The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1894-08-14
MUST BE A DIPLOMAT.
NO OTHER KIND OF MAN CAN BE A
SLEEPING CAR CONDUCTOR.

SLEEPING CAR CONDUCTOR.
Not Only Kickers at Large, but SnOrers,
/ somnambulists and Takers Vex the Long
Watches Of His Night-Rigid Examine
ton of Applicants For the Position.
No man who Is not born diplomat
need apply for position as a sleeping
car conductor. 1t will be time lost for
him. He may have all the other quail
ties that would make him a success at
anything else, but unless he has that
peculiar and indefinable ability to get
along well with all sorts and conditions
of men, which is called diplomacy for
want of a better term, he had better
keep off the sleeping cars and take up
something easier, such as law, medicine
or the ministry.
Few of the thousands who nightly
sleep at the rate Of 40 miles an hour or
thereabouts realize how well the man
who has charge of the car in which they
sleep looks after their comfort directly
and indirectly. They think it is all the
work of the porter, whom they reward
accordingly with tips The conductor
doesn't get many tips. He has the re
sponsibility, which is poor substitute,
and he has his wages which are good
wages, to be sure, but he earns all that
he gets. If he thinks he doesn't get
enough, there are hundreds of others
ready and eager to take his place.
During this year, " says an official
of the Wagner Car company, 1--WE have
had, should say, close to thousand
rejected applicants for every one accept
ed. The tests, though not ironbound as
to form, are pretty rigid In the first
place, the candidate must have letters of
recommendation If these are saisfacto-
ny, he makes out an application blank,
which gives us some idea Of his educa-
tional limitations. This being satisfac-
tory, he is talked to by some one of the
officers and told to return i'll day or
two, when he has another consultation
with other officials who put to him such
questions as they desire.
In this way we get some inkling of
the mans personality-whether he is
Of good appearance, intelligent, polite,
easy in manner and Of good address.
These are very important matters, and
many candidates otherwise qualified
fail here The successful candidate goes
on the waiting list, and when his turn
comes he is sent out under the care of
some old conductor to learn the ropes
First, last and all the time he is in
structed to be courteous to his passengers
and attentive to their wants. Often a
man fails, for some unforeseen cause, to
become good conductor after he has
been tried. Really first class men are
hard to get, but we keep on trying can
didates until we find the right one. On
entering our employ the man is required
to furnish bonds for $500. Our men are
usually bonded by a security company.
They get from SIS to 800 month
wages and from this buy their own uni
forms.
Having secured bonds uniform and
experience, the candidate becomes a full
fedged conductor. Here his troubles be-
gin. His duties are many, but he soon
gets used to those He must i'll the first
place look after the sleeping car tickets,
and at night must take the train tickets
as well, handing them over to the train
conductor in the morning Then he must
look after the car in general, keep an
eye on the porters apportion the berths
properly, a nowise easy matter some-
times, and see that the temperature and
atmosphere of the cars are all right.
He must be up and moving at every
station where passengers are likely to
board the train, answer any number of
questions, be prepared to take charge of
matters in case of breakdown or other
accident, furnishing a full report later
to the company, see that the passengers
are all informed of the whereabouts of
the dining car in the morning, wake
them up in time act as arbitrator in
cases of difficulty between passenger and
passenger or between passenger and por
ter and do a thousand other little things
that cause wear and tear on his brain.
But these are not the matters that
bother him. 1t is the personal eccen-
tricities of the passengers themselves
which turn the conductors hair gray.
Some one once said that to know man
as he really is you must travel with
him A conductor will tell you that to
know a man as he really oughtn't to be
you must travel with him in sleeping
car. In general, those who travel by
night may be divided into three classes;
First-Those who sleep themselves
and let other people sleep.
Second-Those who sleep themselves
and keep other people awake.
Third-Those who don't sleep them
selves and won't let anybody else sleep
1t might be supposed that there is one
other class-viz, those who lie awake
themselves and let other people sleep
but these specimens are SO rare as not to
form class. They are abnormal, like
white crows or two headed calves A
Wagner conductor, who has grown gray |
in the service, says that he never knew
but one of this kind, and he was an in
sane prisoner III charge of two officers
He fulfilled the conditions because he |
was bound, gagged and shacl1led. New
York Sun