Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1894-09-12
The Men of the Rail.

!
The Men of the Rail.
The latest statistics show that there
are 1921 400 men engaged in the opera
tion of railroads in the United States
This implies force three fourths as
large as the army of France, almost
as large as that of Germany. six
times as large as that of Great Brit
ain, and more than thirty times as
large as our own country. 1t is unde-
niably the most intelligent and eifec-
tive labor element in the world, and it
is also, as it deserves to be, the best
paid, its average annual wages being
twice as great as those of the same class
of workmen, anywhere else under the
sun. The service which it performs is
one of the most useful and important
in the system of modern civilization.
Railroads have become a controlling
factor in commercial proceedings, in
material developments, and in promo
tion of social happiness and progress
The men by whom their influence is
made thus potent and indispensable
merit special consideration, therefore,
and far larger measure of popular re-
spect and gratitude than they generally
receive. We are too apt to forget how
serious their business is, and what ex-
traordinary demands it makes upon
them. They live in constant peril and
under the grayest responsibilities. 1t
is necessary for them to be always
vigilant, Iesourceful, courageous and
equal to sudden emergencies which
may involve the duty of dying for
Others and to vindicate their own fdeli-
ty and integrity, as happens much Of
tener than we stop to think.
We get striking idea of the pecu-
liar dangers of railroad service when
we are told that the number of train
men killed while in the performance Of
duty during last year exceeded the num-
Der of Federal soldiers killed at the bat
tie of the Wilderness, and that more
were MANNED in one way and another
than all the wounded and missing on
the Union side at Gettysburg. Such
figures have an appalling significance.
| "a N M axuc M nj y,
a fragmentary way, when reading of
railroad accidents, and do not realize
what the aggregate amounts to in the
course of year, or how many other
people are thereby saved from death
or injury. The total number of pas
sangers transported in this country last
year was $50, ,959,211 of whom only one
in every /, ,491 ,910 were killed, and only
one in every 1888 were hurt from all
causes, including their own careless.
ness. This showing is certainly a
splendid tribute to the capacity and
steadfastness of the railroad ope ratives.
When railroad disaster occurs-and
they have lately been horribly frequent
we are quick to put the blame upon
the trainmen, accusing them of will
full neglect or criminal oversight, and
disregarding the fact that they take
the most risk for themselves in such
cases. 1t is hardly reasonable to sup
pose that they are criminally careless
of their own lives. They understand
better than the travelling public does
that every journey by rail, like every
trip'on the sea, is practically plunge
into the unknown and uncertain, with
degree of hazard that no precaution
can wholly remove and wariness surely
avert. A broken rail, misplaced
switch, an innocent error in signaling,
may any moment precipitate week;
and it is the men on the locomotive
who have to face the worst of the peril.
This sense of constant personal risk,
added to the responsibility for other
people, may readily be believed to
teach railroad men circumspection un-
der all circumstances. Indeed, it is
easy to detect confirmation of this
idea in their countenances and their
characteristics. They have kind of
fixed, strained look-the engineers es-
pecially-which undoubtedly comes
from habitual and necessarily peering
|
of the engine. Even when the train is
at stop, you will notice them leaning
out of the cab window or from Car
platform, gazing ahead, always ahead.
This unremitting anxiety is one of the
signal lights of their calling, sign by
which we know them as soon as we
see them. There is no fear in it, and
no thought of borrowing trouble; it is
simply an expression of rigid and tire
less solicitude. They are mostly fa-
talists, these bronzed aud keen eyed
fellows. They believe that when a
man S time comes to 20 he must 60, and
that he has nothing to gain by trying
to propitiate destiny. This may not
make saints of them, but it gives them
resignation and self reliance, and forti-
fies them against surprise and panic,
that subtlest foe of defective and un
disciplined natures. Moreover, it re-
comedies them to their comparative iso-
lation from the rest of the world so far
as the ordinary interests and relations
of society are concerned; for it must
be remembered that the conditions of
their employment oblige them to live
apart in sphere of their own, alone
with their duty, and peering forever
with those strange set faces into what
may be mere space and silence, or may
be an ambush of jeopardy and catas-
trophe.-St. Louis Globe Democrats.
While in Chicago, Mr.. Charles l..
Kahler, prominent shoe merchant OF
Des Moines, Iowa, had quite serious