St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1893-10-19
miscrlfanu.
THE HERO OF THE THROTTLE.

on the Worlds Fair flyer. does al
easy days work, in fact, does NJ
work at all. He rests comfortabl,
at night, enjoys well-served meals
and reaches his destination almos
before he knows it. Having pait
the price, such is the arrogance o
money, he takes all that is done 70.
him quite as a matter of course, ant
knows no more of the workings o
this wonderful train than a school
boy, while he cares rather less. AT
engine pulls the cars, steam works
the engine, and as for the engineer
the New-Yorker never thinks of him
except to growl at him when the
train is late, and to advocate hang
ing him if there is an accident.
Meantime, what is the engineer
of this fastest train in the world
doing for the passenger? In the
first place, the Chicago flyer is not
driven by one but by many engineers.
In order to cover the nine hundred
and sixty-four miles between the
two cities in twenty hours, includ-
ing nine stops, there are required
seven huge engines, in relays, driven
by seven grimy heroes. A run of
less than one hundred and fifty miles
is the limit per day for each engine,
while three hours of the plunging
rush wears out the strongest engi-
neer. Sixty, seventy, eighty miles
an hour-what does this mean to
the mar at the throttle? 1t means
that the six and a half feet drivers
turn five times every second and adj
vance one hundred feet. Tic-tic-tic,
and the train has run the length
of New York's highest steeple. The
engineer turns his head for five sec
onds to look at the gauges, and in
that time the terrible iron creature.
putting forth the strength of a thou
sund horses, may have shot past a
red signal with its danger warning
five hundred feet away. Ten seconds,
and one thousand feet are left behind
one fifth of a mile. Who knows
what horrors may lie within that
thousand feet! There may be death
lurking round a curve, death spread
ing its arms in a tunnel, and the
engineer must see and be responsible
for everything. Not only must he
note instantly all that is before him,
the signals, switches, bridges, the
passing trains, and the condition of
the rails,-but he must act at the
same moment, working throttle,
air-brakes, or reversing lever, not as
quick as thought, but quicker, for
there is no time to think. His mus
Giles must do the right thing auto
matically under circumstances where
a second is an age. In the three
hours of his vigil there are ten thou
sand eight hundred seconds, during
each one of which he must watch
with the mental alertness of an
athlete springing for a flying trapeze
from the roof OF an amphitheater,
with the courageous self-possession
OF a matador awaiting the rush of a
maddened bull; and far more de-
ponds upon the engineers watching
well, because, if he fails by a hairs
breadth in GOODNESS or precision of
Judgment, there may come destruc-
ton, not only to himself, but to
hundreds of passengers, who, while
ne stands guard, are perhaps grumb-
ling at the walters in the dining.car
or telling funny stories in the smoker.
In addition to this constant men.
tai tension, the engineer on this
hurting train has to endure material
discomfort, often bodily suffering.
The air sweeps back in his face with
the breath of a hurricane, blowing
smoke and cinders into his eyes.
Most people know the intense pain
a cinder causes in a mans eye, par
ticularly a hot cinder. The suffering
is almost unbearable: and yet, snf-
fering or no suffering, the engineer
who gets a cinder in his eve can have
no relief until the end of his relay.
They shut their lips, these unhinch-
ing men, keep looking ahead, and
bear it. Long after they leave the
cab the burning sensation in their
eyes and eyelids continues, and even
persists after hours of sleep. at
seems as if nothing would rest nv
eyes, sir" said n of the new men
after his first week on the flyer. No
wonder the eyesight of engineers
tails rapidly; no wonder MANY of
them are removed from their posi-
lions every year because their exam
ining doctors find them unable to
distinguish the signals. The engi-
neer suffers also from the plunging
and tossing of the monster locomo.
tive, which bruises his whole BODY
with its violent rocking, and cause.
sharp pains in his back, particularly
where there is any tendency to kid.
ney trouble. One has only to watch
these strong men as they stumble
down from their engines at the enc
OF a relay, has only to observe theil
white faces and unsteady gait, ane
see the condition of physical col
lapse which follows, to understand
what it costs in vitality and grit tc
give the ease-loving public this in
comparable train service.
Thus it is that while the New
Vnrlnr rate 30 Cl.o- -.