Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1884-04-09
THE FIREMAN'S STORY.

Coal dust, cinders, oil and smoke
usually make firemen on duty rather
grlmy looking personages. Perhaps few
among the thousands of passengers who
ride Ill the railroad cars behind Us would
care for our acquaintance. But we are
useful-as useful, perhaps, as any other
class Of men; aad certainly we have our
fall share of the hard, disagreeable
things IN life, including frequent peril
and much exposure 70 weather,
Working up from fireman to engine
driver, or engineer, we are usually
called IN this country-is often a slow
process. There are men on our line
the Hudson River Railroad-who have
been firing eleven years with no pro-
motion yet, though they are no doubt
fully competent to run an engine. For
promotion depends almost wholly upon
vacancies occurring, or some special in
fuence at headquarters.
A man ought to become thoroughly
familiar with locomotive in eleven
years. I thought that J knew every
screw IN mine after firing two years.
Yet 1t takes a good deal of time to learn
to fire well, so as to get the most steam
out of the least fuel, and TO have the
highest pressure at the grades where it
Is most needed. To do this man should
know the road, every rod of it, as we'll as
the engine.
Then comes the oiliDg. An engine
requires a great deal of oil, as well as
coal and water. The fireman has to keep
IN mind ali those scores of bearings
where oil has to be applied. Between
olllng, sboveling In coal, shaking and
stirring up his fre--to keep it steady
and hot-and looking to his stock of
coal and water, he is kept busy, and
must needs watch sharply. But man
gets these duties well fixed in his head
IN time.
It is while 'tfring" that the practi-
cal knowledge of running an engine is
gained. A fireman is the groom, so to
speak, of the ''iron horse. He must,
morning and evening, have the engine
polished, 'sfred up, and ready for his
superior, the engineer, to step into the
cab and start off. Usually the engineer
does not make his appearance till the
moment OF connection with the train.
Between the engineer and his fireman
there generally exists an easy-going and
manly sort of friendship, though I have
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each other.
When I began to fire under, "Doc''
Simmons, scarcely knew enough to
build good fire in cook-stove, and
could not have found a quarter of the
oil caps. I must have been trial to
him the first week or two. But he
never gave me sharp word, though he
often had to tell me things over and over
again.
"Doc"-as the railway men all called
him-was superior engineer. He knew
every pound of metal In a locomotive
just where it lay, and how much it was
good for. He was one of those men who
seem to feel Just what there is in a To-
connective the moment he takes hold of the
levers and starts up. He was good
hearted fellow, and always had a pleas
ant word, or Joke, all along the line;
and it is generally the case that such
men do not fail the company, or the pub
lie, at critical moment.
went home and cried like baby the
dav ssDoc" was killed. If it had been
NV own father I could not have felt half
as badly. I actually wished that I had
gone to the bottom of the river with
him.
It was the night of the 9th of Februa-
ry, and fearfully cold. We had 'sNo.