Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1893-04-22
THE LOCOMOTIVE FIREMAN.
One of the Hardest Worked ana Least
Appreciated of Employees.

1 n Z LOOoMO I'VE Z" HNs
One of the Hardest Worked ana Least
Appreciated of Employees.
1t is doubtful if there Is man on
the train who is less appreciated than
the fireman. The public shakes hands
with the conductor who has charge
of the train thanks the brakeman
for many little courtesies, bows to
the baggagemaster who looks after
its luggage in transit-perhaps, if it
is a masculine public, swears at him
trusts its valuabes with the ex-
press messenger, and talks long and
loud of the brave engineer" But
flreman-he who bends to his work
ana feeds the fire that makes the
steam-is never mentioned. Some
times purse is made up for the en-
gineer No one ever heard of fire.
man getting purse, but the records
show that he has performed as many
deeds of valor as the engineer. Again,
If the train leaves the track or goes
into another train the fireman has
fewer chances to escape than any
other man on the train, except per-
haps the mail clerk, shut up like a
rat in cage.
When the fireman is at work, and
that is nearly all the time when the
wheels are turning, he stands stopped
over, shoyeling in the fuel, or raking
the Goals in the flrebox; his view
ahead is INSTRUCTED, and he cannot
see the danger that may he dashing
upon him. The rattle and roar of
the machinery may drown the engi-
neer's warning Gala crash-the
tender pins him to the boiler head
and he dies horrible death. Stand
ing in the narrow gangway peering
ahead, a sudden lurch around curve
may throw him off. Instances have
been known when the coupling be-
tween the engine and the tank parted,
and the fireman dropped between
them to be ground to pieces. The
records show that more tlremen than
engineers are killed in railroad wrecks.
About the only time the fireman
is running down grade. Then she
is shut off, ;" steam is saved, and the
knight of the shovel climbs up to a
cushioned seat ana takes breathing
spell. But even then one eye is
ahead, his hand on the bell cord, and
the other eye fastened on the steam
gauge, whose little black hands,
fuctuating back and forth, gauge his
labor as well as the steam Their is
science in feeding an engine that
is not understood by one not in the
business There is way to throw in
the coal and to empty the shovel and
close the furnace door at the same
time. 1t requires nice calculation
that tells how many scoop loads"
are needed to send the hands on the
gauge to the proper figure, deft hand
ling to keep the deck Of the cabin
clean, and a hundred other little
things that go to make a sKilful fire.
man-one that saves money for the
company by outstanding the coal
In the old days the fireman on
''wood burners had hard time of
it and certainly earned the small
money he received for his services
but he had a sinecure compared with
the man in blue oyeralls and jumper
who ''stokes up" one of the huge
''moguls" or ''hogs' of the present
day. These engines haul freight and
eat up coal as if it were creased paper.
The fireman is at work continuously.
and about the only time he has To
rest is when his train "takes siding
to let more aristocratic passenger
train pass, On the "tenwheelers'
that pull the Rig -Four fast trains,
or the engines that haul the express
trains OF the Vandalia, Pennsylvania,
Cincinnati, Hamilton, and Dayton, and
the New Monon, the fireman has q
hard time of it, The machinery need;
large amount Of steam, and it takes
a great deal of coal to make it, and
the scoop" is ringing all the tine. -
Indianapolis News.