Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-01-20
A CAR DRIVERS TALK.
ONE OF THE MANY WHO ARE
 STRANGERS AT HOME.

6I HANGERS AT HOME.
 An Early Breakfast-A Workman Who
 Doesn't Get Time to See His Children.
 Story of a Busy Life-Hard on the Legs.
 Benefits of Organization.
 I'm driving in Brooklyn now, and I'll tell you what tho last tie-up done for us. speak ing ;llioct organizing. Before that We used to get five minutes for lunch, and the .ssaperr told u> wc camc there to work, and Tot to eat; naEv We get forty minutes Then we use:l to h1vc to lut the team away and take the collars or, when we came in at the end of the days work, and also get there half an hour carly and find our team, one ill one end of tii" stable and the other in the other end, and h.-ri:css 'e:n and bring 'eni out to tue car Now that's all done for us. And then we used "a hlvc to wash oar cars, and we used to haze to bay tine bell for the of horse, whici cost i5 cents. Well, that's all changed. We don't do none of those things now. and get forty minutes for lunch besides The difference is this. that knew plenty of fel- lows that used to Icnve home, say at 2 in the morning. and not get home again till after $ at night, and then if another man was took sick you Ind to take his place, so that I've done three hours extra on top Of ry day and got home at midnight and not seen 0 soul of my family i'll thirty-eight hours many a time, without a cent extra pay. But there's no more of that
 get up about half past 5 in the morning and light the fire and crack the ice in the pitcher. may be, and cook myself an egg CT two and some coffee, and if my wife's awake slip in and whisper word with her without tvo Ina ri ha, o'clock. don't live near the stable on ac. count of the bad neighborhood for bringing up little ones, so I can't get home to Ely lunch; but I've got four decent rQSms and decent people for neighbors above and below mo, and pay S10 month. I get S2 day and work seven days, because heed all l Csi:l make. give my wife all except twelve sh.l- lings, which gets me my lunches and tobacco, and she used to lay up n dollar now and then, but that's all gone, and there's no laying up now on account of her and me needing tine doctor. Well, get home at at night and take my loaf and read my paper till 10 o'clock. with the bite of supper she saves over for he, and then go to beo The only thing hard is my not seeing my children.
 can truly thank God that my little Emma knows me now, but up to years old she did not Isnow me from any passer by in the
 
 me when said that, but he believes me roy:. This is how it was: I was doing my fourteen. and sixteen hours work on the Third avenue in New York, and had need of every cent and constitution like horse, so I.n.a,le every day tell. had been doing that till little Emrlie was 3 years old, and then my leg began to trouble me, and one day had to lay oT I couldn't walk without lelN, so Jack, my chrIln, got away and helped rle home There was Emmie and her mother and Jack and me, each took a chair, a.d 1 WI: ',,ared to my wife so that the little girl woulln't hear me.
 'Enmic, dear" says my wife, God Hess and keep her to me, ''one of these gentlemen is ycsr father Do you know which one it is!'
 This Is n,y papa," says she.
 And then Jack believed what I'd been tell ing him. for the little child walked right over to him and climbed on his k;ee and put up her mouth for kiss. She had seen my beard in the bed once in a while, but Jacks beard and mine were as like as two brocms, and she chose the wrong one.
 Well, in one way of looking at it, I'm sorry to say that she knows me now quite as a child ought to. May be it's what they call Proviilc.cc, and the finger of God is in it, but, anyhow, my legs is that bad now that once in a while I have to lay off for day and rest them by walking about and sitting down-for when you get a car drivers leg on you it's curious thing that walking is as good for it,Gf you can stand the painl as sit ting down. What do I mean by drivers leg. Well, you'll find many Q man at the break has it in these three cities, wlIere they'll not let a driver sit down, and in fact all will get it sooner or later if they stick to Al T% .f many hours without the chance to walk that conductor has, up and down the car collecting the fares. One drivers legs will be the size of telegraph poles and another one, like me, will get punches of veins as big as your fist sticking out of his legs. There's no cure except the almshouse or tho potter's field, though I do find great help in my elastic stocking. I'm a better man since I put it on.
 All the talk about tho torture a man feels when he first gets on a car-yell, it isn't bosh, for you see young fellows give up their jobs every week on account of the agony they suffer-but it oin't the first few day; it's the whole life. It's hard on the legs, and they never get use to it. A young fellow thinks if he's stranded and knows about horses that he can be a driver. We'll, he'll find out it's more in the constitution of n man 
 first pain in my legs in about three or four days But then came the swollen veins. They must come. It's the natural conse- quence of the business. "Leave railroading, ' says my doctor. Oh, it's easy to say it, but when man is tied to q pair of car horses and has wife and family to support there's no such thing as looking for other work It won't come to him, and how can he go to it! But in the regards of that think am very lucky, for my boy will be old enough to ap- prentice to a machinist of my acquaintance in another couple of years, and after that he'll chip in a little toward keeping the family and I'll be able to lay off a day now and then I spoke about the almshouse and the potter's field, but there's no such thing for us. That's another old thing done away with by means of organizing. In our focal we get S5 week when we are sick-which will pa cify the landlord and keep bite in the cup board. In case of death there's no provision, but we make up a subscription and get together $40 or $50, may be, which is enough to leave the potter's field in the dis tance; and the only cost to us of keeping up the local is thirty-ive cents month, so that We don't feel it very hard, though there's dozen things crying TOT every cent that most O. us earn. Now, that's pretty much all | can think of about driving car.-New York Sun Interview.