Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1883-12-27
THE NEW TIMER.
Something of the Man who Brought
About the Meridian scheme

Are you able to ride along in street
car without reading every signboard
in regular SucceSsioni writes New
York correspondent Can you pass q
row of posts without instinctively
counting them2 Isn't there something
in your mind that irreSisibly compels
you to step on alternative tlagsigus, if
the make of the sidewalk permits |
know a man who took tn, tendencies
for incipieutin insanity, and went TO ano-
ted physician fora consultation Going
down Broadway, yesterday, | saw a
man who stepped with an odd preciS
ion which suggested the questions
above given. Not only We're his strides
strangely perfect in regularity, but it
was clear that his course was labor
iously calculated He was watchful
for every obstacle. He lostled nobody
He did not have to stop at the corners
to avoid vehicles | called my compan-
ions attention to this singularity.
He is running himself ON an mag
mary time table, was the reply.
" What do you mean by that -
| asked.
THAT is William friedrich Allen,
the author of the new time system,
He is an expert in railroad time tables,
and what you see in his gait and move
mentS is manneriSm gained from
his business There is going to be a
Beautiful Show sort of controversy
as to tAe authorship of the new timing
plan, and l thought 1t was rs well to
investigate. My friend was right
Allen is the man. At desk in big
front room at 46 Bond street, Just OIL
the Bowery, he sits during business
hours every day He is a young man
whose time is occupied to an amazing
degree with visitors, with great sheets
of printed figures, with business by
telegraph and telephone and with an
interminable round of messengers,
both going at his order and coming
upon eTands for others. He isas quick
as a cat aud methodical as "a weaver
/ His friends say he was always able
/ to do three things at once, and he says
/ that of late twice that number of things
! is constantly before him. This is the
man who has given his new standards
of time to the country He is good
/ looking, intelligent man 81 years old,
with the spare frame and pale com
| pleXiou of a man used to hard seden
/ tary work. He wears "a suit of black
with out jewelry, and this with disclose
cut side whskers reaching below his
ears gives him the appearance of a
young English divine. He is a typical
| Philadelphia, with none of the dash
and show Of New Yorker He re
ceives a handsome salary and lives IN
pretty house in one of the suburbs
He is married and has three children
Many people had given years Of study
to the subject before he took 1T up,
aud he gives credit to each of those
who contributed to what he has now
Consummated,
The fact of the matter is that the
thing could only be done by join
action of the great railroads, and none
of these who studied the subject ar
ranged to put their plans into practica
shape or to get the ear of more thar
one set Of railroad officials at time
Their plans were like the house that &
rich sea captain insisted upon having
built Just as he designed it. When i
was built, ne found that he had TO &C
out into the yard and put up a ladder
to get to the second story. They al
forgot to put the stairs in their plans
Allen is the permanent secretary oi
the railway time convention, and helps
to make and publish the time tables
1t did not take him long to find out
that there were 50 kinds of time in use
and that this caused incessant and Sc
rious bother. That was how he came
TO look into the matter OF standards OF
time. He utilized Professor Dowd''
brilliant idea of dividing the standards
/ by even hours, and then he did
what Professor Dowd would not have
thought Of doing and couldn't have
done TO save his neck He divided the
meridianal belts SO as to bring the
boundaries either at the enus Of the
big roads or the divisions, so that NJ
change of time would ever interfere
with a trains crow, but new time would
start where new crews, new time
tables, and as far as possible, different
companies would begin work coinci
dent with the beginning of new stan
dard. 1t was a nice piece Of work, anc
required great labor, but when he got
it ready he was able TO command the
ears Of the railroad men This last ad
vantage was essential.