The Portland daily press., 1895-04-17
ABOUT THE SECTION MEN.
What One Commercial Traveller HAD 10
Say of the Men Who Patrolied tne h@n-
road Tracks Last Sunday Night

what One Commercial AfaVoaeA AA
Say of the Men Who Patrolled the kail-
road Tracks Last Sunday Night.
81 believer said commercial traveller
yesterday that the best class OF faliroao
men, that is the class to which the traVel-
ling public is the most deeply indebted
is the one class the newspapers never
mention. I mean the section men. NO"
we talk about the engineers ana the
firemen, we give all due praise TO the
brakemen, and I think that it requires
great courage to stand on the quarter
deck of mountain freight train, but we
never think of the section men. we UP
the pullman porters. but if we notice the
section men at all it is when we whlz py
them as they stand by their hand car on
a siding. wonder what would become
of us all if they didn't do their duty,
and sometimes it seems to me good
deal more than their duty"
The commercial traveller stopped to
get his cigar drawing again, and then
continued, "You take such night as
we had Sunday last. The PRESS the
next morning said that the Grand Trunk
road between Portland and Island Pond
was patrolled all night. Now.what did
that mean? Ill tell you. A section on
the Grand Trunk, and / suppose on all
other road is six miles. There are three
men to a gang. They had to divide up
their section, and each man had two
miles of that lonely beat to go over. AS
John l.. Sullivan would say Seer"
"Yesn
snow resumed the commercial" travel
| Ter II know something about what that
meant to those men. The Grand Trunk
track between Portland and Island Pond
is good deal of it ssmighty lonely even
by day, and it must be ten times worse
at night. A section man took his Ian
tern and started out. We all know that
it rained cats and dogs as the saying is
Sunday night, but when that section
man started out he knew that he'd got
30 go his two miles, and that despite the
wind and the rain he'd got to absolutely
know that his section Of the road was
all safe. If the water happened to be
over the track that was no excuse. He
had got to be sure that the road bed
was all right, and that there was no
danger of washout. All trains had
been taken off. Every freight conductor
engineer, fireman and brakeman was in
bed, but the section men were forced to
walk their beat all night. They didn't
know how early in the morning trains
might be started. They couldn't go to
their station report and go home. There
was the rain coming down, and there
was the absolute necessity of watching
every mile and for that matter every foo
of the track. I happened to be at one OF
the stations Monday morning and / saw
one of the section men, and a more
dragged out set. I don't know, but /
might have said, washed out set of men,
I never saw before. / tell you the Sec
ton men are faithful"
/ That burst of Indignation over the
commercial traveller continued. Then
the section men go on year after year,
and at the end of their term of service,
| KNOW dUOut DIS LULU dS ilicu GIRL OI bu6
road on which they work. I've talked
with men who never saw the end of the
| section next to theirs, and who talked
of going to Portland sometime about
as you and might talk of sometime
making trip around the world, or OF
being invited to take dinner with the
Pope. We don't expect to go around the
world, and If we should, the Pope
wouldn't invite us to dine with him,
and SO they won't go to Portland under
ordinary circumstances. They simply
stick to their work, and by and by
drop out of sight, and somebody else
comes in and the same thing goes on,
but all the same they save the companies
millions every year, and they save the
general public like you and / a great
deal of discomfort if nothing worse.
What night that must have been for
those men who. were forced to patrol the
Grand Trunk on every six-mile section
between Portland and Island Pond.
Give them part OF the credit due to
their faithful services
He said he WAS glad he wasn't a Sec
ton man. He certainly did have barn
to sleep in that night, and the section
man didn't, but then the section man
had a warm breakfast and he didn't
| Good dayn