Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-12-03
THE STATION AGENT
A RAILROAD MAN WHO HAS MANY
DUTIES TO PERFORM.

The Practical Difficulties That Daily Beset
His Pathway-A Man of All Work.
Romantic Side of the Agents Life.
Urbanity.
The term station agent means, practi-
caily, the person in charge Of small or
medium sized station. When one of these
men is promoted to the charge of a large city
station, either freight or passenger, he be-
comes really local superintendent, his duties
then consisting very largely in the supervis-
ION OF an army of clerks and laborers, who
must, each in his place, be as capable as the
agent himself The agent at a small station
has great multiplicity of duties to perform.
de must sell tickets, be q good bookkeeper
and faithful switchtender He generally
must be a telegraph operator and must be
vigorous physically. He must he ready, like
the conductor, to submit to some abuse from
Ill bred customers, and should be the peer of
the business men of his town. He often en-
counters almost ms great variety of knotty
problems as the superintendent himself,
though he has the advantage that he can
generally turn them over TO a superior if he
feels unequal TO them The practical diff
culties that most beSet him are those incident
to doing everything in hurry. People who
buy tickets wait until the tram is about to
start before presenting themselves at the
| office.
| Then the agent has dozen other things to
attend TO and must therefore, detect coun-
| terfeit $40 bills with the expertuess of a
Washington treasury clerk Just as a train
| reaches his station the train dispatcher
| click is heard on the wires and he must drop
| everything and receive flor the CONDUCTOR a
telegram In which an error of single word
would very likely involve the lives of pas
sengers. At very small station the check.
ing of baggage devolves on the agent, his
over burdened back being thus loaded with
one more straw
MAN-oF-ALL-WORK.
| He is in many cases agent for the express
company, and so must count, seal, super.
scribe and way bill money packages and
handle oyster kegs and barrels of beer at q
moments notice. Women with wagon load:
of loose household effects to go by freight
and shippers of carloads of cattle, for which
car must be specially fitted up, viii appear
just as the distracted station man is receiv
ing a telegram with one side of his brain anC
selling ticket with the other. The house
hold goods must be weighed and tagged, tn,
sewing machine tied up and tables repaired
the cattle shipper must be given q short lee
ture on the legal bearings of the bargain fol-
transportation which he is about to make
and his demand that his live stock Shall b,
carried 500 miles more quickly than human
animals are taken over the same road is t,
be gently repressed. 1t is not every day tina
Il small station is enlivened by this sort o
excitement, yet it is common, and is familia
to every station agent.
The variety in the duties of this position
is, however, great advantage to the am
bilious young man, because it serves to Civ
him a good lift toward a valuable bushes
education. He can learn about the method
and knacks and tricks of many differen
kinds of business, and can profit by tn
KNOWLEDGE thus gained. Thomas J. Potter
the lately deceased vice president of tn
Union Pacific railway, whose memory it i
proposed to perpetuate by bronze statue
began his railroad career as agent at q snal
station in Iowa. Others of equal ability an
perfection of character have risen fror
similar places and by the same means.
THE ROMANTIC SIDE.
, The agent at small station catches hi
breath between trains There is then gene,
, ally ample time for calming the nerves an
preparing for the next onslaught If he is
telegraph operator he can chat with tn
operators ut other stations-a common RI
source if the wires are not occupied wit
, more important affairs In the class period
icals of operators and railroad men, refe,
ences to this phase of their life may be col
. stantly seen, and incidents Of even romanti
interest are not infrequent. Many OF tn
men at small stations are young and u,
married, while at places where the busiIN.
! has increased enough to warrant the emplo'
. ment of an assistant, young woman to d
, the telegraphing is frequently the first helps
4 engaged. With this combination it is III
i necessary to tell what follows. If iron bal
: and stone walls are the things which Cupj
laughs at, an electric telegraph wire is Il
thing which makes him ''snicker right out
: if we may use the language of thscircus rim!
: At the railroad station next larger in siz
the work is more divided One man sci
tickets, another attends to the freight offic
another to the baggage, and so on TT
ticket seller must make cent bargain
with the same urbanity that is given to
800 trade, and must be able to toss off Il
: latter in two minutes if occasion requires,
to spend an hour in helping the passeng
X choose the best route among a score of pos
J. bic ones The fusillade of questions TIN
must be met by the ticket seller every tin
&c he opens his window is familiar to every o,
" who has ever watched place of the kind fl
k ten minutes. B. B, Adams, Jr., in Scribnel
:, Magazine.