The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-17
A LIFE OF HARDSHIP.
What the Freight Brakeman Under
goes in Wintry Weather.
From the Ner York Times.

From the Ne,C York Times.
HARRISBURG, March 3.-On one of the
very coolest and stormiest days of this
winter | was in the office OF Pennsylvania
railroad official overlooking a vast yard of
endless switches and siding, over which
shifting trains and locomotives were moving
like so many huge shuttles. \ rugged
looking young man, wearing cap, rusty
blue reefng jacket, a blue flannel shirt and
baggy trousers stuffed in high rubber boots
entered the office, took off his cap, and, as
soon as he could get his breath, thus adj
dressed the official:
II want to leave my name for the job o.
brakin' on freight train 80. Jimmy Riley's
out o 1t. He just got cnt in two up in the
yard. The train was comm IN purity lively,
an the cars was icy on top. The engineer
whistled for brakes an Jimmy started to
run over the top o. the train. He slipped
an fell betwixt two cars. He hit on the
bumper, an grabbed tosave himself, but he
couldn't ketch nothin', an dropped on to
The rah, Both trucks went over HIM. Me
an another Teller was there, an we started
for here as fast as We could get to ask for
Jimmy's place. | got here first, an I'd like
the job first-rate. il you could give it to ME,
sir
The railroad officials promised to hold the
application for considei alton, and the man
went out, evidently well pleased.
There is no calling" said the official
when the man had gone $50 beseb with
danger and hardships as that of a railroad
brakeman. especially on long freight trains;
and yet if their should be twenty brakeman
killed on this OF any other road to day there
would be as many applicants for each mans
place as soon as the news Of his death be-
came known. The man who was Just here
was an eye witness of Riley's frightful
death, and yet whatever impre ssion is made
upon him was lost in appreciation of the
fact that the dead man had left place to be
filled by some one else. That prompted him
to act at once, and he lost not second in
securing all the advantage priority of APP
plication might give him.
Every railroad has hanging about its
yards and stations small army of these
anxious applicants for chances to step into
the dead mems shoes. These are chiefly men
who have followed rai.roading all their lives
and who have lost their jobs for some cause.
Rallroadlng IS good deal like politics. Ii
man gets into it once he isn't worth snap
for anything else And so if he gets out Of
1t he is constantly on the lookout for the op-
portunity that he believes must come to let
him in again. There isn't one among this class
of men refer to who does not feel genuine
sorrow when a railroad man is killed and
not one of them would hesitate to risk his
own life to save that of any trainman in
danger, although he might be sure that the
death of that man would give him long
boped-for place on the road; yet they
haunt the tracks and the station
yards day after dav, watching the
switching aud the coming and going of
trains, knowing that sooner or later some
one of the men on those trains is bound to
be killed or manned into helplessneas Ii
seems that there were only two of these
men near to witness tile shocking death of
Riley to-day, and when Others hear Of it and
that an application for Riley's place was put
in an hour or so ahead of them they will be-
moan the hard luck that kept them from
being present when the accident occurred
and robbed them of an equal chance in
reaching my ear first. 1t is by no means
likely that the Young man who was Just here
will be hired, although ne may. If he isn't
given Riley's place it will not break his
faith nor that of any of his kind IN the i'm
portance of having early intelligence of
fatal accidents to trainmen and of being
early in my office with the news and an an
plication, or if the accident occurs some
where else, as the Office of the one in author
ity there
| walked through the railroad yard and
to the spot where poor Jimmy Riley was
killed. His maDgled body had been taken
away. A grimy, one-armed switchman
pointed out to me where the unfortunate
brakeman fell on the rail and explained
how it all happened
''This has been a hard winter on 'em.n
said the switchman. Jimmy makes four
this week so far. Three of em was took
just like him, and t'other I'm was fiattened
twlxt the bumpers while he was couplin'
| couldn't tell you how many has been
caught up along is line, but I've been
noticin' that there's a good many strange
brakemen on some o. the trains that comes
in. There's five fellows in three gangs
alone that don't know. haven't had the
heart to ask where the old hands are for 1
spose I'd be told that this one had been
knocked off his car by a bridge, an that
one had missed a couplin' an got the bump
ers, an that another one had slipped from
the roof, like Jimmy Just now, and so on.
1t may be, though, that some of them are
only laid up with few fingers off or an
arm twisted out of the socket, or a foot run
over and smashed, or some little thing like
that ! hope so, anyhow.
'Wnat makes brakin' so dangerous7 A
good many things. For instance. there's
couplin'. That's always at the top notch of
dangerous from one New Years to another,
every day in the year, year in an year out
just now the ice an snow on the cars is
dangerous. 1t isn't an easy thing for q
man TO run along the tops of cars going
twenty miles an nOur, even when there is
no ice on the boards an the wind is light.
But when you take it like it has been for a
week or so, with the car roofs hike glass and
the wind tearing along faster than the train
does, | want you TO know that there's got to
be nerve in man for him to climb up TO
the top of car and run over half a dozen
or so every time the engineer calls for
brakes. Then, mind you, a brakeman
has no right to ride anywhere but
on his car, no matter If the snow
is falling on him by the ton or rain
drenching him or hail a-pelting him like
hot shot Then he's apt in the night 10 run
his head against some bridge that spans the
track. But couplin' is what carries the
most Of them away. fused to be freight
brakeman myself, and one day / stepped
between two cars to couple them, having at
the time two as good arms as anybody ever
had. When | came TO my senses my right
arm was gone. The bumpers took it off.
These link and pin couplers are what ruins
the boys. Every brakeman knows that Just
for having to do that he has TO pa six times
as much for insuring his life as the man who
sets in warm office and makes out the
train way bills does. Then brake chains is
apt to part, too. when the brakeman is
twisting UP his wheel, AMI away goes the
brakeman to the ground. IL he don't get in