The Opelousas courier., 1892-06-18

A Source Of Danger 10 the Lives
q f The Travelling Public.

The express trains on many of the great
trunk lines of railroads carry with them a
literal saloon for the sale of alcoholic drinks
The train men are forbidden to drink under
penalty Of immediate discharge, and the
bar-keepers-called porters-are required not
to sell or give spirits to any employee IN ser
vice on the road. Managers of roads are
aware of the risk and danger of the service
rendered by men who use spirits, hence
stringent rules are laid down, and efforts
made to employ only healthy, temperate
men, especially on trains and where great
responsibility and exact duties are required.
While the vast majority of trainmen on all
railroads are practical abstainers, there Is
always n small number who arc concealed
drinkers, growing worse steadily. The re
su 1t of their dainking is always some acci
dent and exposure with discharge. Often
the accidents are of little interest to the pub
lie, because they are not attended with loss
of life. In some instances the person VINO
made the mistake is killed and his use OF
spirits-as the real cause of the accidents
concealed from the public. Where gross
carelessness and stupidity result III an accl-
dent among experienced trainmen, the use OF
alcohol is not unfrequently the real cause:
These men are not public drinkers, ana are
known as temperate men, but alter accl-
dents it will appear that they have used
spirits and probably carried 1t with them.
There is another class of active, responsible
trainmen, whose lOng-tried services have
given them reputation with the company,
who all unexpectedly make very serious mis-
takes in their ordinary work which result i'll
great disasters. Alcohol and its compounds
are often at the bottom of these sudden
failures. Want of ordinary caution, and sud
den bOldness in assuming q great risk,
failure to remember orders, and faulty reas-
oning, are usual symptoms. Such men use
alcohol as a medicine and tonic, to enable
tIor, ~ In iinir wprI haitian Fhnv fn1l y
recognize the danger of large doses, but are
deluded with the idea that in certain clrcum-
stances small doses are necessary Tor their
work. The fact is we'll known that the con
tinuous strain and irregula"ity of railroad
work soon wears out the brain and nervous
system, producing states OF exhaustion for
which alcohol in any form is Il most Seduct
i've tonic. To an OverWorked, tired ont train
man, who has found spirits a perfect relief,
no rules or restrictions can prevent INN from
taking spirits from the travelling saloon on
the train, or the saloon at the station. or
course no one will see him, hut his changed
spirits and manner will tell the story. Those
are the men who make the mistakes from
which accidents come. A tired brakeman
took a glass of spirits and went back to flag
an approaching train-fell asleep and a ter
rible disaater followed. An overworked en-
gineer, after a glass of spirits at the station,
failed to see the danger signal a sew miles
u lhCI ohJ hhA bS inv IA I"
wreck. These and similar instances are re-
peated every year, on nearly all the
roads, only many of them simply involve the
loss of property and are unnoticed.
The culpability and downright stupidity of
the company managers in this matter are al
most phenomenal. Irrespective of all moral
consideration and simply from a business
point, it is absurd to expect any number of
temperate men, engaged in a peculiarly
nerve-exhausting occupation, to abstain from
spirits, especially when exposed to its free
use any time, aud under all circumstances.
Loose guDpowder and sulpher matches
might be carried in proximity for some time
without accident. Public places for the sale
of spirits on trains and at stations, under the
control of the company, may seem to be
harmless, bnt the quantity of accidents due
directly and indirectly to them is beyond all
question. 1t is an unwritten law of the sa-
loon managers on trains and at stations, that
trainmen are to have spirits free at all times
on the pretense of their use as medicines. 1t
is a higher law of nature that the strain of
exact and perilous duty, day after day, re
acts in states of exhaustion, for which spirits
bring most rapid temporary relief.
The same great physical laws made it i'm
possible for men in this condition to abstain
where the means of relief are at hand, even
though they may be temporary. No COM
pany can depend on the best judgment of its
trusted trainmen as long as free spirits are
carried around with them on the train, and
are found at every station. A railroad dis
patcher at a saloon station, after a glass Of
spirits, gave the wrong order. Ten lives and
over a million of dollars were lost. The dis
patcher suicided in grief at his mistake. The
received a thousand dollars a year
for the rent of the saloon at the station. The
long night runs on through trains furnish
abundant Illustration of the peril and I'M
known risks of trains which carry travelling
saloons. To the companies it is a question of
selfish interest. To the travelling public it is
a question of personal peril. Every year &C
cidents occur which are clearly preventable.
and a growing public sentiment demands bet
ter and safer means of transit. The saloon
is always a source of danger in ways that are
most unexpected. No one can tell how and
when it may influence the brain capacity of
the trainmen. Obviously it is the clear duty
of all persons to demand that the saloons
should be dropped from railroad trains; to
demand that trainmen be free from exposure
and be protected from every possible danger
that will imperil their work and the lives of
The trainmen themselves demand
this protection, and no company can be free
from grave losses due to this source except
by this means.-T. d. Crothers, in Union