour, and the spice Of dan
ger that you naGy at any moment be sent
to kingdom come by lightning express
is just vague enough not 10 frigbten, but
attract. But to a conductor It's prosa-
ic business enough. So it is to engineers
and brakcmen. Don't you remember
that, at the inquest over the Norwich
Bridge accident, il was shown that the
engineer was in the habit of opening cv-
| erything, aud then reading a newspaper
| He was neglecting his business, Of course,
! but it shows what habit will do +; twill
make a readIng-room of an express en-
CINE
Railroad men learn the lesson of
! punctuaiity very thoroughly. 1t wont
do 10 be late, Or the train won't start on
time, and then 40 awful row is certain.
One time | was at Albany, and that aE-
ternoon the Hudson River, Boston and
Central trains all started at O'clock
Well, the conductors of the trains, and
engineers, too, went down the river on a
little propellor-the Julia think che was
called. We turned around in plenty of
time, but about ten miles below Albany
we ran aground. We were in a nice
scrape. There wasn't a conductor at
the depot to take any ones place, and the
tide was falling. Williams, a splendid,
great big fellow, got desperate, jumped
into the river, put his shoulder under the
stern, where the propeller had struck
mud bank, and as the boat was about
nine cat power only, and he was a per-
feet Hercules, he actually lifted her off,
and we got to Albany just in time-only
Williams had TO run to Syracuse with
his wet clothes on.
''It's queer existence, running day
after day through lot of little places that
you don't take any interest in, or know
anything about, more than that the sta
tions are called such stations. 1t isn't
such dangerous life, either. Accident
insurance companies don't rate passenger
conductors very high, but if you want to
feel how helpless a mortal you are in the
hands of the Almighty, just get on an
express engine, and get the engineer to
sopen everything on dark night. It's
positively awful to see your headlight
boring into darkness, and to think that
between you and instant death there's only
the chance of the two pieces of iron you're
travelling on being continuous and clear
that if somebody had just pried up rail
since the last train went over, or anchor
ed something on the track, your friends
wouldn't know your body when the coro-
ner's Jury called them as witnesses to
your identity. That's the way l thought
the first time l tried it, but the engineer
was smoking a pipe and the fireman was
whistling 'Jim>a-long-Josy.'
"When a conductor runs train out
of town and another in again the same
day, it isn't such a queer life as when ne
runs a train out one day and an the next
Then he lives two lives. One night he's
a married man at one place the next
night he's a bachelor at another place,
and the next day married man again
and so on, see saw,