The Progress. (Shreveport, La.) 1892-1900, 1892-08-06
Religion and Temperance
RAILROAD ZEN AND DRINK.
Many Great Disasters Have Come froa'
tic WHISKY ilnt.Ie.

the WHISKY Bottle.
Managers Of roads are aware Of the
risk AMI danger Of the service rendered
by men who use spirits, hence stringent
rules are laid down, and efforts made 10
employ only healthy, temperate men,
especially on trains and where great re
sponsibil.ty and exact duties are re-
CURED. While the vast majority of
trainmen on all railroads are practically
total abstaiHcra, there Is always small
number who are concealed drinkers.
growing worse steadily. The result Of
their drinking is always some accident
AM exposure with discharge. OFTEN
tho accidents are of little interest 10 tn.
public. because they are not attended
with loss Of life. IN some instances the
person who made the mistake Is killed
and his use Of spirits CAS- the real cause
OF the acci!aEu is concealed from tho
public. Where cross carelessncss and
stupidity result ii an accident among
e1NoIienc. ;lc.!nncn, the use Of GlcohOl
j. not uatrequently tine real cause.
These men are not public drinkers.
and are known rs temperate mon, but
after accidents it VIII appear that they
have used spirits and probably carried it
with them. There Is another class Of
active. responsible traiHmcn, whose
long tried services have given them rep
utati1n with the company, who IL m
ezpectodly make very serious mistakes
il their ordinary work, which result in
Great disasters. Alcohol and its COM
ponds are often at the bottom Of these
sudden failures. Want of ordinary
canton AID sudden boldneSs il assuln-
ing great risk, failure to remember
orders and faulty reasoning are the
usual ry-aptous. such men use alcohol
~ u medicine and tonic to enable them
to do their worl; better. They fully
recognize the danger Of large doses, but
are deluded with the idea that III GER
tain circumstances small doses arc
necessary for their work.
The fact is well known that the con
tiauous strain and irregularity of rail
road work soon wears oUt the brain and
nervous system. producing states of eE-
haustion for which alcohol in any form
is Il most seductive tonic. To IN over
worked, tired ont trainman, who has
found spirits Il perfect relief, no rules or
restrictions can prevent him from tax
ing spirits from the travelling saloon OF
the train, or the saloon 1T the station.
OF course 10 one Will sec him, but Eis
changed spirits and manner will tell the
story. Those are the mcI who make
the mistakes from which accidents
como.
\ tired brakeman took a glass o.
spirits and went back II flag an I'D
preaching train-fell asleep and Il fright
full disaster followed. An overworEcl
engineer, after a glass of spirits ut the
tho station, failed to see the danger sig
nal few miles farther Oh and was
killed in friShtful wreck. These AID
similar instances are repeated every
year on nearly all the roads, only many
of them simply involve the loss Of prop
erty and are unnoticed. 4 railroad dis.
patcher at & saloon station after Il glass
of spirits gave the wrong order. Ten
lives and over million OF dollars were
lost. The dispatcher shielded in grief
NJ his r,iStel-o Il TniOO Si~naI