Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-12-06
THE STATION AGENT.
Ono OF the IIafdest-Worked anu AAs
patient OF Railroad Employees.

o,s NJ the IIardest-Worked ana Moet
Patient OF Railroad Employees
People who buy tickets wait until
the train is about to start before pro
senting themselves at the office. Inen
the agent has a dozen other things to
attend to and must therefore detecs
counterfeitsten dollar bills with the ex-
pertness Of a Washington treasury
clerk. Just as train reaches his sta-
ton the train dispatcher's click Is heard
on the wires and he must drop every
thing and receive (for the conductor)
a telegram in which an error OF a
single word would very like,x involve
the lives of passengers. Al very
small station the checking OF baggage
devolves ON the agent, his Over-Dur-
dened back being thus loaded with one
more straw. He is in many cases
agent for the express company ano SO
must count, seal, superscribe and Way
bill money, packages and handle oyster
kegs and barrels of beer at a moment's
notice. Women with wagon-loads OF
loose household effects to go by freight
and shippers of carloads OF cattle,
for which a car must be specially
fitted up, will appear just DIS the
distracted station-man is receiving
telegram with one side of his
brain and selling ticket with the
other. The household goods must be
weighed and tagged. the sewing ma
chine tied up and tables repaired; the
cattle shipper must he given short
lecture on the legal bearings of the
bargain for transportation which he is
about to make, and his demand that
his livestock shall be carried five
hundred miles more quickly than hui
man animals are taken over the same
road is to be gently repressed. It's
not every day that SHALL station is
enlivened by this sort of excitement,
yet it is common and is familiar to
every station agent The variety in
the duties of this position is, however.
a great advantage to the ambitious
young man. because it serves to give
him good lift toward a valuable bust
ness education. He can learn about
the methods and k,racks and tricks of
many different kinds of business, and
can profit by the knowledge thus
gained. Thomas j. Potter, the lately.
deceased vice-president of the Union
Pacific railway, whose memory it is
proposed to perpetuate by a bronze
statue. began his railroad career as
agent at a small station in Iowa.
Others of equal ability and perfection
of character have risen from similar
places and by the same means.
The agent at a small station catches
his breath between trains. There is
then generally ample time for calm
ing the nerves and preparing for the
next onslaught. If he is a telegraph
operator he can chat with the opera
tors at other stations-a common re-
source if the wires are not occupied
with more important affairs. In the
class periodicals of operators and rail-
road men, references to this phase of
their life may be constantly seen, and
incidents of even romantic interest
are not infrequent. Many OF the men
at small stations are young and I'M
married, while at places where the
business has increased enough to war-
rant the employment of an assistant, d
young woman to do the telegraphing
is frequently the first helper engaged.
With this combination it is unnece3-
sary to tell what follows. Ii iron
bars and stone walls are the things
which Cupid laughs at, an electric
telegraph wire is the thing which
makes him g smoker right out" If
we may use the language of the cir
Gus ring.
At the railroad station next larger in
size, the work is more divided. One
man sells tickets, another attends to
the freight Office, another to the bag
gage, and so on. The tickei-seller
must make five-cent bargains with the
same urbanity that is given to a $1CO
trade, and must be able to toss off the
latter in two minutes if occasion re-
quires. or to spend an hour in helping
the passenger choose the best route
among score of possible ones. The
fusilade of questions that must be met
by the ticket-seller every time lie opens
his window is familiar to every one
who has ever watched a place of the
kind for ten minutes. q. .IdanlS,
Jr., in Scri6ner's Magazine.
Aa nasaruad a Raisa