Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1879-08-06
NO MORE FLIRTING.
A CRUEL BLOW AT THE GENTLE BRAKES.
MANA PROTEST

A CRUEL BLOW AT THE GENTLE BRAKES
MANA PROTEST
A New York railroad has recently
issued an exceedingly irritating anC
cruel, not. to say inhuman, order. Th,
average freight train brakeman, as b.
sits perched high upon his wheel skim
ming through the country at the rate
of ten or fifteen miles an hour, has lit
tie to do save watch for and enjoy the
beauties Of nature which he finds spread
out about him with a bounteous hand. In
the woodland and on the mead, in the
harvest-field and the market garden
about the farmers cot and in the village
he finds new forms Of beauty, and cul
tivates his aesthetic tastes with the as.
siduity of a French voyager. But, as
is the case with many landscape
painter, the strong points of the fitting
pictures formed upon the retin@ OF the
visual organs of this knight of the steel
track are not the ever-changing lights
and shadows upon the distant hills, the
striking contrasts of dark green mead.
ows and ripcning grain, or hocks Of
sheep or herds OF cattle lolling lazily
upon the hillside, but they are the
human figures in the foreground
There is the dairymaid daintily balanc-
ing a pail upon her head, the farmers
daughter, per chance, on her way to
meeting Of a Sunday morning, the
female helpers picking berries and
hops, wedding the market gardens or
tending their onion beds in the great
marshes. With these and many more
he picks up dis tant acquaintance all
along his route, nodding in friendly
mood TO one, throwing kiss at anoth-
er who happens TO particularly strike
his fancy, and metaphorically shaking
hands with them all. And sometimes
the picture becomes moving one. A
nod of the head gives sign OF recogni-
ton, or some saucy country lass, just
for the fun of the thing, you know,
puts the tips of her fingers to her lips
and returns to the naughty brakeman
full acknowledgment of her receipt
of his hearty greeting. Perhaps, oc-
casionally it is farmers pert young
wife, who, regardless Of her VOWS,
wickedly exchanges significant glancos
with the hale and hearty fellow who
daily passes her door and this tickles
the depraved brakeman, as he thinks
of the conquests he has made and how
furious this husband or that lover
would be if he only knew of the fur
tive smiles and glances and finger
kisses which were bestowed where they
do not belong.
All this OF course might be very
wrong, theoretically at least, but it is
the only amusement which is furnished
the lonely brakeman during his long
hours at HIS post of duty, and he falls
into the habit of picking up these cas-
ual semi.acquaintances as naturally as
he gets inside when it rains. 1t be-
comes part Of his daily life as much
as his meat and drink. Whether the
country husbands of the Empire State
have begun to realize that the happi-
noes of thor lives is in jeopardy and
have consequently laid a monster pc
tition before the railroad corporations
to prevent q continuance Of the evil,
does not appear; but certain IL is that
all the employees of one OF the roads of
that State have been ordered to cease
all such attentions to friends along the
routes which they travel. A modest
maiden can now see freight train
pass without tear Of being shocked by
having a kiss ruthlessly flung at her,
and anxious husbands and lovers can
possess their souls in peace. If here
after the wandering eye of brake
man or other railroad employe should
catch All accidental glimpse Of crino.
line, he must turn his face the other
way, and il perchance he finds the
same attractive apparition on every
side, he must close his eyes and put his
hands before his face, so that there shall
be no possibility of an unintentional
disobedience OF orders. Ifthe railroad
officials, as has been suggested, have
made this rule for fear that the atten-
tions of brakemen TO the cultivation OF
their peculiar aesthetic taste would in
teriere with their duties and lead to
collisions or other disasters, they have
made grave mistake, for it would
take more of their timo and closer at
tention TO avoid flirting than it would
TO Hirt, and, furthermore, the needless
cruelty of the order will place them in
such respondent state of mind that
they will not be able to fulfill their
duties with that alacrity and zest
which is easy enough when one is in
buoyant spirits. 1t will not, we ina.
gine, be long before the officials will
see the error they made and rescind
an order which takes from a large
class of the community the personal
freedom TO which all free born citizens
are entitled.-Bdltimore American.