Connecticut western news., 1893-07-06
WAITING FOR DEAD MEMS SHOES

The Grim Intelligence Unemployed Men
 re Ever In Haste to Garry.
 Jimmy Reilly's lost his jobr" said a rugged looking young man in rusty pea jacket and a blue flannel shirt as he entered railroad officials office in Jer Bey City on one of the coldest, snowie. days. "And I'd like to leave my nan for the job O brakin in his place, sir
 "Lost his job? How's thatT
 ''Jist got killed up in the yard!' piled the young man in the pea jacket
 The railroad official promised to h1. the application under consideration, al the man went out, evidently well ple;l,
 There is no casling," said the ofiic "so beset with dangers and hardship that of railroad brakeman, especi on freight or coal train, and yet w 90 brakemen killed on this or any oi road today there would be an eager anxious applicant for each mans l
 as soon as the news of his death becai known. The man who was in here j;i now evidently saw Brakeman Reie, killed, because it couldn't have happe.i s long before he came in, as have r. ceived no official notice of the acci,!s-n. yet, and reports of that kind come iE very promptly. That man witnessct, Reilly's death. but whatever impressI3a it made upon him was lost in the fact that the dead man had left place to b. filled by some one else. That prompie,; him to act at once, and he lost not sec ond in securing whatever of advantage he believed priority of claim for the place might give him.
 ''Every railroad has small army of these anxious and waiting applicants for chances to step into dead mems shoes hanging around its yards and stations. They are chiefly men who have followed railroading all their lives and have lost their jobs in some way. You see, rail roading is good deal like politics. If a man goes into it once, he isn't worth a snap for any thing else, and so if he gets out of it he is perpetually on the lookout for the opportunity that must come for him to get in again. There isn't one of the men refer to who does not feel a genuine sorrow when a railroader is killed, and few of them would hesitate to risk their own lives in an effort to save that of any trainman in danger although they might know that the death of that man would place them in the best position they could hope ever to fill, yet they haunt the tracks and the station yards day after day watching the switch ing and the coming and going of trains knowing that some one of the trainhands or switchmen is sure to be killed now and then.
 "When the fellows of the man who came here in such haste to bespeak poor Reilly's place hear of Reilly's death, they will bemoan the hard fate that prevented them from being present when he was killed and robbed them of a chance to reach my ear first. It isn't at all likely that this enterprising young man will be hired in Reilly's place, although he may be. If he isn't, it will not shake his faith, nor that of any of the others, in the importance of having early intelli- gence of fatal accidents to trainmen and being early to my office with the news and an application; or, if the acci- dent occurs at distance, to the office of the one having authority at that point There is one of these men who has brought me the first news of seven diff ferent men he has seen killed, and he is now, have no doubt, watching for an other accident with the hope that hewill get the dead mans job. New York Sun