National Republican., 1884-02-23
LIFE ON THE RAIL.
Nip Lungron Travels $50 Times the Cir
CumferenCe Of the Globe
Queer Experience Amid baggage smash
ers, Crnnks, and Travellers.

| No class OF bread winners see so many
phases of human life aud character or in
their daily avocations encounter SO many
startling incidents as the train officials on
the trunk lines Of railroads. Ono Of this
class who is about to retro from tho rond
after twenty years Of continuous service, was
met yesterday. The first three years was
spent as a brakesmau, and tho remaining
seventeen as q baggage mastor. This vet
oran is Nip Lungren, whose railway service
| has carried him over l,6l90O0 miles or $50
times around the globe with 1890 miles to
| spare.
Twelve years Of this long service was be.
| tween New York and Washington, but tho
last eight have been passed OH the road be-
tween Washington and Philadelphia.
"Is not the service between New York
and Washington preferable to that between
| PHILADELPHIA and Washington2
! Yes" he answered, lin some respects,
| but railway men, you know, have no voice
as to where they will serve. They must 20
| whore they are ordered or 80 Off tho road al
! together"
passage you must have encountered many
queer peopleP
Queer No end to them. There is never
| q trip but we have trouble with some sort of
crank. Many people lose the checks for their
baggage and insist on its being handed over
without surrendering the checks, which can't
be done, you know. During the centennial at
Philadelphia when travel was so heavy we
used TO have no end of such trouble. One
morning had TO knock two men down to
prevent them from carrying away their trunks
| without giving up the checks. Ono of them
happened to he a high official of the road but
| ] didn't know who no was. Did get in trouble
| thrnnuh thu afluirp Not nf 10. fbn
officer happened to have good sense and com.
| mended instead of censuring me. IL Is strange
too, how people trust valuables to the inse-
curity Of ordinary baggage. One morning at
Washington lady came to the baggage car
and handing up her check. asked to
| be given her baggage for moment 1t
was a small, we'll worn valise not worth q
dollar. She opened it without key. and
right before our eyes took out n large roll of
greenbacks, apparently about $500, and TAX
ing out two five dollars bills, put the roll back
in the valise, and handed it back to us. 1t was II
compliment to our honesty no doubt, but she
was crank all the same"
You were on the road during the war
but probably met with nothing connected
with it except the constant carrying of
soldiers?"
"Yes, did, for one morning Harry Gilmor
while on one Of his raids captured our train
| at Magnolia station. His men took all the
passengers' watches and money burnt all the
cars, aud disabled the locomotive. Gen.
Franklin was on the train, but the rebels
were after plunder, not prisoners and did not
carry him away-besido, he was in citizens
dress and they didn't know who he was.
| suppose ifthey had they would have furnished
him with free transportation to Libby prison.
| forgot to say that Gilmor burnt the bridge
| at Magnolia, thus interrupting direct COM
munication between Washington and the
north, which was no doubt tho principal
object of the raid"
How is it, Nip you have neyer been
CONDUCTOR
II never tried for it. l never have had
any desire to end my days in disgrace or
possibly prison. | am no better than other
men and my fingers might have run away
| with my conscience. But for other reasons
/ did not ca-e about being pushed ahead; it
may sound queer, but l tell you there is
pleasure to certain extent in our work a
sort of satisfaction in knocking trunks out
on the Sullivan plan"
"How aboat baggage smashing?"
"Well, l will say this: That If II trunk can
stand for q few weeks the pounding we give
| IL, the thing must be rs solid as the rock of
Gibraltar. But must modify what sa id
minute ago. As n rule there is no malice or
intentional carelessness in the way We handle
baggage. We have got to do things in o
| hurry always, and never have time to handle
a trunk as If it were u baby. Beside that
| lnObt people IraNOl with Lno lllulSleSt SORT OF
| trunks-things made to sell cheap and not to
stand the ordinary wear and tear of travel
The frst-class sole-leather trunk is the
cheapest in the long run, for it dedes us; we
can throw il about with all the force we can
muster, but it bounces around unhurt, like an
india rubber ball"
How are you train people treated, as
rule, by the travelling public"
There is q deal of talk, you know, about
the rudeness OF train officials to passengers;
there may be some truth in the charge, but
such rudeness is nothing at all compared with
that Of passengers to train people. They seem
to think that every conductor is % thief. and
every baggage master and brakesman q men ial
of tho lowest class. They are especially an
noying to conductors and brakesmen, for they
can't get at us except when the train is stand.
ing at stations. When approaching great
cities the travellers from the country espe.
cally old ladies, will insist on the conductor
or baggage MASTER or brakesman telling them
where some friend they want to
visit lives, just as if every train
official were personally acquainted with every
body in New York, Philadelphia Baltimore
and Washington. This sort OF thing is very
annoying sometimes, but we must bear with
1t as one of the irritations of our calling.
"Were you ever in an acCidentW
ain an accident Why, scores of them, to
be sure. Fifty at any rate, and some of them
very serious And / want to say this about
railway accidents The public seem to think
that the majority of such mishaps are not &C.
cidents ut all, but are due to the culpable
carelossness OF the engineer. That is non
sense, for in ninety-n nine cases in hundred
the engineer has tho least chance Of safety
and he is not likely to wilifully pick up an
accident when he has the best chUuce Of all
TO be killed or manned. / admit that many
catastrophos arc due to the carolessness OI
stupidity of railway people, but they are
switchmGn, telegraph operators, bridge tend
ers, and the like, and not the people on the
train. l will say this there can't be rail
way accident without some ono connected
with the line being to blame"
With this truth the talk Of the veteran
came to an end.
The Tabernacle Concert.
The fourth grand concert given by til,