The Lambertville record., 1889-01-02
THE STATION AGENT
A RAILROAD MAN WHO HAS MANY
DUTIES TO PERFORM.

The Practical Difficulties That Daily Deset
His Pathway "A Man of All Work
Romantic Side of the Agents Life.
Urbanity.
The term station agent" means, practi-
cally, the person in charge of q small or
medium sized station. When one of these
men is promoted to the charge of large city
station, either freight or passenger, he be-
comes really local superintendent, his duties
then consisting very largely in the superyis-
ion of an army Of clerks and laborers, who
must, each in his place, be as capable as the
agent himself. The agent at small station
has great multiplicity of duties to perform.
He must sell tickets, be a good bookkeeper
and faithful switchtender. He generally
must be a telegraph operator and must be
vigorous physically. He must be ready, like
the conductor, to submit to some abuse from
i'll bred customers, and should be the peer of
the business men Of his town. He often ell
counters almost as great variety of knotty
problems as the superintendent himself,
though he has the advantage that he can
generally turn them over to superior II 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 train 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 expertness of a
Washington treasury clerk. Just as a train
reaches his station tho train dispatcher's
click is heard on the wires and he must drop
telegram in which an error of a single word
would very likely involve the lives of pas
sengers. Ata very small station the check
ing of baggage devolves on the agent, his
over burdened back being thus loaded with
one moro straw.
sa 8 A 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 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 as the distracted station mnn is rcceiv-
ing a telegram with one side of his brain and
ceiling ticket with the other. The house
hold goods must be weighed and tagged, the
/
the cattle shipper must be given short lee
ture on the legal bearings of the bargain for
transportation which he is about to make
and his demand that his live stock shall be
carried 500 miles moro quickly than human
animals are taken over the same road is tC
be gently repressed. It is not every day that
small station is enliyened by this sort ol
excitement, yet it is common, and is familiar
to every station agent.
Tho variety in the duties Of this position
is, however, a great advantage to the am
bilious young man, because it serves to give
him good lift toward valuable business
| education He can learn about the methods
and kiiaeks 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 il is
proposed to perpetuate by bronze statue,
began his railroad career as agent at small
station in Iowa. Others Of equal ability and
perfection OF character have risen from
similar places and by the same means.
THE ROMANTIC SIDE.
The agent at small station catches his
breath between trains. There Is then gener-
ally ample time for calming the nerves and
preparing for the next onslaught. II he is a
telegraph operator he can chat with the
| operators Mt other stations--a common re-
source IL the wires are not occupied with
more important affairs. In the class period
icals of operators and railroad men, refer.
ences TO this phase OF their life may be con.
stantly seen, and incidents of even romantic
interest are not infrequent. Many Of the
men at small stations are young and un.
| .,aI M h,taf